Updated building shadowing guidelines for downtown Vancouver approved | Daily Hive

Shadowing impacts of the proposed towers at 1706-1738 Alberni St. and 735 Bidwell St., Vancouver, at 4 p.m. on Sept. 22. (Henriquez Partners Architects/Kingswood Properties/Bosa Properties)

After an initial review and discussions in July 2025, today, Vancouver City Council unanimously approved the City of Vancouver staff’s policy package of planning reforms aimed at streamlining development approvals in the downtown Vancouver peninsula, while balancing building shadowing considerations on public spaces deemed to be important.

Just before City staff’s month-long summer break, City Council had opted to defer the decision to enable City staff to provide some clarifications on the policy approach.

At the heart of the recommendations are new Solar Access Guidelines for downtown Vancouver’s public parks, public plazas, public schools, and key retail strips/streets. The policy would prohibit most new building shadowing between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sept. 22 (fall equinox).

You might also like:

This consolidates the previous various building shadowing guidelines across downtown Vancouver, and eliminates the previous consideration of shadowing on March 20 (spring equinox).

Plazas in Davie Village and Robson Village will also be protected from new building shadows during daytime hours, with only limited case-by-case exceptions allowed. Special protections are proposed for prominent civic spaces, including Victory Square, which would be safeguarded from shadows on Remembrance Day mornings, as well as Robson Square, Jack Poole Plaza, and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Gardens.

Vancouver Solar Access Guidelines for the Downtown Peninsula building shadowing

Public spaces under the Vancouver Solar Access Guidelines for the Downtown Peninsula. (City of Vancouver)

“Special case” public spaces under the Vancouver Solar Access Guidelines for the Downtown Peninsula. (City of Vancouver)

City staff had originally included building shadowing exemptions for projects that are low-rise structures under four storeys, deliver major public amenities, and/or generate new social housing.

During today’s deliberations, City Council approved an amendment by ABC city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung that removed the specific building shadowing exemption for new social housing projects.

“I think that providing sort of equal opportunities for health and wellness is really important, regardless of who residents may be in a building or workers may be in a particular building,” said Kirby-Yung.

City Council also approved City staff’s policy changes for the provincially legislated Transit-Oriented Areas (TOAs). The changes note that the prescriptions and stipulations of newer area plans — such as the Rupert and Renfrew Station Area Plan and Broadway Plan — would override the City’s specific city-wide policies responding to the provincial TOAs. Such newer area plans have considered and integrated provincial TOAs in a finer localized manner.

The changes relating to TOAs also ensure rezoning applications are reviewed against city-wide livability standards, including building shadowing and view cone considerations, and provide guidance on how new buildings should relate to adjacent sites to avoid creating orphaned sites with weakened development potential.

Another key direction is the approved repeal of 27 legacy design guidelines, many dating back to the 1980s and 1990s. City staff describe these as obsolete or already superseded by newer area plans or newer zoning policies. Overall, this reduces redundancy, clarifies expectations, and supports a more efficient permitting process.

Vancouver Solar Access Guidelines for the Downtown Peninsula. (City of Vancouver)

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. building shadowing on the fall equinox. (City of Vancouver)

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. building shadowing on the fall equinox. (City of Vancouver)

During the public meeting, City Council heard from one public speaker, who voiced his opposition to City staff’s recommendations. Local resident Peter Dowdy suggested it provides City staff with too much continued discretion on building shadowing considerations on a subjective case-by-case project basis, and that it goes against the spirit of the provincial government’s legislation catalyzing transit-oriented development.

“Staff are going to use solar access as a way to apply levels of discretion to buildings in the transit-oriented areas policy that I believe may comply with the letter, but definitely violate the spirit of Bill 47. If you look at the actual requirements for Transit-Oriented Areas, the lot coverage isn’t total. There is still solar access, but I don’t believe that you have the discretion necessary to say that you objected to the building, not because of height, but because of the shadows created by that height,” said Dowdy.

“Furthermore, when you make this restriction itself discretionary based on whether or not you find additional value from the proposal, it’s very clear that this is an attempt to revert back to an older, more discretionary way of doing development in the downtown peninsula. And I don’t think that’s consistent with Bill 47.”

However, according to City staff, all of these moves today form part of the municipal government’s ongoing effort to consolidate more than 70 separate design documents into a single City-Wide Design and Development Guidelines (CDDG) document. The final document is expected to be presented to City Council in 2026.

You might also like: