The Snookering of False Creek South

False Creek South is an internationally renowned, mixed-income, mixed-tenure community on leased land. It was created by the City of Vancouver in the 1970s, in the face of widespread skepticism that people would want to live on what was then an industrial wasteland.

The skeptics were wrong. The development paid its own way and created a destination park and magnificent seawall, amenities enjoyed by residents of the entire city. False Creek South was also the catalyst for high-amenity development on previously industrial land all around False Creek and at Coal Harbour.

But a critical deadline looms. The original leases for the community were for only 60 years rather than the more usual 99 years, and some are nearing expiry. (I have been one of False Creek South leasehold strata residents since the early 1980s.)

The city is poised to regain control of what has become prime land as those leases expire. What should it do to remain true to the original vision of False Creek South and best respond to the city’s crisis of affordable, sustainable housing?

In recent years two entities have been working on plans for the future of the community. One is the city. The other represents local residents: the RePlan committee of the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association.

I myself participated in RePlan along with other dedicated residents from co-ops, rentals, and stratas, visioning a future for the community that remained true to its founding ideals. RePlan includes people with a wealth of related professional experience: architects, housing experts, development planners such as myself, and others who care deeply about their community.

Unfortunately, the last five years of the city’s planning for the renewal of False Creek South are a story of broken commitments, the naive optimism of the community and the strategic patience of the city’s real estate bureaucracy.

The high point of community celebration and naivete was in late October 2021, after city council listened to nearly 170 local residents, housing experts and advisory bodies and unanimously rejected real estate staff’s plan for wholesale demolition of existing buildings for redevelopment at triple the density with a higher proportion of market housing.

The report recommending that plan was authored by Deputy City Manager Karen Levitt, based on $1 million worth of work by consultant planners Gordon Harris and Chuck Brook.

Instead of approving Levitt’s recommendations, council unanimously adopted motions that favoured public input and prioritizing affordability.

Council directed the city’s planning department "to undertake an open and transparent community planning process… through a robust consultation process" based on specified parameters, including:

• Retain existing non-market and co-op housing for as long as possible to maximize affordability.
• Build additional affordable and co-op housing.
• Target an income mix based on Vancouver renter household income of one-third lower income, one-third middle income, and one-third higher income.

RePlan was enthusiastic about council’s decision. Its chair, architect Richard Evans said, "We are ready to restart a transparent and fulsome community planning process that won’t be predetermined by the city’s Real Estate Department."

That was nearly four years ago.

No action

The community, including RePlan, eagerly awaited the start of the Planning Department’s community planning process and the opportunity to participate in it.

But staff did not initiate community planning as directed by council. According to Deputy City Manager Levitt, "The reason for this was a lack of staff resources arising from competing priorities." She did not explain why consultants were not engaged to assist, as they consistently were to pursue real estate planning for False Creek South.

Time passed until, according to Deputy City Manager Levitt, "on March 13, 2024, city council issued direction to staff to develop an enhanced False Creek South Development Plan, that superseded council's October 2021 direction."

Curiously, that direction was within a motion entitled "The Future of Co-op Housing – A Path to Delivering More Co-op Homes in Vancouver", submitted by councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung. Its clause C called for "an updated and enhanced False Creek South (Landowner’s) Development Plan."

The motion with some amendments passed unanimously. It was supported by five councillors (Bligh, Boyle, Carr, Dominato, and Kirby-Yung herself) who had previously supported the October 2021 motions being superseded.

This was seen as a betrayal by the community of False Creek South.

Swift action

City staff moved quickly to act on this new direction, in stark contrast to their inaction on council’s previous direction.

On June 6, 2024 Deputy City Manager Levitt sent a memo to council saying "city staff are advancing council’s March 2024 direction to develop an updated and enhanced False Creek South landowner’s development plan for council’s consideration, and to this end next week we will be publishing a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEOI) for consultant services to support this work."

Important points from the RFEOI included:

• Deputy City Manager Karen Levitt is responsible for the project.
• Real Estate, Engineering, Financial Strategy, Business Planning, and Non-Market Housing (but NOT Planning) staff are included in the FCS Landowner Technical Working Group overseeing the planning.
• after "a phased comprehensive development plan" has been prepared by the consultant and approved by council, the Director of Planning "in his role as land regulator" will prepare "the appropriate community planning policy/regulatory documents."

A Request for Proposals or RFP was issued to a shortlist of consultants in November 2024. The city’s evaluation team included staff of City Manager’s Office, Engineering, Real Estate, and Finance. Planning was excluded.

In January 2025 a contract for landowner real estate planning worth $4 million was awarded to the Canadian subsidiary of the multinational professional services firm Arup Group.

The contract is for two to three years, but Phase 1 is to be completed by April 2025, as described in the RFP:

"Over the first phase, the consulting team, working closely with the city’s project team, will develop a small set (e.g., 3-5) of potential land development scenarios – that will largely be a function of density, height and land use – and, based upon these scenarios, then develop the workplan to be carried out in Phase 2."

The RFP also states that "minimal stakeholder/public engagement will be required."

The city’s real estate bureaucracy clearly has redevelopment planning for False Creek South back on track after council’s rebellion in October 2021.

An eight-year waiting game

Well before 2021, the gears in this struggle by residents to help define an affordable and appropriately scaled future of False Creek South had been grinding for years. The city pouring sand in those gears was the consistent pattern.

In May 2017 council directed the Planning Department to initiate Phase 1 of a False Creek South Neighbourhood Planning Process, which was to create a detailed plan for the largely vacant "community edge" area.

The plan was to address "land use, density, built form and character, transportation, housing, sustainability, public amenities and the public realm... and associated proposed ODP amendments" for that area. This plan was never prepared.

Staff were also instructed to report back to council in Fall 2017 with nominations for a False Creek South Planning Advisory Group. Although staff solicited applications for the Advisory Group, it was never established.

According to staff, however, a 10-month public consultation period engaged over 1800 participants in various activities such as workshops, meetings and surveys.

After that, in May 2018 council "approved a pause in the neighbourhood planning process so that strata, co-op, and non-market lease negotiations can take place with residents before further detailed planning work for the area takes place."

At the same time council approved a provisional vision statement and principles to guide future planning after the negotiations.

Instead of pursuing lease negotiations, in 2019 staff hired consultants to pursue a new and secret real-estate planning process, with no citizen participation whatsoever.

Negotiations with the stratas did finally occur in 2022. Negotiations with co-ops and nonprofits are, however, now being deferred until after council approves "an updated Landowner’s Conceptual Development Plan" according to a November 2024 memo from Deputy City Manager Levitt to council.

The 2019 real estate planning project was awarded to Harris Consulting, initially through a Purchase Order issued after their work and invoicing had already begun. After $153,000 worth of billings, the PO was superseded by an open-ended and vague contract. By the end of 2021 nearly $1 million had been billed.

On May 29, 2020 Deputy City Manager Karen Levitt and other city staff, as well as a secret Property Endowment Fund Expert Advisory Panel attended a presentation of the "final draft of the False Creek South Report dated May 25th, 2020" by consultant planners Gordon Harris and Chuck Brook of Harris Consulting. Notes from this meeting released through FOI have been heavily redacted.

The redactions, according to Deputy City Manager Levitt, are in part to avoid any negative impact on the reputations of Advisory Panel members and on the city’s ability to attract and negotiate with a development partner in the future.

Following this meeting, in February 2021, city staff initiated a public consultation about landowner real estate planning for False Creek South, without revealing that planning had already been secretly underway for two years. During this public engagement the city published information giving the impression that while South False Creek had originally been intended to be home to a mix of incomes reflecting the city as a whole, over time the leaseholder population had skewed wealthier.

Journalists and social media commentators seized on that portrayal to place the existing community in a negative light.

But the data the city shared about the 3,235 people living on the city’s 32 acres of developed residential leasehold properties in False Creek South was wrong, as was proven, using Statistics Canada numbers, by the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association and RePlan committee volunteers from co-ops and stratas.

When, finally, in October 2021, the Harris and Brook real estate plan was made available to the public, it became clear what was at stake. And why it mattered whether False Creek South as a social experiment was publicly perceived as an affordable success, as the neighbourhood association demonstrated, or one that had fallen short of its aims and warranted a major re-engineering.

Deputy City Manager Karen Levitt’s report "The Future of False Creek South: Advancing a Conceptual Development Plan and Addressing Lease Expiries" proposed wholesale demolition of existing affordable housing and major dislocation of leaseholders – a difficult case to make since destroying viable housing goes against every accepted planning principle. Existing housing is the greenest and most affordable housing.

That realization no doubt informed council’s unanimous rejection of the plan four years ago.

However, as we’ve seen, council’s decision did not seriously impact staff’s desired direction for future planning. It just triggered an effective waiting game.

In theory, council gives direction to staff. In practice this usually means council acquiescing to recommendations from staff. If council rebels against staff recommendations, or initiates direction staff doesn’t like, staff’s power lies in delay. Councils come and go, and when staff eventually gets direction it likes, it can move quickly.

This isn’t exactly democracy, but it is Vancouver city hall.