The City of Vancouver has released the proposed draft of the Marpole Community Plan to be considered by City Council in the next month or so. Click here to view the plan.

View South on Granville

Within the Marpole Community Plan, the City of Vancouver has identified Granville Street, from West 57th down to Marine Drive, as a focal point for densification. This comes after the Granville at 70th project on the old Safeway site is already nearing completion. The Granville “high street” area is mostly commercially zoned, with some residential zoning on the periphery. The City’s concept is to strengthen and enhance the area as a walkable, mixed use neighbourhood centre with a variety of shops, services, restaurants, and a mix of housing.

There a presently few opportunities for development in the area given small lot sizes and high property values.

Highlights for Granville

• Reinforces the “heart of Marpole” and welcoming place to Vancouver
• Adds new development and improvements to public spaces to support shops and services
• Focuses higher buildings (6-12 storeys) and more density on Granville Street
• Creates strong walking and cycling connections to transit and other key destinations such as school, parks, and the Fraser River

Read more here: http://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/marpole-community-plan-granville.aspx

After widespread opposition to late changes in the Marpole Community Plan this summer, the City of Vancouver has presented a revised draft plan that pulls back on changes in quieter single family areas and focuses growth along the main arterials including Granville, Oak and Marine Drive.

Here are the changes:

Before

After

The newest draft is essentially a return to the initial draft plan that was presented this spring. It focuses growth in 4-12 storey buildings along arterial streets, as opposed to townhouses.

The resistance to the Plan was almost entirely a result of late changes before the final draft presentation in June. At that time, the City proposed rezoning a large swath of single family lots to townhouse. This was a change that had not been presented nor widely discussed and it angered a great deal of residents. It resulted in the Plan being sent back for an additional round of consultation.

Not only did this move result in a delay of the plan, it was probably pointless and showed a disconnect from economic feasibility. With most single family lots in the range of 5,000-6,000 SF and house values of $1.5M+, a rezoning to townhouse would not have yielded any increase in value for most owners based upon land value and very little redevelopment would’ve occurred anyway.

What has the City likely learned from this process? In predominantly single family areas, residents are most likely to oppose new density increases except along main arterials where traffic is present already and attendant property values are lower due to their location.

What’s next for the Plan?

The City of Vancouver will be holding a dozen or so open houses and community discussion events to receive feedback on the revised plan before looking for council approval in early 2013.

Stay tuned for detailed analysis on implications and opportunities in each of Marpole’s five subareas…