City proposes pre-zoning select areas of Broadway Plan and Cambie Plan | Daily Hive

City of Vancouver proposes pre-zoning select areas of Broadway Plan and Cambie Plan

Map of Vancouver highlighting the Broadway Plan and Cambie Corridor Plan areas, where select portions of each area plan will undergo prezoning. (City of Vancouver)

Select areas of the Broadway Plan and Cambie Corridor Plan are being considered for pre-zoning changes, effectively rezoning such areas in accordance to the higher-density uses already permitted under their respective area plans.

The City of Vancouver is proactively initiating municipal-led rezoning of certain areas of both area plans into new low-rise building and high-rise tower zoning.

If the City’s proposal is approved, it would eliminate the need for case-by-case rezoning applications for individual projects that already align with existing area plan policies, within the selected areas for pre-zoning.

This would enable property owners and developers to skip the rezoning application for the project, and go straight to the development permit application. Skipping the individual rezoning application would reduce the City’s processing and review timeline by 12 months to 15 months, and remove the associated rezoning application fees from project pro formas.

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The proposed new zoning districts for the areas are R3, which would enable low-rise apartment buildings up to six storeys, and R5, which would enable towers include secured purpose-built rental housing and affordable housing, with options for local-serving retail/restaurant uses and childcare. Both R3 and R5 would also enable low-rise uses for smaller sites, such as low-rise apartment buildings, townhouses, and multiplexes.

Furthermore, pre-zoned sites would have greater flexibility in building form and height, while generally maintaining the maximum floor area ratio (FAR/FSR) densities prescribed by the area plan. There would be an allowable increase of height of up to five storeys above what is prescribed by the Broadway Plan and Cambie Corridor Plan — up to a maximum of 26 storeys.

This flexibility improves the financial feasibility of developments and enhances opportunities to incorporate on-site public spaces, while accommodating different site conditions and configurations, such as sloped sites and larger lot consolidations.

Within the Cambie Corridor Plan, the areas being considered for pre-zoning are situated within the designated Oakridge Municipal Town Centre around SkyTrain’s Oakridge-41st Avenue Station, specifically properties on select blocks north and east of the future Oakridge Park mall. Currently, these properties are single-family houses, while properties on the same block that are not included have already been rezoned through individual rezoning applications.

The Cambie Corridor Plan currently allows towers up to 15 storeys to 18 storeys on these sites. As a part of the pre-zoning, the City is proposing to allow taller heights of 20 storeys to 22 storeys, reaching no more than 26 storeys. Additionally, the option of building strata market ownership condominium housing with a social housing component would see its social housing requirement dropped from 30% to 20% of the overall number of residential units — another measure to improve financial feasibility.

There would also be slight changes to policies for tower separation distance and the number of towers per block, with up to three towers per block as opposed to the Cambie Corridor Plan’s current prescription of no more than two towers per block. Furthermore, the maximum tower floor plate sizes would increase from 6,500 sq. ft. to up to 7,200 sq. ft.

cambie corridor plan oakridge municipal tower centre rezonings prezoning

Proposed prezoning of select areas within the Oakridge Municipal Town Centre area of the Cambie Corridor Plan. (City of Vancouver)

Artistic rendering of the condominium towers project at 5392-5472 Mansion Street, Vancouver, based on the developer’s individual project-based rezoning application, which was approved in February 2024. (IBI Group/Coromandel Properties/Peterson)

As for the pre-zoning contemplated for the Broadway Plan, the City is proposing to carry out these changes over a much larger area — across parts of the Kitsilano, Fairview, and Mount Pleasant neighbourhoods.

The proposed areas for pre-zoning — enabling proposals to go straight to the development permit application — entail select high-rise residential areas within the provincially-legislated, 800-metre Transit-Oriented Areas (TOA) around the six future stations of SkyTrain Millennium Line’s Broadway extension, and the low-rise apartment areas within the southern portions of the area plan. Tower heights of up to 26 storeys would be considered.

Generally, projects in the high-rise apartment areas as prescribed by the Broadway Plan that are not within the 800-metre TOA radius would still be required to go through the individual site-specific rezoning application process. This continued case-to-case rezoning application requirement for such areas would continue the City to enforce the Broadway Plan’s prescriptions on the number of towers per block.

broadway plan rezoning proposal prezoning

Proposed prezoning of select areas within the Broadway Plan. (City of Vancouver)

“This project is one of the implementation initiatives under the Vancouver Plan, which includes direction to simplify, clarify and consolidate plans, policies and regulations to improve the development process. These proposed changes would allow housing projects to be built faster with less cost, giving priority to providing homes for people who need them and working toward maintaining diversity in the city,” reads the City’s proposal.

Public consultation on the proposed pre-zoning changes is now underway, and Vancouver City Council could review and decide on the changes in the second quarter of 2025.

In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized in February 2025, Josh White, the City of Vancouver’s general manager of planning, urban design, and sustainability and the director of planning, shared that the municipal government will be rolling out a wide range of new strategies to speed up and improve the financial viability of development, including pre-zoning led by the City, new concurrent rezoning and development permit processes, changes to the rezoning enquiry process, and more flexible tower floor plate sizes, building heights, street frontages, and other urban design considerations.

As well, the City will consolidate policies, and consider expanding development fee payment deferrals and the use of Surety Bonds.

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