A year ago, Theresa O’Donnell became the City of Vancouver’s Director of Planning and General Manager of Planning, Urban Design, and Sustainability.
Ms. O’Donnell holds a bachelor of landscape architecture from Texas Tech University and a master of public administration degree from the University of Texas. Her 30 years of planning experience included time in Las Vegas, Arlington – Texas, and most recently in Dallas.
Join us for a discussion about the future of Vancouver as GWAC gets acquainted with our new Director of Planning.
Sample of Issues for 1477 W. Broadway @ Granville rezoning:
City staff state that the application’s proposed height of 40 stories & density of 12.3 FSR aligns with the Broadway Plan, even though the Council hasn’t approved the plan yet and it sets a huge precedent for the whole Broadway Corridor.
The developer is attempting to sidestep $3.3M in fees and will not make any financial Community Amenity Contributions, the money used for childcare facilities, social housing, and parks.
Staff says that no public parks or plazas are shaded by the building, but they didn’t assess shadowing at the winter solstice, the darkest time of the year.
Example of Temporary Modular Housing building at 220 Terminal Avenue
There’s a Public Hearing starting at 6pm on April 12th to consider changing the zoning designation on two lots at 1325 and 1333 East Georgia Street to allow for Temporary Modular Housing units. This rezoning application is the third item on the Public Hearing agenda. The Temporary Modular Housing proposal appears under the following name:
3. Amendment to the Regional Context Statement Official Development Plan By-law for 1325 -1333 East Georgia Street
Comments can be sent to City Council with the ‘Send Comments to Council’ button on the agenda page and there’s also an option to ‘Request to speak’ if you’d like to address Mayor and Council either in person or by telephone.
The policy report estimates that one Temporary Modular Housing building on the property could yield an approximate total of 30 self-contained studio units. Lu’ma, a non-profit housing society, would be the owner and operator of the temporary supportive social housing. Lu’ma has a portfolio of approximately 500 units.
There’s a house constructed in 1908 at the north end of the lot that would be preserved and used to provide tenant services and a kitchen. There’s no design or approximate site layout in this application. This would be part of a later development permit process if City Council were to approve the rezoning.
The site is currently zoned as Industrial Land and it is protected under Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy. This rezoning application seeks to change the land designation to General Urban to allow for residential uses such as Temporary Modular Housing. A similar process was undertaken at 1580 Vernon Drive, the current site of two Temporary Modular Housing buildings that provide a combined total of 98 units of housing on a site with an area of 60,810 sq. ft. The property at 1325-1333 East Georgia is considerably smaller at 12,486 sq. ft. A Community Advisory Committee for this housing site is not planned. Community Advisory Committees are fairly common and one was formed for 1580 Vernon Drive.
There’s another temporary modular housing nearby at 1131 Franklin Street with 39 units of housing.
1325-1333 East Georgia Street site
The City of Vancouver website has a compiled list of Temporary Modular Housing Buildings. All of the Temporary Modular Housing has been built east of Oak Street. Current City regulations allow the approval of Temporary Modular Housing through the development permit process; however, in this case the extra rezoning stage is needed as 1325-1333 East Georgia Street is Industrial Land. The site is expected to be used for Temporary Modular Housing for a period of 10 years.
Grandview-Woodland Area Council 