City of Vancouver to Advance ‘Villages’ Planning Program

The City of Vancouver has released a report outlining the next phases of planning for the ‘Village’ areas identified in the adopted 2022 Vancouver Plan.

The Vancouver Plan identified 25 Village areas, primarily centred on existing smaller commercial centres around arterial intersections throughout the City, for increased density and expanded commercial area.

Geographic Scope

Eight of the Village areas are now identified to be part of alternative or future planning work, including:

• Three full and two partial Villages will be reviewed in the Rupert and Renfrew Station Area planning program;
• Three Villages will be incorporated into a future area planning program for Main and Fraser Streets, including Punjabi Market;
• One Village (Yew Street / West 1st Avenue) will be incorporated into future planning for neighbourhood centres; and
• One Village (Knight Street / East 57th Avenue) is identified in the Vancouver Plan as a Special Study Area and will need to be considered through a future planning program.

The remaining 17 villages are identified in blue on the map below:

Rezoning Potential

The planning focus is on enabling “missing middle” and housing “up to 6-storeys”, with a focus on rental and below-market rental housing where economically feasible. In addition, the program will maintain or enable expansion of zoning permitting mixed-use buildings that deliver additional commercial space in Villages.

The City anticipates the majority of sites will be rezoned through city initiated rezonings, rather than on a site by site basis.

Interim rezonings will generally not be considered unless it involves social housing or seniors housing.

Timeline

The planning work for the Villages is expected to take approximately 18 months, with a Final Land Use Plan presented to Council in Q1 or Q2 2026.

The full report can be viewed here: https://council.vancouver.ca/20241022/documents/r1.pdf