Ken Sim's ABC Vancouver promises to approve tower projects in one year | Daily Hive

Ken Sim's ABC Vancouver promises to approve tower projects in just one year

Artistic rendering of the tower concept above the future South Granville Station at 1477 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/PCI Developments)

If elected with a majority, the ABC Vancouver party of mayoral candidate Ken Sim says they would enact policy and overhaul the municipal government’s processes to allow high-rise tower or other large-scale housing development projects to be approved in just one year.

This is down from the current timeline of up to six years in some cases.

Such high-rise tower and large-scale housing development projects often require rezoning, which is usually the lengthiest process with city staff reviewing the project and negotiating benefits from developers, such as community amenity contributions (CACs). And after rezoning is accomplished, the project needs a separate development permit application, although in some situations certain zoning permits tower-based proposals to go straight to the development permit — skipping the lengthy rezoning process.

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The timeline to approve major projects within one year applies to market, non-market, and supportive housing.

There are some recent precedents from City Council for reviewing and approving major projects in about a year or less.

In December 2021, City Council approved biotech firm AbCellera’s rezoning application to build a major new headquarters office and laboratory complex in Mount Pleasant — a timeline of only seven months under the urging of the City’s chief planner due to its economic and medical research importance.

The highly controversial supportive housing tower next to SkyTrain’s future Arbutus Station in Kitsilano saw its rezoning application submitted in September 2021, and it was approved by City Council in July 2022 — a span of just 10 months. Another supportive housing tower for the corner of Knight Street and King Edward Avenue was approved the previous month under a similar timeframe. Both projects were pushed forward by the provincial government through BC Housing.

A 39-storey, mixed-use tower with retail, office space, and 223 rental homes will also rise at the corner of West Broadway and Granville Street — directly above and fully integrated with SkyTrain’s future South Granville Station. The controversial rezoning application was approved in April 2022 — eight months after it was submitted.

It should be noted that all four examples had unique factors that pushed them forward for consideration faster. The South Granville Station tower, for further context, is coordinated with the Millennium Line Broadway Extension under construction, and the developer has provided a significant contribution to the station by allocating a substantial amount of interior floor area for it.

However, all of this shows that if there is a will to review and approve projects in an expedited manner, there is a way.

One way to expedite the rezoning process, according to the party, is to establish a predictable CACs formula city-wide, which eliminates the possibility for lengthy project-based negotiations between City staff and the developer. Some developers have abandoned Vancouver in frustration and focused on building in suburban jurisdictions, where requirements are simpler and straightforward. Rival candidate Fred Harding of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) has also promised to create new single flat-fee CACs across the city, while Mark Marissen of Progress Vancouver is looking to reform CACs.

ABC’s promise of creating a one-year timeline for major project approvals is part of their proposed “3x3x3x1” permit approval system as one of their key ways to trigger more housing supply.

It would take just three days to approve home renovations, three weeks to approve single-family homes and townhouses, and three months to approve professionally designed multi-family and mid-rise projects.

Home renovations, single-family homes, townhouses, and laneway houses can take many months to approve, sometimes even well over a year.

With Sim as the mayoral candidate, ABC is running seven candidates for city councillor — including incumbents Rebecca Bligh, Lisa Dominato, and Sarah Kirby-Yung — as well as six candidates for Park Board and four candidates for School Board.

The civic election is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, October 15.

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