Vancouver councillor proposes densifying Shaughnessy with affordable housing

Vancouver city councillor proposes densifying Shaughnessy with affordable housing

Artistic rendering of an example of a faux-heritage market rental housing project on Granville Street near Shaughnessy in Vancouver. (Stuart Howard Architects)

Should affordable rental housing and added density be introduced to one of Vancouver’s oldest mansion residential neighbourhoods?

In a member motion to be considered by Vancouver City Council next week, OneCity councillor Christine Boyle is calling for the diversification of housing within the Shaughnessy neighbourhood, with new infill and multi-family housing providing secured purpose-built rental housing options, along with bonus density for non-profit, co-op, co-housing, and mixed-income rental housing. There would also be new local shops and services.

Shaughnessy’s uses shifted during and after the Second World War, when many larger homes became multi-family housing to help meet the immense housing demand as a result of the war. Boyle suggests these character homes with heritage value can be preserved by converting these structures into multi-family housing again, along with the addition of new infill structures — such as the construction of townhouse buildings on a property’s large yard.

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She suggests the West End, which used to be a mansion neighbourhood, is an excellent example of balancing heritage protection considerations with “housing, climate, and equity priorities.”

According to MLS statistics, as of today, the average home price in Shaughnessy is currently $8 million, with much of the value coming from the very large lot sizes.

“We are in a housing crisis. In order to see tangible improvements, local governments need to use every tool at their disposal, and to ensure that every neighbourhood is welcoming their fair share of residents at all income levels,” reads her motion.

Moreover, she wrote, Shaughnessy is well served by public transit, with frequent north-south buses on Granville Street and Arbutus Street, and frequent east-west buses on King Edward Avenue and West 41st Avenue. It is also in relatively close proximity to three future subway stations of the Millennium Line Broadway Extension, especially the future South Granville Station, and the Canada Line’s King Edward and Oakridge-41st Avenue stations.

Shaughnessy’s population has been on a gradual decline, falling by 21% from 10,370 in 1971 to 8,204 in 2021. Over the same period, Vancouver’s overall population rose by 55%.

Shaughnessy spans about 4% of Vancouver’s overall land area or 4.5 sq km, framed by West 16th Avenue to the north, Oak Street to the east, West 41st Avenue to the south, and Arbutus Street to the west.

Area of the Shaughnessy neighbourhood in Vancouver. (Google Maps)

If the motion is approved, City staff will report back to City Council by the end of 2024 with a plan and timeline to enact policy changes in the neighbourhood, including identifying the required infrastructure upgrades, such as expanded sewers. She wants new policies that gradually increase Shaughnessy’s population density to reach at least the overall city average by 2050.

The previous makeup of City Council has approved at least two low-rise, multi-family, secured purpose-built rental housing projects in the Shaughnessy neighbourhood, with both projects located on Granville Street.

After rejecting a previous version of the project, City Council in late 2021 approved the rezoning application of building a four-storey building with 24 market rental townhouse units at 4575 Granville Street. This project, replacing a single mansion, was particularly controversial due to its adjacency to a hospice.

“I think it’s an important precedent to establish rental housing in a part of Shaughnessy where it has long been off-limits, and it’s a step towards more deeply affordable rental housing in the future,” Boyle wrote in 2019 in an op-ed at the time of City Council’s decision to reject the project’s first rezoning application attempt.

“Also, I’m very nervous about the precedent that this decision sets. If we are going to uphold the exclusionary zoning of wealthy neighbourhoods like Shaugnessy, rejecting rental there for an assortment of not-entirely-clear reasons, then either new rental will continue to be predominantly focused on East Vancouver, or it won’t get built at all. I want to see many secure rental housing projects move forward in Shaughnessy. I’d like to see more secure market rental and below-market affordable rental throughout our lowest-density neighbourhoods.”

In 2020, City Council approved the rezoning application for another project to the south at 4750 Granville Street, where there will be a four-storey rental building with about 80 market rental homes.

December 2020 artistic rendering of the revised proposal for 4575 Granville Street, Vancouver. (Stuart Howard Architects)

4750 Granville Street 1494 West 32nd Avenue Vancouver

Artistic rendering of 4750 Granville Street and 1494 West 32nd Avenue, Vancouver. (Stuart Howard Architects / Domus Homes)

Further to the south on Granville Street, outside of Shaughnessy’s boundaries, at the site of 1515 West 49th Avenue, the municipal government recently approved an infill project of adding two 3.5-storey townhouse buildings with eight market rental homes — replacing the existing footprint of a garage. Both buildings will carry a faux-heritage architectural style to blend in with the adjacent buildings and align with the neighbourhood’s general character.

One of the single largest multi-family projects built in Shaughnessy was on its northern border a decade ago at the southeast corner of the intersection of Granville Street and West 16th Avenue — just south of the South Granville retail district.

Most recently, the century-plus-old Gabriola Mansion on Davie Street in the West End was converted into 16 market rental homes, with 12 units created from the subdivision of the heritage structure’s interior and the construction of an infill building with four townhouse units next to the laneway.

The last time a sitting Vancouver city councillor proposed to make sweeping changes to a mansion residential neighbourhood was in late 2017, when Hector Bremner, through a member motion, called for a blanket rezoning of the northwesternmost corner of the West Point Grey neighbourhood — the area framed by Spanish Banks Beach, Pacific Spirit Regional Park, Blanca Street, and West 4th Avenue — to enable six-storey buildings.

Artistic rendering of 1515 West 49th Avenue, Vancouver. (Stuart Howard Architects)

Artistic rendering of the conversion of the Gabriola Mansion. (Ankenman Marchand Architects)

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