温哥华推新分区计划 加速低层出租屋和酒店开发

In December, Vancouver City Council approved a suite of actions focused on “supporting development viability and unlocking new housing supply” during a time when it has been challenging for developers to move forward with projects due to market conditions. The first item listed in the staff report outlining the suite of actions was the creation of a new Rental Development Relief Program, but staff said they would also “continue advancing targeted policy, process, and regulatory initiatives to improve project feasibility, sustain housing supply, and support affordability” with initiatives outside of that suite of actions. One of the initiatives they teased was “Streamlining Rental Opportunities in C-2 Zones” and staff have now returned with full details and a proposal to create a new simplified C-2A mixed-use zoning district schedule that would: In certain community plan areas where a rezoning is currently required, allow 6-storey, mixed-use building where 100% of the residential tenure is secured as rental. Allow for 6-storey hotel use. Allow up to eight storeys in TOAs. Simplify and modernize low-rise mixed-use regulations. Additionally, the City has proposed that 2,348 parcels — a vast majority (88%), but not all parcels — currently zoned C-2, C-2B, C-2C, and C-2C1 be rezoned into this new C-2A zone, removing the need for site-specific rezonings and allowing developers to proceed directly to the development application stage. The City has previously taken this “prezoning” approach with social housing and portions of the Broadway Corridor. According to a map provided by staff, most of the parcels to be rezoned are located in east Vancouver, and specifically along Main Street, Fraser Street, Victoria Drive, and Kingsway, although there are some within the Broadway Corridor as well. All highlighted sites would be rezoned to C-2A. “The proposed C-2A district schedule would continue to allow the same scale and type of rental housing currently allowed in the C-2, C-2B,…