Bob Ransford
Sun

A few weeks ago I wrote about the dwindling supply of industrial land in Vancouver. The threat to industrial land is only one challenge facing the ‘s economic future. Pressure is also being felt to allow residential uses in areas of the city where land has been set aside for economic activities of other kinds, like office and commercial uses.

An appropriate land supply and zoning that permits a mix of uses is absolutely essential if jobs and services are going to be located in the core of the city in the future.

You can’t create a superior quality of life in a city where there are no jobs. When people are forced to commute half way across the region to buy a piece of plywood or to visit their doctor’s office, quality of life is also compromised.

A city without jobs and services in its core is no better than a city without housing in the inner city.

These challenges are starting to become obvious.

Residential areas within the inner-city have grown faster than anticipated. They now surround the office districts and extend along our waterfronts. Whole districts of the city have been transformed from gritty industrial zones to distinctive and livable new high density residential neighbourhoods.

Many of the areas that were designated for a mix of commercial and residential uses have been developed as strictly residential areas. Office expansion in the central business district has been slow.

The strong resurgence of the residential real estate market is beginning to put pressure on heritage buildings in mixed use areas. Many of these heritage buildings, in places like Yaletown and Gastown, were converted over the last decade to house business of the “new economy.”

They are now in demand for conversion to lofts and apartments.

City officials are beginning to realize that land use in the metropolitan core of Vancouver has changed more dramatically than their land use policies drawn up nearly 15 years ago contemplated.

The land use changes that were starting to manifest themselves a decade and a half ago as a result of the emergence of a new economy have literally transformed Vancouver and could be threatening the role of the inner-city as the economic powerhouse of the larger city and the whole region.

Last May, city council adopted interim policies to prevent major residential development from displacing commercial capacity in the central business district and adjacent area designated for expansion.

The new quickly implemented policies were a reaction to concerns that the ability of the downtown to accommodate employment growth and to remain the major office core of the region was beginning to be jeopardized by a loss of commercial capacity, especially through the loss of a few well-located large sites suitable for major office development to new residential projects. Then there was the conversion of the old West Coast Transmission office building to “The Cube” condominium project.

Planners were afraid that the domino effect might result in a change in the dominant character of the central business district from office to residential.

They were also afraid that a high density residential neighbourhood would be created in an “accidental” way, without the level of design and public amenity that have made other new communities attractive and livable.

The main thrust of those interim policies, now more than six months old, prevent residential development in the central business district and the areas immediately adjoining it, where the central business district might expand.

Now, the city’s planning department is set to embark upon a comprehensive study that will assess the current situation and project a range of future options for economic activity within the city’s core. It will also identify the capacity of the existing land supply for non-residential uses and assess the infrastructure capacity to service those future uses.

Studies like this can take time — often years. The planners seem to realize that this issue is too urgent to wait a long time. They are proposing that policy options be brought forward as quickly as they are developed.

This work will likely shape the city of the future, hopefully one that maintains a balance between inner-city living and a healthy diverse economy in the city’s core.

Bob Ransford is a public affairs consultant with COUNTERPOINT Communications Inc. He specializes in urban development issues. He is a former real estate developer and serves as a Director of the Urban Development Institute – Pacific Region.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 5th, 2005 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Real Estate Related. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.