The City of New Westminster is exploring further changes to its Lower Twelfth Street area plan, with an ongoing study now being considered by council following on earlier work from 2024.

Current objectives include:

• Confirmation of the Official Community Plan vision for the mix of “ultra-light” uses
  supported by residential in the Lower Twelfth area.
• Endorsement of the neighbourhood massing approach, that would see the highest buildings closer to Downtown transitioning down to the lower density edges of the study area.
• Exploring changing the Official Community Plan designation of some properties outside but adjacent to the study area.

Next steps:

1. Completion of Additional Studies (Summer 2025) and report back to Council on implications to Lower Twelfth area study
2. Public and Nations Engagement (anticipated Fall 2025)
3. Council Approval of the Evaluation Framework (anticipated Winter 2025/2026)

The full presentation can be viewed here: https://pub-newwestcity.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=21572

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

The City of Vancouver will consider a recommendation to makes changes to the West End Rezoning Policy regarding social housing requirements.

The report indicates the following recommended changes in Areas 1 & 2 of the West End Plan (depicted below):

• Reducing the inclusionary social housing requirements 25% of the residential floor area to 20% or one-for-one replacement of the existing rental housing, whichever is greater
• Introducing a cash-in-lieu option that reflects the costs for the City to deliver such social housing offsite, including land and construction, which will be determined on a case-by case basis through the rezoning process.

The reduction to the inclusionary social housing requirement is recommended as an interim measure for two years until December 31, 2026, or until adoption of a new Inclusionary Zoning By-law that would supersede this rezoning policy.

Three projects have been approved for rezoning with the 25% social housing but have not yet started construction. These projects would require a new application to be granted the reduction.

The full report can be viewed here: https://council.vancouver.ca/20240924/documents/r1.pdf