Westbank is planning to rezone the Central Steam site at the Southeast corner of West Georgia and Beatty Street that Ian Gillespie acquired in 2013.The site is 73,958 SF in size and zoned DD and BCPED, neither of which allow residential, but the proposed rezoning is seeking residential in exchange for public benefit, at the discretion of the Director of Planning. In this case, the public benefit is proposed to be a reduction in the City’s GHG emissions.
Details of the proposed rezoning include:
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a 300,000-350,000 SF office building on Beatty
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a 300,000-400,000 SF rental apartment building
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25,000 SF of retail on the lower side plaza next to Expo Blvd.
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Overall non-residential density is proposed to exceed the 7.0 FSR minimumcommercial requirement.
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The existing Steam Plant (70,000 SF) will either be re-engineered and integratedinto the development as a back-up function, or relocated off-site.
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In addition, a new low carbon heating plant will be built off-site in the False Creek Flats that will be linked to the distribution network and this will be a public benefit
“The rezoning of the Central Steam site provides an opportunity to transform a quasi-
industrial site into a well-designed development in keeping with its important location in the Central Business District. In addition, the ability to switch the fuel source of the
Central Steam plant to a low-carbon energy system presents an important opportunity to achieve a substantial public objective related to our city’s carbon reduction goals, and would represent a great leap toward Vancouver’s goal of being the Greenest City in the World by 2020. As such, staff recommend that City Council indicate its willingness to consider a rezoning application from Creative Energy for the Central Steam site for consideration at a future Public Hearing subject to the Recommendations in this Report.