Save 14th & Yukon

I am writing to express my opposition to the proposed 18-storey tower at 426-428 W 14th Ave and 3015-3027 Yukon St. This development will have significant negative impacts on our community and fails to meet the objectives of the city in the Broadway Plan and other city policies, for the following reasons:

​

Incompatible Design and Disruption of Neighborhood Character.  A structure of this size and design is not in keeping with the character, and lacks the contextual design and connectivity to the neighbourhood. Up until now the architecture of new and restored residences have maintained the heritage nature of Mount Pleasant, “Vancouver’s first neighbourhood”. Many existing homes have been converted to duplex, triplex, and 4-plex units, all while maintaining the design principles that prevail in this area. The City’s own guidelines for this neighbourhood recognize that, when allowing new homes or renovations in this area under current zoning, the most important principle is to have development blend in with the existing neighbourhood character. An 18-storey tower does not blend in with the character of the neighbourhood but rather, completely overshadows it, both literally and figuratively.

​

Increased Traffic Congestion and Safety Concerns.  The congestion brought on by the development will impact traffic on the narrow streets that are “slowed” and serve as two intersecting, busy bike routes, resulting in significant safety concerns. With many surrounding access points to the neighbourhood closed off, this will increase the pressure on W 14th Ave and Yukon St. Street parking, already restricted, will be further limited.

​

Loss of Mature Trees and Urban Canopy.  Mature trees on the street will be lost either immediately to construct a new building of this size, or as their root systems are weakened by the construction. Trees are being lost to development projects across the city. The trees impacted by this project are around 100 years old and provide much-needed tree canopy cover as part of the “urban forest”, which will help Vancouver counteract the worsening effects of climate change.

​

Lack of Commitment to Sustainable Building Design.   This project has made no commitment to green building design including capturing rain water, making space for pollinators, using green roof technology, or taking “innovative approaches to reduce carbon emissions in building operation and construction”. All of these elements are stated clearly as goals of the Broadway Plan, but this project fails to address them. This is simply a cookie-cutter 18-storey tower (many similar designs are proposed throughout Mount Pleasant) without any attempt to meet the goal of “leadership in sustainable design”.

​​

Inadequate Infrastructure and Overburdened Schools.  Infrastructure, including schools, community centres, parks, and other amenities are not adequate to support this plan. Simon Fraser Elementary, the catchment school, is the most over-subscribed in the city and has been for many years because of development in Olympic Village. There is still no school in Olympic Village, despite continuous empty promises each election cycle. By the time Olympic Village school is built (if it is ever built), it will be immediately full, necessitating a further school in the neighbourhood.

​​

Unfair Evictions of Long-Standing Tenants.   Evicting long-standing tenants and members of our community. These projects in the wider Mount Pleasant neighbourhood are unfairly targeting renters living in affordable rentals. In particular, a tenant in the rental has already been evicted in advance of the proposed development, which avoids the need to provide the mandatory tenant protections of the Broadway Plan.

 

Inadequate Unit Size and Lack of Affordability.   The size and affordability of the proposed units is lacking and does not serve the goals of the city to retain families in affordable rental units. Any new rental units should be of a livable size to allow people to live comfortably and long term in a unit. The proposed unit sizes are tiny, with only four units over 1000 square feet, 440 sq ft studios and 830 sq ft 3-beds. Eighty percent of the building will be offered at market rent which is growingly increasingly unaffordable as the price of housing continues to outpace local salaries. Regular rental unit turnover keeps market rental prices high and increasingly smaller spaces only exacerbates the turnover problem.
 

Inaccurate and Misleading Renderings.  It is clear that there are significant issues with the renderings prepared by the architect.  The renderings are not done from the pedestrian view, which makes it appear that the tower is much smaller than it will be.

It’s also clear that certain measurements in the drawings are unverified and inaccurate.  For example, the laneway between 14th and 15th is described as a “20’ paved full width”  lane and the rendering seems to indicate that there are no obstructions in the lane other than two speedbumps. At the Yukon St curb the laneway is actually only 14’ and not the 20’ indicated by the architectural renderings. There are actually four speed bumps, not two, and the dimensions of the speed bumps are incorrect. The drawings also neglect to mention the four hydro poles in the laneway, which further narrow the width of the lane.  The inaccurate measurements and drawings are indicative of a lack of care and attention to the details in this application package.

Further, while the lane is supposed to be an access point for a future parking garage, and buildings of this size typically require laneway access, the renderings and application package conspicuously fail to note that there is no access to the lane when driving southbound on Cambie St. This will inevitably increase traffic onto the surrounding streets, particularly on W 14th because of the pedestrian controlled light at this intersection.

Traffic-calming measures already in place have seen increased traffic on W 14th in recent years. Both 14th and Yukon are bike lanes and designated “Slow Streets” and this project does nothing to address how it will divert traffic from those streets to protect the safety of the cyclists and pedestrians using them. As the north side of 14th does not have a laneway, all of the services for garbage and recycling, are provided on that street, further crowding 14th Ave between Cambie and Yukon.

Finally, and most obvious, the shadow studies submitted by the architect are completely wrong, using the wrong angle of the sun for all of the provided shadow studies. The community has had no follow up shadow studies prepared by the architect to understand the full scope of the shadowing that will result from the Project. From the community’s own efforts to understand the true scope of the shadowing, it appears that the north side of 14th as well as the south side of 13th, will be cast into shadow over two whole blocks, from Cambie St to Alberta St, for a significant portion of the year. It is apparent that the homes on the north side of 14th will spend most of, if not all, of the year with their homes in shadow.

The architect should be required to provide accurate renderings and shadow studies to the City and to the community before a rezoning moves forward. Misleading information does not allow a proper forum for discussion and makes it impossible to have a full conversation about whether and where there may be issues with the proposal, both for the community and for the City.
 

Current Owner and Lack of Developer.  I am aware that the owner of the parcels slated for development are owned by a single individual. There is a listing for these properties on Avison Young which is trying to “flip” the properties for the lift provided by a potential rezoning. There is no development company currently behind this project that plans to see it through, can provide information about whether the project is actually viable, or would be built within the City’s timelines. Without a developer behind the project, this is simply a speculation shell game, and a waste of the City’s time and money. It also causes unnecessary fear and anxiety for the community including the tenants in the existing properties. The City should not allow the eviction of longstanding tenants if this project may never be built and has no one vouching for its timely completion.

This application is speculation and property flipping by an owner who has no intention of seeing this project through to completion. This rezoning application should be deferred until there is a developer behind it who can attest to its viability. What is proposed here may have little, or nothing in common, with what a developer would propose. Without a proper developer in place, the City and the community’s time and money is simply wasted.
 

The City Must Exercise Discretion Under MRTB Zoning.  MRTB zoning admits two building forms: 18 storeys with 5.5 FSR, or 3-5 storeys with 1-2.7 FSR. The City must exercise its discretion to decide what makes sense on this block, for these particular parcels.

 

In this case, the appropriate size and density for these particular parcels of land is the low-mid rise form and not the high-rise form. As the W 400 block of 14th abuts Cambie on its western edge, it would be most appropriate to have the tower forms along the edge of the street with Cambie, with the low-mid rise forms further into the neighbourhood. Council must exercise its discretion to consider that alternative to what has been proposed by the applicant. To allow individual applicants to steer the planning of City streets is an improper delegation of the City’s discretion. The City must exercise discretion by critically examining the options and the proposal, in light of the MRTB zoning and the larger Broadway Plan.

While the neighbourhood currently does not have any low-mid rise apartment buildings in the immediate, non-corridor parts of the neighbourhood, a 3-5 storey form aligns better with the scale of the neighbourhood which is currently all single-family homes separated into multiple units. A low-mid rise building is an appropriate scaling up of the currently existing density and is aligned with the Broadway Plan as it is currently written, as well as keeping the promise of the Plan to respect the character of existing neighbourhoods, a promise that cannot be kept by an 18-storey tower.

​​

The City recognized in the Broadway Plan that it is not simply a matter of building more housing, but building the right housing to allow people to stay in Vancouver at affordable rents, and maintain the unique character of Vancouver’s different neighbourhoods. Mount Pleasant is already an exemplary model of density that meets those goals – with the division of many heritage homes into multiple units. Tearing down the most affordable rental homes to make way for more expensive, smaller, rental homes is simply building more for the sake of building more, and not building the right kind of housing to achieve the city’s actual goals.

​

Conclusion  

 

I am not opposed to increasing density in this neighbourhood, but this 18-storey tower on a quiet, tree-lined side street, at the intersection of two bike lanes, which demolishes existing affordable rental housing and fails to protect the tenants who already live there, is not an appropriate project and should be rejected.

 

I ask the City to reconsider this proposal and thoughtfully consider how to make Mount Pleasant livable for its current and future residents.

​

[Your Name]