City staff issues report asking for more commercial areas
Frances Bula
Sun
VANCOUVER – Vancouver is considering allowing office buildings to go higher in several key areas and expanding the boundaries of its office-only central business district, as part of its effort to ensure there is room for future offices in what has become a voracious downtown condo market.
A new report issued by city staff working on a plan for the metro core also says the city is considering policies to discourage any more conversions of existing offices to residences. Also, the report says it may require office space in a any new buildings in the downtown sector between Smithe and Robson, and east of Granville.
Those recommendations are likely to distress residential developers, who say they have run out of room for new projects downtown and are hungry for new opportunities.
But the report is likely to meet the approval of commercial real-estate brokers. For the past few years, they have been saying that Vancouver is in danger of losing businesses because the 20-year effort to encourage housing downtown has removed many opportunities for office space.
City staff say the city should “establish that the priority in the [central business district] and Broadway uptown district is increased job space. Market residential development should not be permitted in these areas except in limited situations to achieve other city objectives, such as heritage revitalization, affordable housing or cultural amenity.”
On top of those goals, city planning director Brent Toderian says planners will need to decide in the coming months how much height and density to allow in commercial buildings in order to serve the kinds of businesses that Vancouver’s downtown attracts.
Skyscraper-type office buildings in Vancouver’s central business district are typically attractive to head offices or high-end professional firms.
“There is still a question about whether Vancouver can be that kind of downtown,” said Toderian.
“The fundamental question is are we going to attract the jobs to this city that require high buildings.”
Toderian says there won’t be much point in allowing tall office towers in the central business district if there aren’t enough large businesses to occupy them.
“We don’t want to kid ourselves by saying we have created capacity simply by allowing more height. We want to make sure we create real capacity.”
Instead, the city might produce more useable office space by allowing more height and density in areas such as Yaletown and Broadway, which tend to serve the “smaller users” that are more typical of the city’s downtown businesses.
However, some developers say the city is overestimating how much office space is really needed.
Condo marketer Bob Rennie, who is involved with key projects all over the city, warned in May there is a risk condo prices will skyrocket if the city constricts too much the amount of land available to them.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
