City of Vancouver begins Broadway Corridor Plan public consultation

Highly preliminary conceptual artistic rendering of a subway entrance at the Crossroads building at the northwest corner of Broadway and Cambie Street. (City of Vancouver)

The largest urban planning process in Vancouver since the completion of the Cambie Corridor Plan is well underway and now heading into its first public consultation phase.

The City of Vancouver is launching an online survey and hosting a series of open houses for the Broadway Plan, which is being made well in advance of the planned 2025 opening of the Millennium Line’s Broadway Extension to Arbutus Street. Six new subway stations will be built along the corridor.

Precise outcomes of this two-year-long planning process are not known, but additional density can be expected, particularly new market and below-market rental housing close to transit stations and new office and retail space. The plan will also identify new public amenities to support the area’s growth and improve public spaces to help “establish Broadway as a series of unique and inspiring places.”

“The Broadway Plan will address challenges and opportunities facing the unique neighbourhoods along Broadway, as well as the role of the corridor in the city and the region. It will also coordinate closely with our citywide planning program that’s just getting under way,” said Gil Kelley, the city’s General Manager of Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability, in a statement.

“An essential part of the planning process will be hearing from people both within the corridor and across the region about what they want for Broadway so that we can build a strong long-range plan that reflects the needs and aspirations of our citizens.”

Over the coming weeks, the public can submit their feedback online and learn about the planning process at the open houses on the following dates and locations:

Thursday, March 7, from 3 to 7 pm — City Lab, 511 West Broadway
Friday, March 8, from 3 to 7 pm — City Lab, 511 West Broadway
Saturday, March 9, from noon to 4 pm — City Lab, 511 West Broadway
Wednesday, March 13, from 3 to 7 pm — Kitsilano Neighbourhood House, 2305 West 7th Avenue
Thursday, March 14, from 3 to 7 pm — Kingsgate Mall, 370 East Broadway

Early measures of the Broadway Plan approved by the previous city council last year enforced a temporary moratorium on new rezoning applications; until the planning process is fully complete, no new rezoning applications in this area will be accepted, unless the proposals offer 100% social and supportive housing or facilities for community care or group residents.

Learning from its approach earlier in the decade for the Cambie Corridor, the city has also enforced new measures in a bid to reduce land speculation.

The new city council is also currently contemplating extending similar moratorium policies westwards, allowing only new rental housing, between Vince Street and the municipality’s western edge in the area of Blanca Street. This would help curb speculation in response to city council’s recent decision to endorse a continuation of SkyTrain through Kitsilano and West Point Grey to reach UBC.

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