Somewhat hidden behind the news of the Housing Vancouver Strategy announcement, is a new policy proposal for CACs for commercial and rental-only residential developments. The overall plan proposed in the policy report entitled “CAC Policy Update: Simplifying CACs on New Rental Housing and Commercial Development” is to cease negotiating CACs on commercial rezonings and some rental rezonings.

The City’s proposal is intended to “simplify the City’s development contribution system which includes DCLs, CACs, density bonusing and other mechanisms. The proposed changes will provide greater clarity and certainty on development contributions for rezoning applicants. The recommended changes will streamline the CAC process for both secured market rental and commercial-only rezoning applications to enable a majority of these project types to be brought to market sooner.”

The recommendations in the proposed policy include the following:

Recommendation A – Exempt routine, lower density secured market rental rezoning applications from CACs

The City would exempt rental applications from CAC negotiations where the density proposed is low, or consistent with area zoning. The table below shows where CACs would be exempt for rental based on height guidelines:

Recommendation B – Remove CAC negotiation on commercial-only rezoning 

The City intends on removing the CAC negotiation process (which can prolong the application timeline significantly) for commercial applications in the Downtown, Metro Core, Grandview Employment Area and South Vancouver Industrial Lands. This would not apply for proposed stratified commercial space.

The City will also introduce commercial linkage targets, which are intended to show the correlation between additional commercial space and workforce related childcare spaces and affordable housing. The commecial linkage targets will be fixed $/SF amounts calculated on the net additional density for commercial rezonings in the Downtown and Metro Core areas. 

The interim Commercial Linkage Targets will be as follows:As industry consultation has already occurred for these items, they could take effect almost immediately after Council adoption.

A full copy of the policy report can be viewed here: http://council.vancouver.ca/20171128/documents/a4.pdf

Port Living has submitted a rezoning application for a site at 2202 Main Street, on the Southeast corner of 6th and Main in Mount Pleasant. 

The 17,445 SF site, currently occupied by Blue Star Motors and a 2-storey commercial building, is currently zoned IC-2 but has rezoning potential as part of the Mount Pleasant Community Plan.

The proposal, entitled “Main Street Arts”, is to permit the development of a 6-storey mixed use building that includes:

• • 65 condo units;
  • 19 studios, 19 one-bedrooms, 17 two-bedrooms and 10 three-bedrooms;
  • 9,614 SF of at-grade retail plus 6,617 SF of below ground retail;
  • A total density of 3.86 FSR;
  • A building height of 74.5 ft;
  • 99 parking spaces (including 1 car share space); and
  • 2 Class B loading spaces.

The architect for the project is Studio B Architects. 

Adera Development has submitted a rezoning application to the City of North Vancouver for a former TELUS property at 8th and Lonsdale (south of East 11th). The site is triangular in shape and totals 62,543 SF. The proposal would include the retention of portions of the existing TELUS utility building which occupies the easternmost extent of the site; the site would be subdivided and 30 parking spaces would be provided for TELUS‘ use within the new residential development to the West.

The proposal, entitled Lonsdale Cityhomes, includes two new 6-storey residential buildings and a mix of townhouses. Details include:

• 179 units;
• Sizes varying from 600 to 1,900 SF;
• a total density of 2.60 FAR;
• a total CAC of $8,756,020;
• 235 parking spaces

The lot is zoned Residential Medium Density 1 (RM-1) with an Official Community Plan designation of Residential Level 5. The OCP allows for a density of 1.6 FSR and a potential for an additional bonus of up 1.0 FSR in accordance with the Density Bonus and Community Benefits Policy. 

The architect for the project is Integra Architecture.