Maple Ridge’s downtown condo-building incentive plan worked so well it kickstarted $100 million of construction in the downtown and cost the district only $1 million.

Now, Maple Ridge wants to see if the same trick will bring in more business and industry.

Council voted on a one-year extension of the commercial part of the town centre investment incentive program Tuesday, in an attempt to get every possible penny focused on commercial growth.

Under the three-year residential incentive plan, which expires Dec. 31, developers who built in the downtown got priority processing for their applications, fee reductions, tax exemptions and cash grants to put up their projects.

With that now ending, the commercial incentives only will be extended another year, ending in December 2014 – providing council approved the plan on Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.mapleridgenews.com/news/233538401.html

Bentall Kennedy, on behalf Sun Life, has applied to the City of Vancouver to rezone a one and a half acre existing apartment property known as Forte Apartments at 1755 West 14th Avenue from RM-3  to CD-1. The application is being made under the City’s Rental 100 program to allow a 100% market-rental development, including:

• retention of the existing 13-storey, market-rental building;
• the addition of two new buildings:
  • a 12-storey apartment building;
  • a 3-storey townhouse building;
• the addition of 122 new market-rental units in the two new buildings;
• a proposed total denisty of 3.56 FSR;
• 89,129 sq. ft. of new floor area

IMG_0059, a photo by blazzzinred [vancityhotshots] on Flickr.

New Nordstrom building under construction.

Vancouver city council has approved a controversial West End neighbourhood plan that outlines development in the area for the next 30 years.

The plan aims to strike a balance between development pressures and preserving the West End’s quiet, tree-lined streets, where 45,000 people live in only 112 blocks.

It gives developers and planners a road map for the foreseeable future that permits infill development in the centre of the neighbourhood and taller towers on busy corridors around the edges.

Coun. Tim Stevenson says the city expects $600-million will be invested in the neighbourhood over the next 30 years.

“We’ll certainly see more density because we’re expecting seven- to 10-thousand more people in the next 20 years, and we obviously have to accommodate that,” said Stevenson.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/west-end-community-plan-approved-in-vancouver-1.2433596

Follow the Council’s decision live here.

Here are some live updates from the City Council meeting regarding the West End Community Plan: