Date set for reconsideration of 105 Keefer proposal in Chinatown

Date set for reconsideration of 105 Keefer proposal in Vancouver's Chinatown

Artistic rendering of the proposed mixed-use building at 105 Keefer Street, Vancouver. (Merrick Architecture/Beedie)

The saga over whether the proposed mixed-use building at 105 Keefer Street in Vancouver’s Chinatown district should be built is coming to a head.

The City of Vancouver has set May 29, 2023, as the public meeting date for the Development Permit Board’s decision on the project. This reconsideration by City staff is required following the Supreme Court of BC’s December 2022 ruling that the municipal government must reconsider the development permit application, which was submitted by local developer Beedie.

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The Development Permit Board provided its last rejection of the proposal in November 2017 in response to an outcry of opposition from activists in the area. The activist backlash against 105 Keefer Street also prompted the Vision Vancouver-led City Council in July 2018 to change the permissible building forms in Chinatown by reducing the allowable height and width of buildings, effectively rescinding a 2011 policy intended to help revitalize the area.

The previous decision to reject the 105 Keefer Street proposal was made in a 2-1 vote, with chief city planner Gil Kelley and engineering general manager Jerry Dobrovolny in opposition and assistant city manager Paul Mochrie the lone vote in support. Kelly and Dobrovolny have since departed from the municipal government, while Mochrie is now the city manager.

105 keefer street vancouver beedie 2017 design

Site of the proposed mixed-use building at 105 Keefer Street, Vancouver. (Merrick Architecture/Beedie)

Site of 105 Keefer Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

This was an unprecedented decision by the Development Permit Board, as it typically makes its decisions based on established policies and guidelines — essentially by the book, following existing zoning and area policies. Development permit applications are only rejected in exceptional circumstances, and there have been fewer than a handful of rejections in recent decades.

In August 2019, Beedie filed a petition to the court accusing the municipal government of acting in bad faith and requesting the court to quash the Development Permit Board’s rejection and order them to approve the application.

In its December 2022 decision, the court could not find sufficient reason that the municipal government acted in bad faith and procedural unfairness, but they agreed with the developer that the panel of City staff’s rejection was “substantively unreasonable” because the reasons it provided were inadequate.

Keefer Street frontage perspective; artistic rendering of the proposed mixed-use building at 105 Keefer Street, Vancouver. (Merrick Architecture/Beedie)

Columbia Street frontage perspective; artistic rendering of the proposed mixed-use building at 105 Keefer Street, Vancouver. (Merrick Architecture/Beedie)

The proposal that will be reconsidered by the Development Permit Board in late May 2023 is identical to what was last evaluated in November 2017.

Beedie has now been working on this mid-rise building project for well over a decade, with the design iteration now being reconsidered a downsized proposal — a design that does not require a rezoning application. An earlier taller design iteration included more public benefits, including 25 units of low-to-moderate income housing for seniors.

All the while, the site at the northeast corner of the intersection of Keefer Street and Columbia Street — immediately north of the Chinatown Parkade and east of Sun Yat-Sen Park — has remained vacant as a surface parking lot.

Keefer Street frontage perspective; artistic rendering of the proposed mixed-use building at 105 Keefer Street, Vancouver. (Merrick Architecture/Beedie)

If approved, this will be a 90 ft tall, nine-storey building with 111 condominium homes, including 38 studio units, 30 one-bedroom units, 34 two-bedroom units, and nine three-bedroom units.

The ground level will contain 10,400 sq ft of commercial space for as many as nine retail/restaurant units — activating the building’s street frontages. A passageway will be created through the ground level of the building to provide public and unique commercial space access. As well, a portion of the ground level will serve as a new Senior Living Centre.

Three underground levels will contain 84 vehicle parking stalls and 159 secured bike parking spaces. The total floor area will reach 119,000 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 6.5 times larger than the footprint of the vacant lot. The project is designed by Merrick Architecture.

The meeting on May 29, 2023 will also be livestreamed by the municipal government, which is not a typical practice for Development Permit Board meetings. The panel’s previous deliberations in 2017 attracted hundreds of speakers.

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