344 rental homes in two towers proposed for Vancouver's Oakridge district

Artistic rendering of 5350-5430 Heather Street, Vancouver. (Dialog/Rize Alliance)

A pair of 18-storey towers within Vancouver’s Oakridge Municipal Town Centre could generate a total of 344 secured purpose-built rental homes.

Local developer Rize Alliance has submitted a new rezoning application to redevelop five single-family houses on a mid-block land assembly at 5350-5430 Heather Street near the southeast corner of the intersection of West 37th Avenue and Heather Street — about one block north of the new Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) mall, and just south of the future Heather Lands development.

SkyTrain’s Oakridge-41st Avenue Station and the R4 RapidBus bus stops are about a five-minute walking distance away from the development site.

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There would be 275 market rental units and 69 below-market rental units, based on the ratio of setting aside 20% of the residential space for more affordable homes.

The unit size mix is 78 studios, 142 one-bedroom units, 94 two-bedroom units, and 30 three-bedroom units.

Residents will have access to various indoor and outdoor amenity spaces on various levels, including an expansive indoor and outdoor area on the rooftop of the north tower.

Site of 5350-5430 Heather Street, Vancouver. (Dialog/Rize Alliance)

Site of 5350-5430 Heather Street, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Artistic rendering of 5350-5430 Heather Street, Vancouver. (Dialog/Rize Alliance)

The proposal aligns with the City’s Cambie Corridor Plan, which identified the two-block stretch of Heather Street between West 41st Avenue and West 37th Avenue as a critical walking route between the major new shopping centre and the Heather Lands projects.

To improve the “active link” purpose of Heather Street between both major destinations, the area plan stipulated that retail/restaurant uses should be located within the ground level of the new buildings fronting Heather Street. While the area plan requires retail/restaurant frontage for the block to the south closest to West 41st Avenue, it allows developers to choose their ground-level use for the block to the north closest to West 37th Avenue.

Instead of providing an active retail/restaurant frontage along Heather Street, for the potential of creating a longer, continuous retail corridor, the developer has chosen to line the street with ground-level residential units.

Site of 5350-5430 Heather Street, Vancouver, in relation to future developments in the Oakridge Municipal Town Centre area under the Cambie Corridor Plan. (Dialog/Rize Alliance)

Artistic rendering of 5350-5430 Heather Street, Vancouver. (Dialog/Rize Alliance)

But the north and south towers will be physically divided at ground level by an east-west pedestrian corridor, which forms a continuous segment of the mid-block pedestrian pathway established by other developments in the area, in accordance with the area plan. This project will provide ground-level residential units for its frontage for this pedestrian corridor.

Three underground levels will accommodate 226 vehicle parking stalls and 642 secured bike parking spaces.

The total floor area will reach 277,000 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 6.3 times larger than the size of the 42,200 sq ft land assembly. The architectural design firm behind the project is Dialog.

Artistic rendering of 5350-5430 Heather Street, Vancouver. (Dialog/Rize Alliance)

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