Courtesy MSN – Full Article: http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=23530429&page=0

“For the 2010 Winter Olympics, about 3,000 of the world’s best athletes (and officials) took over a corner of downtown Vancouver, British Columbia — not to mention the little city that skiers and bobsledders created 70 miles north, in Whistler. Such Olympic villages can be billion-dollar creations that are in the world’s spotlight for just a few weeks.

So what happens to these glamorous villages when the athletes pack up their medals, memories and dirty laundry to fly home?

If the planners have done their homework and everybody keeps their promises, the villages are in for a long and productive post-games life. But that’s not always how it works out. Here’s our look at the afterlife of several villages from the past few decades.

Vancouver: The best (and costliest) village ever?
With its Olympic Village, Vancouver is certainly gunning for one of the most dramatic transformations of a site — and it looks like it may succeed.”

Burnaby NewsLeader – Plan to create ‘new heart in Edmonds’ launched.

A development “to create a new heart to Edmonds Town Centre” is being proposed for the Value Village property at Kingsway and Edmonds.

Cressey Developments has applied to the City of Burnaby to have the large, triangular property rezoned so it can build a project that contains office, residential and commercial space.

Read more: http://www.burnabynewsleader.com/news/164456536.html

Developer floats Lower Cap revamp.

DEVELOPERS are looking to completely revamp a large section of the Lower Capilano neighbourhood, converting what is largely empty space to a “village centre” complete with multifamily homes, a community centre and public plaza.

Larco Investments presented the plan to neighbours at two meetings last week. The proposal, still in its preliminary stages, would see a cluster of multi-storey residential buildings and a limited amount of commercial space appear on what is now a vacant lot – once the home of the Capilano Winter Club. The 4.35-acre site sits between Curling Road and Fullerton Avenue to the west of Capilano Road.

Vancouver planner wants to end ad hoc approach to developer fees.

Vancouver’s new director of planning wants to get rid of the city’s contentious method of negotiating with developers over fees they are required to pay for public services.

Brian Jackson, who starts his job as the general manager of planning and development Aug. 27, said the current “one-by-one” method of negotiating so-called community amenity contributions with individual developers is both unproductive and divisive. Instead, he wants the city to institute a system that allows developers to know up front what they’ll have to pay for parks, daycares and other needed community services.