city of vancouver abandons controversial kitsilano social housing project
the project, approved in 2022, had faced a fierce public-opinion and legal battle from neighbours
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the city of vancouver has scrapped plans to build a controversial social housing building on city-owned property in kitsilano.
the 13-storey project at 8th and arbutus was pitched four years ago as a partnership between the city and the province to build 129 affordable homes for those at risk of homelessness, with on-site supports including health-care.
the development, in a residential neighbourhood near an elementary school, children’s playground, and women’s recovery house, was fiercely opposed by a well-organized neighbourhood group that went to court to halt the project after it was approved by vancouver’s previous council in 2022.
in an email on tuesday, vancouver mayor ken sim said: “it’s clear this location wasn’t the right fit for the scale and type of housing that was proposed. … the number of individuals with substantive mental health and addictions issues in one location would have been a significant concern due to the site’s proximity to an elementary school and women’s recovery centre.”
the project died quietly late last month, when the city of vancouver agreed to a consent order with the neighbourhood group, agreeing to rescind the rezoning approved by the previous mayor and council in 2022, and quashing the related development permit and housing agreement. the order was dated april 30 and signed by a b.c. supreme court judge and lawyers for the city and the residents’ group.
rendering of proposed, now cancelled, public housing project at 2086-2098 w. 7th ave and 2091. w 8th ave in kitsilano in vancouver. in fall 2022, the neighbourhood group, called the kitsilano coalition for children & family safety society, challenged the public hearing process and rezoning decision. the province, at the request of the city, introduced legislation in 2023 that effectively allowed the project to proceed despite the legal challenge.
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but in december, the b.c. court of appeal ruled that law was unconstitutional. the province did not appeal to the supreme court of canada, said the kitsilano coalition’s lawyer peter gall, “they just accepted that they overreached.”
in an emailed statement, the city of vancouver said it “accepts the position of the kitsilano coalition for children and family safety that the public hearing held in june and july 2022” to rezone the property “was procedurally flawed.”
sim said tuesday that he would not speculate on the future of the city-owned property, which is a block away from a future broadway subway station.
the city has “reached out to the province to explore options for smaller and better-resourced supportive housing projects to replace the units originally planned for arbutus,” sim said. “we have not yet received a response.”
ravi kahlon, b.c.’s minister of housing and a supporter of the arbutus project, said tuesday that its cancellation was “disappointing, because we know there’s people right now in that community sleeping in encampments, sleeping in parks, and we need to get people indoors to get them supports.”
“now, we’ll have to find another parcel of land or possibly purchase something to build supportive housing,” kahlon said. “but that community needs it, and we’re going to be pursuing other opportunities in that community.”
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cheryl grant, a spokesperson for the kitsilano coalition, said she would “love to see a mix of housing” developed on the property, that could include market and non-market housing for seniors and families.
“we’re really encouraged by this. we believe this is a step forward with ken sim and the city to open up the conversation, revisit the property, and find the right form of housing,” grant said. “the plan there should really make sense for the community.”
the project had been championed by b.c. premier david eby. when eby was housing minister in 2022, shortly before the rezoning came to vancouver’s previous council for a decision, he said he was sympathetic to the concerns of neighbourhood residents, many of whom are constituents of his vancouver-point grey riding, an area that has not had a lot of this kind of social housing built in recent years.
but eby said he was confident the arbutus project would work well once it started operating, and he was committed to taking “action” to make any needed changes if problems arose after its opening.
“we really need this housing to work and … build more of it. so if this goes sideways, then the city council are going to be reluctant to approve it, the neighbours are going to be more reluctant to have housing like this, and so on,” eby told postmedia news in 2022. “so it’s a long-term plan we have here, and it requires the success of projects like this.”
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sim and his party abc vancouver, which controls a majority on city council, drew both criticism and applause earlier this year when they approved a plan to halt construction of new supportive housing developments.
sim said the goal was to reduce the concentration of this type of housing in vancouver, which has 77 per cent of metro’s supportive housing but only 25 per cent of its population.
with files from alec lazenby
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