This is a machine-generated transcript. It was auto-transcribed from the council video, so names and wording contain errors (e.g. spelling of speakers' names) and should be checked against the official video before being quoted. The City's minutes are authoritative for who spoke. The timestamp links (▶) jump to roughly the right spot in the official video and may be off by a few seconds.
[00:01:44] ▶Speaker 0: Hi, counselor Kirby Young. It's the clerk in the chamber. Can you hear us okay?
[00:01:49] ▶I can. Can you hear me? Yeah. Thank you. We can hear you perfectly.
[00:01:54] ▶Speaker 1: Thank you.
[00:02:05] ▶Speaker 0: Hi, councilor Kirby Young again. It's the clerk.
[00:02:09] ▶We're just at bear quorum. If you can turn your camera on, then we can get the meeting started.
[00:02:17] ▶Speaker 1: Okay. I will be and just an FYI, I'll be in chambers in about five minutes, but I'll do that now.
[00:02:35] ▶Speaker 2: Okay. Thank you very much.
[00:02:37] ▶I'm now gonna call the public hearing of Thursday, 03/05/2026,
[00:02:42] ▶reconvening from 02/19/2026
[00:02:45] ▶to order. This meeting is being held in person and by electronic means. Council members and the public may participate by either method. Any council members joining electronically are reminded to enable video to confirm quorum.
[00:02:57] ▶The meeting is being live streamed on the city's website and YouTube, and meeting progress will be updated regularly on x advancity clerk. Now in case of an emergency where we have to evacuate the building, please direct your attention to the glass doors there.
[00:03:10] ▶Walk around the pillar to the left, and please walk down the stairs.
[00:03:14] ▶If that, glass door is obstructed for any reason whatsoever, please look at the, four,
[00:03:20] ▶doors on the sides of this chamber.
[00:03:22] ▶If you need mobility assistance, please, stay in place, and one of our super friendly team members will come and guide you to a safe location.
[00:03:30] ▶There's also a defibrillator
[00:03:31] ▶at the end of the hallway just past those glass doors as well. I do wanna acknowledge that we're hosting today's reconvene public hearing on the traditional terrorist the territories of the Musqueam,
[00:03:41] ▶Squamish, and Swallow Tooth First Nations. And I do wanna thank them for their generosity and hospitality and love and care. They show this great place that we get to live, work, and play on. I also wanna acknowledge
[00:03:51] ▶and thank all of, our incredible team members throughout the city of Vancouver who work incredibly hard every single day to make this city a way better place. And so with that, clerk, can we please have a roll call?
[00:04:06] ▶Speaker 0: Mayor Sim and the chair, councilor Kirby Young?
[00:04:09] ▶Present.
[00:04:10] ▶Councilor Dominato is on a leave of absence for civic business all day. Councilor Bly is on a leave of absence for civic business all day.
[00:04:18] ▶Counselor Frey is on a leave of absence for, personal business from 3PM onwards today. Counselor Montague.
[00:04:25] ▶Speaker 3: Present.
[00:04:26] ▶Speaker 0: Counselor Klassen.
[00:04:30] ▶Counselor Meissner is on a leave of absence from three to 5PM today for civic business. Councilor Joe?
[00:04:35] ▶Speaker 3: Present.
[00:04:37] ▶Speaker 0: Councilor Orr?
[00:04:41] ▶Not present. Councilor Maloney?
[00:04:45] ▶This meeting has quorum, Mayor Sim. Great. Thank you. So before
[00:04:49] ▶Speaker 2: begin, a few announcements.
[00:04:51] ▶The public may speak in person or by phone or may submit written comments to mayor and council. Speakers may only speak once and will have up to five minutes to comment on the merits of the application. Please state whether you support or oppose the application and if you are a resident of Vancouver.
[00:05:06] ▶Those representing four or more individuals or groups, including themselves, may speak for up to eight minutes.
[00:05:12] ▶Each person being represented must confirm their name and presence in person or by phone and may not speak separately.
[00:05:18] ▶Please follow along the livestream or advance city clerk on x to track meeting progress and know when your turn to speak is approaching. Please note the livestream has a slight delay. Written comments can be submitted through the mayor and council public hearing feedback form on the city's website and linked on x. If you preregistered
[00:05:36] ▶with the presentation, say next to have the clerk advance your, slides.
[00:05:40] ▶The procedure by law prohibits council members from the use of words, tones, or gestures that express negative views of
[00:05:47] ▶of individuals or groups. Members of the public are expected to not engage in improper conduct such as hateful, defamatory, discriminatory language. Council members may raise a point of order if language is not respectful. As chair, I may ask speakers to adjust their remarks accordingly.
[00:06:03] ▶A reminder, at public hearings, council acts as a quasi judicial body and must focus solely on the merits of the rezoning or heritage application.
[00:06:12] ▶Members may ask clarifying questions of our team members or speakers,
[00:06:16] ▶including the applicant, but should reserve debate until after the speaker's list has closed. After hearing from speakers, counsel may, one, approve the application in principle, two, approve the application in principle with amendments,
[00:06:29] ▶Three, refuse the application. Or four, refer the application to our team members for further consideration.
[00:06:35] ▶Finally, if all speakers are not heard this evening, the public hearing will recess and re reconvene at a later date.
[00:06:42] ▶So,
[00:06:44] ▶the next item on the docket is, item number five, c d dash one rezoning
[00:06:48] ▶2028
[00:06:49] ▶through 2038
[00:06:50] ▶Barclay Street. At the public hearing on 02/19/2026,
[00:06:55] ▶council completed items two, three, and four, heard the, team member and applicant presentations, asked questions of our team members and applicant to be and began hearing from speakers on number five, item number five. Council subsequently recessed and will now continue hearing from speakers on item number five, c d dash one rezoning 2028
[00:07:15] ▶through 2038
[00:07:16] ▶Barclays Street.
[00:07:18] ▶Any speakers in the council chamber, please come forward to the left podium when it's your turn. Phone and speakers will be unmuted when it's your turn to speak. Speakers will have up to five minutes to make their comments and should limit their comments to the merits of the report being considered.
[00:07:32] ▶So our first speaker today is speaker number nine,
[00:07:36] ▶mime.
[00:07:37] ▶Speaker number nine, Mike Bisker.
[00:07:40] ▶Is Mike here?
[00:07:42] ▶Oh, he's on the line. I'm on the phone.
[00:07:44] ▶Hi. Please go ahead.
[00:07:47] ▶Speaker 4: Yes. Hi. My name is Mike Biscar.
[00:07:50] ▶I am a resident of Vancouver. I've been a resident of Downtown Vancouver for ten years,
[00:07:55] ▶and, I am speaking in opposition,
[00:07:58] ▶to this rezoning application.
[00:08:01] ▶I'm also speaking on behalf of Unite Here Local forty, the union for hotel workers here in British Columbia.
[00:08:08] ▶Our union is opposed to this rezoning application,
[00:08:11] ▶for a couple of reasons.
[00:08:14] ▶Firstly
[00:08:18] ▶firstly, we believe it would be yet another giveaway
[00:08:21] ▶to by this council to a major rich developer who is not providing any meaningful
[00:08:27] ▶community benefit.
[00:08:28] ▶You know, working people in the city of Vancouver are facing an affordability crisis. No one can afford to live here, and this application would be giving away major real estate next to Stanley Park without requiring the developer to do anything meaningful to address the affordability crisis that Vancouver residents are facing.
[00:08:45] ▶And secondly, and I wanna be clear about this, there is no hotel room crisis.
[00:08:51] ▶We don't actually need more hotel rooms,
[00:08:53] ▶and that is us, the union for hotel workers, saying that it is a fake crisis, we believe, concocted by the hotel industry.
[00:09:01] ▶Rich developers decided that they could not make as much money building office space or luxury condos in downtown at this particular moment, and so instead, they've pivoted to building more hotels.
[00:09:11] ▶The Coast Plaza Hotel on Denman closed. A 150 unionized workers lost their jobs. The Empire Landmark Hotel on Robson closed, a 150 unionized workers lost their jobs.
[00:09:22] ▶The Four Seasons Hotel closed, 400 unionized workers lost their jobs. I don't remember any real outrage from the council or destination BC
[00:09:32] ▶when real estate developers that owned those hotels decided that they could make more money using that those hotel rooms for a different use.
[00:09:40] ▶And now we're facing the opposite. They're pivoting back to hotels to maximize profits. This is not about addressing some made up hotel room crisis.
[00:09:49] ▶And lastly, I would like to say that, you know and I think one of the counselors had stated this on the evening of the of the hearing.
[00:09:55] ▶It's obvious, but there's there's significant community opposition to this application.
[00:10:00] ▶And we've already heard from staff that council have the ability to consider that opposition and reject this application
[00:10:07] ▶regardless of what policies might be in front of council. And so my message to the mayor and to the council is that if you continue to disregard the will of the people and approve applications like this one before you, in the face of opposition, we will be working to elect new representatives in the election in October. Thank you.
[00:10:24] ▶Speaker 2: Great. Thank you very much, Mike. Speak
[00:10:27] ▶oh, sorry. Counselor Klassen. He's not gone. Yes. Mike, are you still on the line?
[00:10:38] ▶Speaker 5: I'm just gonna stop, the downstairs
[00:10:40] ▶timer.
[00:10:48] ▶Speaker 6: The speaker has disconnected.
[00:11:14] ▶Speaker 2: If we're not able to get him back, Sorry? If we're not able to get him back, then Are we able, like, as, sorry, question about sort of procedure here. Are we able to continue with the with the list and then call him and bring him back on in that point somewhere?
[00:11:29] ▶It's it's it's too much fuss. I'm sure we'll hear from the speaker again. Thanks very much, Brent. Take myself off the queue if you don't mind.
[00:11:36] ▶So, councilor, it's up to you. We can take a a brief recess to get no. Okay. I didn't wanna keep thank you.
[00:11:41] ▶Okay.
[00:11:42] ▶Speaker number 10, Javier Ozer.
[00:11:46] ▶I I hope I pronounced your name correctly.
[00:11:49] ▶Speaker 5: Close.
[00:11:50] ▶Okay.
[00:11:54] ▶Speaker 6: Phone number ending in 2604.
[00:11:57] ▶Can you identify yourself, please?
[00:12:08] ▶Speaker 3: And, okay, you take that down.
[00:12:10] ▶Yeah. I don't need I don't need the slide.
[00:12:12] ▶I need a presentation now.
[00:12:14] ▶Send an email.
[00:12:17] ▶Thank you.
[00:12:19] ▶Thank you,
[00:12:21] ▶mayor's team council.
[00:12:22] ▶My name is Javier. I'm a Western resident,
[00:12:26] ▶and I love hotels. And I believe that hotel development policy is great.
[00:12:31] ▶However, for now, I need to post this application
[00:12:34] ▶because it is clear that this process is calling for more time and greater clarity for an independent and impartial judgment
[00:12:42] ▶by council
[00:12:43] ▶to be possible.
[00:12:45] ▶Here are three examples. Number one,
[00:12:48] ▶February 19, the applicant mentioned, among other cities, Barcelona as a model for this development.
[00:12:54] ▶I happen to be from Spain. Is Barcelona
[00:12:57] ▶the vision for Stanley Park?
[00:13:00] ▶The local government there is struggling with dire colonial
[00:13:03] ▶impact sorry, ecological impacts, mass tourism, and public anger as a result of this type of development.
[00:13:10] ▶Taking time for a sound impact assessment as requested by the park board commissioner
[00:13:15] ▶seems logical.
[00:13:17] ▶Number two,
[00:13:19] ▶at the council meeting
[00:13:20] ▶last February 3, the community engagement efforts by the applicant were described as going above and beyond.
[00:13:27] ▶I am the engagement strategist at the UBC Center for Migration Studies. I work internationally for over ten years in this field, and I still consult.
[00:13:35] ▶My evaluation of those efforts would necessarily
[00:13:38] ▶have to point out at significant misalignments
[00:13:42] ▶with basic principles
[00:13:44] ▶of community engagement.
[00:13:46] ▶Definitely not above and beyond.
[00:13:48] ▶I respectfully
[00:13:49] ▶ask for that record to be
[00:13:51] ▶corrected and clarified.
[00:13:53] ▶Number three,
[00:13:54] ▶clarification regarding the historical status of hotel use is needed.
[00:13:59] ▶The city's building and licensing team stated that hotel use on this site
[00:14:04] ▶had been recognized as early as 1987,
[00:14:07] ▶citing a 1988 report to council,
[00:14:10] ▶which they say suggests that the use was lawful prior to changes in this rezoning in the rezoning by law.
[00:14:17] ▶However,
[00:14:18] ▶documents at the city archives
[00:14:20] ▶contradict this interpretation,
[00:14:23] ▶and that should be revised.
[00:14:25] ▶Many documents at the archives make it clear
[00:14:27] ▶that the building was used for short term accommodation after 1982.
[00:14:32] ▶Further documents show how staff at the time city staff did flag by law contraventions.
[00:14:39] ▶What the 1988 report actually says is, and I quote,
[00:14:43] ▶prior to 11/24/1987,
[00:14:46] ▶the building at 2030 Barclay could not definitely be determined
[00:14:50] ▶to have contained an unlawful
[00:14:52] ▶use, I e hotel,
[00:14:55] ▶end of quote.
[00:14:56] ▶So it does not state that hotel use was lawful. On the contrary,
[00:15:02] ▶if the use had been determined to be a hotel, then it would have been considered unlawful at the time.
[00:15:08] ▶What the report and other documents suggest at the archives
[00:15:12] ▶is that the city determined
[00:15:15] ▶the use not to be a hotel in order to avoid enforcement
[00:15:19] ▶on the contravention,
[00:15:21] ▶allow allowing them a nonconforming use
[00:15:24] ▶seemingly to this day. So there's a couple of clarifications needed here.
[00:15:28] ▶First, if the lawful recognition of the use of this site remains
[00:15:33] ▶not a hotel,
[00:15:34] ▶how can this application be revised under the hotel development policy,
[00:15:38] ▶which is being used to evaluate the
[00:15:40] ▶expansion of existing hotels? And how can that policy, in this case, supersede any other policy?
[00:15:45] ▶So since 1998, the site needed not to be a hotel
[00:15:49] ▶for the use of the site to remain lawful. In 2026,
[00:15:53] ▶for this application to be lawful or conforming,
[00:15:56] ▶the proposal relies on the site being an existing hotel.
[00:15:59] ▶Also, the application was submitted to the city way before the hotel development policy was public. All this is very inconsistent
[00:16:06] ▶and confusing
[00:16:07] ▶and does need a lot of clarification.
[00:16:10] ▶Second,
[00:16:11] ▶given all this great context, is there a risk for the application to be used to bypass the Western Community Plan and other policies?
[00:16:18] ▶There have been situations
[00:16:20] ▶in which a small portion
[00:16:22] ▶of our development, in this case, only 23
[00:16:25] ▶of the units are short term stay, is used to define the proposal as a hotel in order to avoid mandatory requirements for residential buildings.
[00:16:33] ▶When the project fails
[00:16:35] ▶as a commercial hotel soon after completion and with 77%
[00:16:39] ▶of the building
[00:16:40] ▶already apartment like units, our request for conversion is filed, and now 25 floors instead of 10, as the rezoning
[00:16:48] ▶stipulates
[00:16:49] ▶are in the market for sale or rent.
[00:16:52] ▶Council,
[00:16:53] ▶please do defer
[00:16:55] ▶this decision. Taking more time now
[00:16:58] ▶strengthens the legitimacy
[00:16:59] ▶of whatever decision
[00:17:01] ▶you ultimately make. And also, giving all the context,
[00:17:06] ▶what an amazing opportunity
[00:17:08] ▶to correct history,
[00:17:10] ▶to reconcile policy,
[00:17:12] ▶and to reinforce
[00:17:13] ▶public trust.
[00:17:15] ▶Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for all the hard work that you do for this city.
[00:17:21] ▶Speaker 2: Thank you, Javier.
[00:17:23] ▶Our next speaker is speaker number 11, Harold Clark.
[00:17:36] ▶Speaker 7: Hello. My name is Harold Clark. I'm a resident of 2045
[00:17:40] ▶Barclays Street right across the street from the 2030 project.
[00:17:43] ▶I will be speaking a bit about my past twenty one years of living there and becoming familiar with the current community as well as the people who stay in the Roseland.
[00:17:54] ▶I'm not,
[00:17:56] ▶against hotels, but I am against this project. Thank you.
[00:18:00] ▶When Vancouver city councilor Sarah Curbillon in the CBC interview
[00:18:04] ▶and hinted that customers are sometimes different type of traveler,
[00:18:07] ▶who'd rather base accommodations
[00:18:09] ▶choices on quiet, leafy green neighborhood,
[00:18:12] ▶near a beach or wooded area, I would ask, what is the community's context?
[00:18:17] ▶Context is key here as our comparisons many people outside don't see clearly.
[00:18:22] ▶However, Sarah and people eagerly following the new hotel developments need to recognize that context and scale are key to reconciling what is fair among a par profitable
[00:18:33] ▶saleable visitor accommodation
[00:18:35] ▶and existing residences
[00:18:36] ▶livability.
[00:18:38] ▶What are preserved values towards visitors and local communities
[00:18:42] ▶living by?
[00:18:43] ▶What is different and what can be shared, adjusted to maintain
[00:18:47] ▶livability?
[00:18:48] ▶However, the specified tower promoters want to bring here
[00:18:52] ▶that which they want to bring abolish the leafy green neighborhood and depreciate the livability
[00:18:57] ▶of Barclays West End in many people's opinion. Our residents live by the heritage that was handed to us through the community development plan, the West End Community Plan. Today, our middle class condos and rental buildings are populated by new families, also raising children in them. And there are many professionals working from home in these areas,
[00:19:18] ▶seniors, some of them disabled.
[00:19:20] ▶Affordability is a priority here in this diverse, densely populated reason with,
[00:19:26] ▶reasonable housing of, stability.
[00:19:29] ▶The proposed Barclay rezoning makes residents deeply concerned about increasing rents, taxes,
[00:19:36] ▶build reservations,
[00:19:38] ▶and in area becoming commercialized
[00:19:41] ▶rather than solely our residential leafy link into Stanley Park.
[00:19:45] ▶West Of Denman Barclay is Stanley Park. Just have a look at it.
[00:19:50] ▶Now the big problem number one is getting to Barclay, getting to the twenty third property
[00:19:55] ▶because travelers are now directed to take Barclay straight from the downtown core via Thurlow through Stanley Park entrance transecting lagoon.
[00:20:03] ▶However, any vehicles traveling west on Barclay are unaware that the 2030
[00:20:08] ▶property is on the South side, meaning that the hotel directed vehicles constantly make middle of the street u turns in order to come up and unload or reload guests and luggage to the curb in and out of the Rosellen.
[00:20:21] ▶Existing narrow Barclay Street towards Denman is which is regarded one of the most congested,
[00:20:28] ▶veins in the city is a big problem.
[00:20:30] ▶The proposed twenty thirty hotel has no curved driveway that passes through and over the property for loading and unloading at the hotel. And this is due to the setback and the break in the standard setback depth from a 130
[00:20:42] ▶feet to 99 feet.
[00:20:45] ▶Now I discovered something very interesting here, and that is, 2045
[00:20:50] ▶Nelson Street in the Emerald Tower. You will see the 2545,
[00:20:55] ▶Nelson Street residence,
[00:20:57] ▶16 stories,
[00:20:58] ▶has actually a drive through, which allows Nelson Street to be free flowing traffic with no loading from the curbside.
[00:21:07] ▶I recall the, 2030 Barclay Rosellen traffic nightmare during the Vancouver
[00:21:12] ▶Winter Olympics in 2010
[00:21:14] ▶when I worked with Rose Ellen guests attending downtown city core sports events with a myriad of transit limitation complaints. 27
[00:21:23] ▶suites of guests leaving the 20 30 curb by taxis, car pickups, even tour buses at nearly the same times. It was a ferocious challenge then, and I've observed many similar incidents in 2030 since then. Barclays Street is also a child
[00:21:39] ▶air shadowing issue. Right across the street is the Brown Bear
[00:21:44] ▶Daycare. And if you look at that, people actually come down and park illegally on the right side to take their children into that building at 2035
[00:21:54] ▶Barclay.
[00:21:55] ▶And this creates a backup of traffic going both north and south, And it also poses a danger for people who have children.
[00:22:03] ▶Barclay Street,
[00:22:05] ▶is often busy with many people,
[00:22:09] ▶all kinds of residents,
[00:22:11] ▶residents with walkers.
[00:22:13] ▶I challenge the notion that the city council whom we the people elect to work for,
[00:22:18] ▶work for us, use the premise of radically removing the mandate set up by the West End plan,
[00:22:23] ▶community values on which a deep heritage and vitality of fairness has been built. I want you to understand the consequences of this and ask what when are you going to do about it? A 25 story commercial tower and narrow street line
[00:22:37] ▶traffic is a proportion,
[00:22:39] ▶impossible
[00:22:40] ▶to support.
[00:22:41] ▶Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you very much, Harold.
[00:22:45] ▶Speaker number 12, Maureen Wilson.
[00:22:55] ▶Speaker 8: Oh, sorry.
[00:23:23] ▶Good afternoon, Mayor, Ken Sim, and councilors.
[00:23:27] ▶My name is Maureen Wilson.
[00:23:29] ▶I'm a resident
[00:23:31] ▶and a renter in the West End for almost forty years.
[00:23:35] ▶I'm here asking you to vote no to the rezoning at 2030 Berkeley Street.
[00:23:41] ▶I'm also speaking on behalf
[00:23:43] ▶of more than 6,000 residents
[00:23:47] ▶who signed petitions opposing this project.
[00:23:51] ▶In municipal politics, that is not a small number,
[00:23:55] ▶that is a neighborhood speaking.
[00:23:58] ▶Since August, our community has been gathering every Sunday
[00:24:02] ▶at Denman And Nelson
[00:24:03] ▶from one to four.
[00:24:05] ▶We call it the tables.
[00:24:08] ▶What started as a simple idea
[00:24:10] ▶turned into something remarkable.
[00:24:13] ▶Thousands of conversations with neighbors who cared deeply
[00:24:16] ▶about the future of the West End.
[00:24:19] ▶Renters, condo owners, seniors,
[00:24:22] ▶young professionals,
[00:24:24] ▶families,
[00:24:25] ▶even hotel managers who warned us that putting a hotel in this location
[00:24:30] ▶will create a real problem.
[00:24:34] ▶More than 60%
[00:24:35] ▶of the people signing were seniors,
[00:24:38] ▶People who built their lives in this neighborhood.
[00:24:42] ▶People like Pam.
[00:24:44] ▶Pam is 92 years old and every Sunday after church,
[00:24:48] ▶she comes to the tables with her walker
[00:24:51] ▶wearing a colorful coat
[00:24:53] ▶and a scarf tied around her chin,
[00:24:55] ▶and she asks the same question,
[00:24:58] ▶how many signatures do you have now, dear?
[00:25:01] ▶Keep up the good work.
[00:25:05] ▶We've also spoken with residents who helped create the West End Community Plan in 2013,
[00:25:10] ▶the long term vision
[00:25:12] ▶for how this neighbourhood should grow while protecting what makes it special.
[00:25:17] ▶Many of them asked the same question.
[00:25:20] ▶Where in the West End Community Plan does this proposal
[00:25:23] ▶fit?
[00:25:24] ▶Because what is being proposed
[00:25:26] ▶is a 25 story hotel tower dropped in the middle of a residential neighborhood
[00:25:32] ▶backing onto a short dead end lane near the entrance to Stanley Park
[00:25:37] ▶and close to the already chaotic Denman And Lions Gate Bridge corridor.
[00:25:42] ▶That dead end lane already serves residents, deliveries and ongoing
[00:25:47] ▶trade vehicle traffic.
[00:25:50] ▶It was never designed to service a hotel.
[00:25:53] ▶Hotels belong on commercial corridors.
[00:25:57] ▶We've also heard
[00:25:58] ▶that the community was engaged.
[00:26:01] ▶But after seven months of standing on that corner
[00:26:04] ▶and speaking face to face
[00:26:06] ▶with thousands of residents,
[00:26:09] ▶one sentence kept coming up.
[00:26:11] ▶Wait,
[00:26:12] ▶there's a hotel planned here?
[00:26:14] ▶That is not meaningful consultation.
[00:26:18] ▶That is discovery by accident.
[00:26:21] ▶That says something.
[00:26:23] ▶The West End is one of the most vibrant neighbourhoods in Vancouver.
[00:26:27] ▶People care about it deeply.
[00:26:30] ▶They want growth,
[00:26:32] ▶but they want growth that respects the community
[00:26:35] ▶and the plan residents worked hard to create.
[00:26:40] ▶Council.
[00:26:42] ▶Once the rezoning like this is approved,
[00:26:44] ▶it doesn't come back for a second look.
[00:26:52] ▶6,000 plus residents have done their homework.
[00:26:57] ▶They've shown up.
[00:26:58] ▶They've spoken.
[00:27:01] ▶You decide whether they were heard.
[00:27:04] ▶So tonight,
[00:27:06] ▶I'm asking you to do three simple things:
[00:27:09] ▶listen to the residents,
[00:27:12] ▶Learn from the West End plan.
[00:27:14] ▶And love this neighborhood enough to protect what makes it special.
[00:27:21] ▶Please vote no.
[00:27:25] ▶Thank you. And just one more thing.
[00:27:28] ▶Viva the West End, we love you.
[00:27:33] ▶Those are for you.
[00:27:36] ▶Speaker 2: Thank you very much for coming in.
[00:27:38] ▶Speaker number 13, Laurie Hodgkinson.
[00:27:42] ▶Laurie, are you on the line?
[00:27:44] ▶Speaker 9: I am. Thank you. Alright. Please go ahead.
[00:27:48] ▶Speaker 10: My name is Laurie Hodgkinson. I live three doors west of the project. I do not support this application.
[00:27:55] ▶2030 Berkeley was built in 1959
[00:27:57] ▶as the four story Rosell And Suites. It has functioned as a small boutique hotel offering
[00:28:03] ▶extended accommodations for over sixty five years.
[00:28:06] ▶In 1986,
[00:28:07] ▶for expo, it is believed the license was changed to include
[00:28:11] ▶include long term stay.
[00:28:12] ▶Since purchasing the property, Mark Hahn worked on a few different projects. In 2018,
[00:28:18] ▶they received approval for a 10 story residential condominium with 19 large sized units.
[00:28:24] ▶The building was designed to fit with a slightly higher height and slightly larger footprint
[00:28:29] ▶in our R M 5 our R M 5 B zoning
[00:28:33] ▶zoning.
[00:28:33] ▶It was all manageable.
[00:28:35] ▶Neighbors supported this project
[00:28:37] ▶because it respected low mid rise character and to preserve the neighborhood. There was no traffic, privacy,
[00:28:43] ▶or infrastructure issues.
[00:28:45] ▶But in 07/24/2024,
[00:28:48] ▶Mark Hunt abruptly withdrew the condo proposal and pivoted to this ambitious hotel tower.
[00:28:54] ▶I do not need to repeat the obvious. It's too big. Just to put this in perspective, if this goes forward, there will be an additional
[00:29:02] ▶500 people with transportation
[00:29:05] ▶in one small block
[00:29:07] ▶every day.
[00:29:08] ▶It is clear that the project relies on the new hotel policy, which overrides years of community negotiated safeguards.
[00:29:16] ▶I would ask the council to reexamine the hotel policy. It has been designed for short term wants rather than long term planning needs. There is no governance. It's vagueness, it's broad
[00:29:27] ▶ranging precedence
[00:29:28] ▶over long standing community plans,
[00:29:30] ▶allowing for unjustifiable
[00:29:32] ▶and unreasonable approvals is very harmful to our neighborhood,
[00:29:36] ▶and it's forever.
[00:29:38] ▶For months, I've been sending letters to planning asking for consideration of the above. Can we have a smaller hotel off? And I've offered these suggestions.
[00:29:46] ▶Is a rooftop pool really necessary?
[00:29:49] ▶Could the bar restaurant be moved to the 3rd Or 4th Floor without decks
[00:29:53] ▶to minimize disruption and street noise? Could the height be closer to the previous condo proposal?
[00:29:59] ▶All of these changes made the applicable
[00:30:01] ▶or pardon me, the application more palatable, but obviously have fallen on deaf ears.
[00:30:08] ▶I asked the counselors one question. Would you like a hotel and street level bar built 20 feet from your bedroom window that you've lived in as a renter for the past twenty years? I think not. Please ask Mark Hunt to go back to the drawing board. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you very much.
[00:30:25] ▶Speaker 2: Speaker number
[00:30:28] ▶14,
[00:30:29] ▶Bobo Irish.
[00:30:34] ▶Speaker 6: Speaker 14 is not on the line.
[00:30:36] ▶Speaker 2: Please go ahead.
[00:30:40] ▶Speaker 14 is not on the line. On the line. Sorry about that. I misheard you. Okay. Speaker number 15, Jane Murphy Thomas.
[00:30:57] ▶Speaker 12: Hello, mayor,
[00:30:59] ▶Sim and and counselors. My name is Jane Murphy Thomas.
[00:31:03] ▶I live one block
[00:31:05] ▶from the proposed hotel site, and I strongly oppose it.
[00:31:10] ▶I will be talking about two subjects,
[00:31:12] ▶the scale of opposition of this proposal
[00:31:15] ▶and what can only be called the betrayal of public trust in the way the West End community plan and hotel policy
[00:31:22] ▶are being applied in this situation.
[00:31:25] ▶I'll I'll be talk also be talking
[00:31:27] ▶about how I've already been victimized by rezoning in another area of the West End, and at that time, given commitments about West Of Denman.
[00:31:37] ▶First, to give you more of an introduction
[00:31:39] ▶to myself, I speak from my career as an expert in community participation
[00:31:44] ▶working for
[00:31:45] ▶thirty years in international aid and community development projects in five Asian countries
[00:31:51] ▶for United Nations,
[00:31:52] ▶international donor and local governments, relief agencies,
[00:31:56] ▶as
[00:31:57] ▶advisor, trainer,
[00:31:59] ▶facilitator, and mobilizer for community participation
[00:32:03] ▶to happen in those projects mainly in war and disaster reconstruction.
[00:32:07] ▶So now to talk about this,
[00:32:10] ▶scale of the opposition here.
[00:32:12] ▶When the,
[00:32:13] ▶stop twenty thirty movement started last year,
[00:32:16] ▶I volunteered with that committee to mobilize the community West Of Denman,
[00:32:20] ▶and interest in opposition of the hotel proposal grew rapidly. After
[00:32:24] ▶four months, I left to go other commitments, but the volunteers,
[00:32:30] ▶carried on growing the,
[00:32:32] ▶opposition as you've heard to the significant emergency today.
[00:32:36] ▶However,
[00:32:37] ▶recently, it was disappointing to see how
[00:32:40] ▶council has not been well informed
[00:32:42] ▶by the planning department
[00:32:44] ▶in their 32 page referral report or two page summary about the serious level of opposition.
[00:32:50] ▶Then on February 19, at the first part of the public hearing, when city councilors asked questions about community engagement,
[00:32:57] ▶both the planning and department
[00:32:59] ▶and development,
[00:33:01] ▶the developer
[00:33:02] ▶gave vague answers about it. When, by that time, they should have been able to report many more specifics,
[00:33:08] ▶including detailed lists of who had been consulted,
[00:33:11] ▶how, when, etcetera, but that didn't happen.
[00:33:15] ▶This opposition
[00:33:17] ▶seems to have been swept under the carpet, or as counselor Klassen
[00:33:21] ▶correctly called it on February 19,
[00:33:24] ▶the level of opposition had become the elephant in the room.
[00:33:28] ▶Despite the lack of information being communicated, counselors were able to ask informed questions at that time based on information provided by the residents and volunteers themselves
[00:33:38] ▶to show this level of opposition.
[00:33:40] ▶You've already heard some of the numbers indicators of that, but what matters most is this petition
[00:33:47] ▶that was just here with the 6,000
[00:33:49] ▶signatures.
[00:33:51] ▶Census records for the West End show the population, there is about 45,000.
[00:33:56] ▶But West Of Denman, it's between five and six thousand.
[00:34:00] ▶So in other words, the signatures of these,
[00:34:03] ▶petitions are
[00:34:04] ▶the equivalent of the entire population West Of Denman.
[00:34:09] ▶How can the opposition be more clearly stated?
[00:34:14] ▶My second subject
[00:34:16] ▶is about the betrayal of public trust.
[00:34:18] ▶As I said earlier,
[00:34:20] ▶I'm already a victim rezoning
[00:34:22] ▶elsewhere in the West End. That not only affects me, it has negative effects for everybody West of them.
[00:34:29] ▶As the protection we had in the West End community plan is now threatened.
[00:34:33] ▶In 2015,
[00:34:35] ▶when the city rezoned the area between Burrard to Thurlow, Davie to Pacific, I lived there in one of the coop condo buildings that would be demolished to build 35 story high rises.
[00:34:45] ▶When we learned of this rezoning chaos ensued,
[00:34:48] ▶and we invited various specialists to come advise us, including the somebody from the planning department.
[00:34:54] ▶That representative, we ask if we have to sell here, where do we go to avoid,
[00:34:59] ▶being rezoned out again? And he told us, go West Of Denman.
[00:35:04] ▶It is protected area. The West End Community Plan limits building heights to six stories, so developers aren't even interested
[00:35:11] ▶in that area. So as a result,
[00:35:13] ▶a number of people on that building,
[00:35:16] ▶came and bought here in West Of Denman. So now we hear
[00:35:20] ▶2026
[00:35:22] ▶with potential turning point where this protection is threatened by the way policies are being applied by the planning department. On February 19, when the planning department asked counselor Orr
[00:35:32] ▶if the community plan and hotel policy could be competing documents,
[00:35:37] ▶the staff member answered yes, but they,
[00:35:40] ▶do not give either document precedence as their the trouble is
[00:35:44] ▶that while claiming neither document is has precedent, we can see that the hotel policy, in fact, was given precedence,
[00:35:50] ▶eliminating
[00:35:51] ▶protection.
[00:35:52] ▶In closing,
[00:35:53] ▶the size of the building
[00:35:55] ▶will be a permanent,
[00:35:59] ▶irritant in our community
[00:36:00] ▶to us, but only 2%
[00:36:03] ▶of your goal for 10,000,
[00:36:05] ▶Speaker 2: rooms to be built. We're we're out of time. So I ask for the Searching. I'm I'm sorry. Reject the application. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, and thank you, for coming in.
[00:36:17] ▶Speaker number 16, Mike Archibald
[00:36:19] ▶online.
[00:36:21] ▶Mike, are you there? Yep.
[00:36:23] ▶Great. Just go ahead.
[00:36:26] ▶Speaker 14: Thank you very much.
[00:36:29] ▶I just I want I wanna keep it brief because I know there are a lot of, of speakers.
[00:36:35] ▶I want to respond to some claims made in the previous,
[00:36:39] ▶city council session by the company behind this project.
[00:36:43] ▶Firstly, the company's representative mentioned an a quote an acoustic
[00:36:48] ▶impact of the one restaurant in the surrounding area
[00:36:52] ▶being very low.
[00:36:54] ▶And I'd like to note that the the hotel
[00:36:56] ▶and the building to which that restaurant is joined is significantly lower than the proposed development.
[00:37:02] ▶Secondly, the company representative claimed that the ancillary traffic generated by
[00:37:08] ▶the the new hotel,
[00:37:10] ▶the size would not be significantly greater than
[00:37:14] ▶the vehicles in question would be
[00:37:17] ▶in numbers of frequency than they are now. And I as as they currently occur, I just wanna draw attention to that claim, which seems at the very least
[00:37:27] ▶strange considering that the proposed development would be five times larger and would include a new restaurant.
[00:37:34] ▶I also think that the issue of ancillary traffic,
[00:37:37] ▶was framed
[00:37:39] ▶a little narrowly and could be should be considered more broadly than in terms of just a few main streets and arteries. After all, a large hotel of this sort would generate more than just traffic from
[00:37:51] ▶cleaners, suppliers,
[00:37:52] ▶employees, etcetera. It would generate a lot of vehicle traffic from hotel patrons and patrons as well.
[00:38:00] ▶We have here an application that conflicts with other official city policies
[00:38:05] ▶that faces union opposition,
[00:38:07] ▶that faces opposition from the parks board, and that putatively
[00:38:11] ▶represents a quote isolated
[00:38:13] ▶development in terms of the city policy.
[00:38:17] ▶I think it's important to remember that precedents aren't just a matter of official policy,
[00:38:22] ▶they can represent a sea change in the city and the culture
[00:38:26] ▶that cannot be reversed. So,
[00:38:28] ▶I I I'm sorry. I I should mention that I'm a resident of the of the West End,
[00:38:34] ▶and I do, oppose this, this
[00:38:37] ▶application.
[00:38:38] ▶Thank you very much.
[00:38:40] ▶Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
[00:38:41] ▶Speaker number 17, David Clark.
[00:38:52] ▶Speaker number 18, Brian Sullivan.
[00:39:01] ▶Speaker number 19, Fabian.
[00:39:07] ▶Speaker 5: Three or four people on the line as part of my group.
[00:39:11] ▶So I should have eight minutes in speaking time. Sure. If if you can just identify them and if they can state that they're actually here. Yes. So number one is Fergus. The second one is Susanna, and the other one is Lianne.
[00:39:24] ▶And then we have,
[00:39:26] ▶Catherine as well.
[00:39:28] ▶So four.
[00:39:30] ▶Are are they
[00:39:35] ▶Speaker 2: Just one moment. Sure.
[00:40:30] ▶Sure. Yes. We just have to verify through online, so it's Absolutely.
[00:40:34] ▶Minutes, please.
[00:40:39] ▶Speaker 1: Eric, can I take this opportunity to ask a point of procedure just with respects to scheduling?
[00:40:45] ▶I know that we have a lot of speakers, and we're not gonna get through all of them in the two hours that we have this afternoon. I'm just wondering
[00:40:51] ▶if, we can get
[00:40:52] ▶clarification confirmation on the next the start of the next reserve date and the time. I believe it would be March 12, but I'm looking for confirmation on that, the date and time.
[00:41:02] ▶Speaker 0: Yes. The reconvene date for this item,
[00:41:05] ▶if we don't finish by 5PM today, will be, Thursday,
[00:41:10] ▶March 12 at 09:30AM
[00:41:13] ▶in the Council Chamber and online.
[00:41:15] ▶Speaker 1: Okay. And and maybe well, the clerks are also very follow-up point through you, Mara, if I might.
[00:41:23] ▶Are we able to post that for speakers that might be further down the list just since we only have two hours this afternoon? I'm just Mhmm. Featuring a lot of people waiting and giving them a heads up that we're not gonna get through them all before 05:00.
[00:41:35] ▶Yes.
[00:41:36] ▶Will do. Thank you very much.
[00:41:52] ▶Speaker 6: So speaker ending in 2331.
[00:41:55] ▶Do you wanna identify yourself as the representative's
[00:41:58] ▶speakers?
[00:42:11] ▶So speaker number ending in 2331.
[00:42:25] ▶Okay. We'll try the next speaker who's representing.
[00:42:29] ▶So Susanna.
[00:42:35] ▶Speaker 1: Hello. Yes. I'm on the line.
[00:42:43] ▶Speaker 6: Okay.
[00:42:52] ▶And then the next one is Fergus ending in 4452.
[00:42:55] ▶The next representative of speakers?
[00:42:58] ▶Speaker 1: Yes. I'm on the line.
[00:43:04] ▶Speaker 6: Okay. So, sure, I think that brings the two free speakers
[00:43:07] ▶to
[00:43:10] ▶give that in the eight minute speaking time. Great. Thank you very much.
[00:43:14] ▶Speaker 2: Eight minutes is good. Yep. Sorry for the delay there. We just had No. Perfect. We'll process settling that. Thanks very much.
[00:43:19] ▶Speaker 5: Alright.
[00:43:20] ▶Good afternoon,
[00:43:21] ▶mayor and members of city council, city staff, and fellow Western residents.
[00:43:27] ▶My name is Fabian Frolich, and it's my honor to speak today as a board member representing Pooh Corner Daycare
[00:43:33] ▶located at 975
[00:43:35] ▶Lagoon Drive,
[00:43:36] ▶just a two minute walk from the proposed development.
[00:43:40] ▶Personally, I also live with my family directly across from the planned high rise, so I know this neighborhood really well.
[00:43:47] ▶Thank you for the opportunity
[00:43:48] ▶to speak today.
[00:43:50] ▶Today, I urge you in the strongest terms to reject the rezoning at 2030 Barclay Street,
[00:43:56] ▶replacing a low rise hotel with a new giant 25 story hotel tower.
[00:44:01] ▶2 Corner Daycare's unique position demands special consideration.
[00:44:05] ▶We are the closest enterprise to this development,
[00:44:09] ▶literally steps away on Lagoon Drive.
[00:44:11] ▶As a long established
[00:44:13] ▶registered childcare serving Vancouver's families since the nineteen seventies,
[00:44:18] ▶we care for children aged 18 to five who depend on this tranquil
[00:44:22] ▶Stanley Park gateway for safe play, out of time, daily drop offs, and pickups.
[00:44:27] ▶This high rise hotel
[00:44:28] ▶would fundamentally
[00:44:30] ▶threaten the children and families who rely on our services
[00:44:33] ▶by permanently changing the safe and calm environment
[00:44:38] ▶they depend on.
[00:44:40] ▶Let me be direct, factual, and structured.
[00:44:44] ▶This development
[00:44:45] ▶proposal fails on policy,
[00:44:47] ▶on scale, on child safety, and on neighborhood impact.
[00:44:51] ▶First,
[00:44:53] ▶policy versus reality.
[00:44:55] ▶The hotel development policy sets enabling conditions,
[00:44:59] ▶not automatic approvals. It demands balancing tourism with local plans, not overriding them.
[00:45:05] ▶After Marcon's condo to hotel switch,
[00:45:07] ▶policy was expanded April 2025 to suddenly include West End sites like this.
[00:45:13] ▶Host application policy tweaks demand transparency.
[00:45:17] ▶This tower ignores the West End Community Plans family housing directive.
[00:45:21] ▶Policy requires judgment. This proposal demands rejection.
[00:45:25] ▶Second,
[00:45:26] ▶mismatch scale and a bait and switch. In 2018,
[00:45:30] ▶the city approved a 10 story residential building here, fitting within the solar envelope to shield our daycare from shadows, matching Western plan and RM 5 B zoning.
[00:45:40] ▶When counselor Claassen
[00:45:42] ▶questioned the height jump at the February 19 hearing,
[00:45:45] ▶Macron
[00:45:46] ▶executive vice president Nick Powell Lalla admitted 10 stories weren't economically viable.
[00:45:51] ▶They needed 25 to make the numbers work.
[00:45:54] ▶This profit driven tripling of height undermines trust in community planning.
[00:46:00] ▶Third, zoning integrity.
[00:46:02] ▶R M 5 B is intended for low density residential homes along Barclay Street. Spot rezoning erodes trust and invites citywide livability erosion.
[00:46:11] ▶Fourth
[00:46:12] ▶and most importantly,
[00:46:14] ▶child safety and a typical day at Poo Corner.
[00:46:17] ▶To understand the impact,
[00:46:20] ▶picture a typical weekday morning on Lagoon Drive.
[00:46:23] ▶Between roughly eight and 09:30AM,
[00:46:25] ▶more than 30 children arrive at Poo Corner.
[00:46:29] ▶Parents pull up along the curb for one or two minutes at a time.
[00:46:33] ▶Cuddles open. Sleepy toddlers are lifted from the car seats. Strawlers are unfolded.
[00:46:38] ▶Older siblings hop out with backpacks.
[00:46:40] ▶Some families arrive on bikes with child seats, others on foot with strollers and scooters.
[00:46:47] ▶Parents walk kids a few steps along the sidewalk and through our gate.
[00:46:50] ▶It is already a delicate balancing act, and it works only because the street is relatively calm and most drivers are local residents who understand there's a daycare here. Last week, this area was designated
[00:47:02] ▶a neighborhood slow zone with a 30 kilometer per hour speed limit recognizing
[00:47:07] ▶its family focused character.
[00:47:10] ▶Now
[00:47:11] ▶picture a 25 story
[00:47:14] ▶total dominating the next block.
[00:47:16] ▶Total check-in and check out times align almost perfectly
[00:47:20] ▶with our peak drop off and pickup windows. Instead of majority instead of a majority of local traffic, you will have commercial laundry trucks, garbage trucks, food and beverage delivery vehicles,
[00:47:30] ▶taxis, Ubers searching for passengers, and tour shuttles, all circulating on Lagoon Drive and the neighboring block, all competing for curb space and visibility in front of our day care used by toddlers who cannot judge for themselves.
[00:47:43] ▶Even a modest increase in circulation would change the street environment for our children.
[00:47:47] ▶A hotel of this size represents a step change.
[00:47:51] ▶Despite this glaring conflict inches away from their doorstep,
[00:47:55] ▶Macron never reached out. Zero meaningful targeted contact to Pooh Corner or our families.
[00:48:02] ▶Not a single meeting, letter, or call, despite all 36 children facing daily risks from their traffic surge.
[00:48:08] ▶When a construction project like this ignores the one facility a block away that serves very young, vulnerable children,
[00:48:16] ▶it is difficult to describe its engagement process as robust.
[00:48:20] ▶City staff have also confirmed in their reports
[00:48:23] ▶that the tower will cast additional shadow on our outdoor play area, reducing daylight and warmth.
[00:48:29] ▶The park board has explicitly cited these impacts on Poo Corner in its opposition.
[00:48:34] ▶Fifth,
[00:48:35] ▶the construction phase and licensing risk.
[00:48:38] ▶If this rezoning is approved, our children will face several years of demolition and construction next door. Heavy trucks, cranes, deep excavation, noise, and dust. For an office tenant, that is certainly inconvenient.
[00:48:50] ▶For a dull licensed day care, it can threaten compliance.
[00:48:53] ▶If Vancouver Coastal Health determines that our outdoor space is no longer safe or suitable
[00:48:59] ▶because of dust, noise, or limited access, we could be forced into offset player arrangements that are complex and costly for a small nonprofit to administer.
[00:49:09] ▶None of that risk has been meaningfully
[00:49:11] ▶addressed.
[00:49:13] ▶Finally,
[00:49:14] ▶public benefits, social license, and process.
[00:49:16] ▶At a time of acute housing need, this rezoning would take a residential site and lock it into hotel use.
[00:49:23] ▶Housing is a human right. Tourism is not.
[00:49:28] ▶As a professional
[00:49:29] ▶in the mining and mineral exploration industry,
[00:49:32] ▶having worked and operated in a dozen jurisdictions for more than a decade, I've seen over and over again
[00:49:38] ▶that projects must earn social license from their surrounding communities
[00:49:44] ▶or pay later regardless of technical merit.
[00:49:48] ▶Here,
[00:49:49] ▶Macron
[00:49:50] ▶has not earned that social license.
[00:49:52] ▶More than 6,000 people have signed petitions opposing this project. The majority of the Western community is against it, including
[00:50:00] ▶three key stakeholders,
[00:50:02] ▶the park board, the Western seniors network, and us,
[00:50:05] ▶Pooh Corner Daycare.
[00:50:07] ▶When residents, seniors, and the local childcare center are all telling you,
[00:50:12] ▶this is the wrong project in the wrong place.
[00:50:15] ▶It is not a close call.
[00:50:17] ▶And notably,
[00:50:19] ▶most of the support for this rezoning comes from outside the West End, from people who will not live with its impacts,
[00:50:26] ▶mayor and councilors.
[00:50:29] ▶Vancouver's
[00:50:30] ▶competitive edge is livable neighborhoods like the West End, family focused,
[00:50:35] ▶green, and safe.
[00:50:36] ▶People do not come to cities like ours to see hotel skylines crowding their most cherished parks.
[00:50:43] ▶They come because places like Stanley
[00:50:45] ▶Park are still embedded in real neighborhoods
[00:50:48] ▶where families live, children play, and community services like Ku Corner are part of the fabric.
[00:50:56] ▶Protect that character. Protect the children who use Lagoon Drive every day reject this rezoning upon arm five b, prioritize housing, childcare, and neighborhood livability
[00:51:06] ▶over a single over a single oversized hotel.
[00:51:09] ▶This decision will show whether Vancouver's mayor and council
[00:51:13] ▶govern for the people who live here or are prepared
[00:51:16] ▶to trade our homes, our daycare, and our park access for short term visitor profit,
[00:51:21] ▶our children, and Western's future in June tonight.
[00:51:24] ▶Thank you.
[00:51:26] ▶Speaker 2: Great. Thank you very much, Fabian.
[00:51:30] ▶Speaker 15: Awesome.
[00:51:31] ▶Speaker 2: Speaker number 20, Lina
[00:51:34] ▶Orlova.
[00:51:35] ▶Speaker 1: Is Lina on the line? Yes. I'm on the line.
[00:51:37] ▶Yes. I am. Please go ahead. Hello?
[00:51:40] ▶Speaker 2: Alright. We can hear you. Please go ahead.
[00:51:43] ▶Speaker 11: Thank you.
[00:51:45] ▶Dear council and mayor Sam, my name is Lina Orlova, and I've been a resident of the West End for six years, and I live within sight of the proposed development.
[00:51:56] ▶Many of my neighbors who,
[00:51:59] ▶have been also on the speaker's list have lived here for more than twenty.
[00:52:03] ▶Like them, I strongly oppose this development.
[00:52:06] ▶We are asked to evaluate this proposal on its merits, and I'm here to say that there's little merit merit to this project.
[00:52:13] ▶The staff notes that hundreds of responses were received from residents,
[00:52:17] ▶and I want to point out that while negative responses were critically evaluated,
[00:52:22] ▶the positive responses appear to have been largely accepted at face value. And I would like to question some of these assumptions.
[00:52:29] ▶First, we're told that this project is necessary to address hotel scarcity, but we're given no evidence that this is true.
[00:52:36] ▶Even if we accept that host hotel capacity is tied during peak summer months,
[00:52:41] ▶Vancouver's tourism is highly seasonal.
[00:52:44] ▶For much of the year, particularly during our long rainy season,
[00:52:49] ▶Most hotels do not operate at full capacity.
[00:52:52] ▶Council should ask themselves, is it ethical to approve a 248
[00:52:57] ▶unit hotel that may sit with empty rooms for much of the year while we're in the middle of a housing crisis?
[00:53:05] ▶You may assume that the applicant has carefully considered these realities.
[00:53:09] ▶However, hotel management and development
[00:53:11] ▶is a complex and highly specialized industry.
[00:53:14] ▶Many successful hotels operate as an established franchise
[00:53:18] ▶for that reason.
[00:53:19] ▶What evidence do we have that this will be a successful enterprise?
[00:53:24] ▶A review of Markham's portfolio,
[00:53:26] ▶as you can refer in their website, shows a strong track record in residential construction,
[00:53:32] ▶but they have not, to date, completed or operated a single hotel of this scale in Downtown Vancouver.
[00:53:40] ▶In fact, they have only recently received approval to build another high rise hotel at West Pender Street,
[00:53:47] ▶which for the record makes dubious their their claim that a 25 story building is the only
[00:53:53] ▶economically viable option since they're apparently in the economic position
[00:53:58] ▶to build not one but two high rise hotels.
[00:54:03] ▶This lack of experience may help explain the many unanswered questions in the application.
[00:54:08] ▶For example, how will the surrounding infrastructure handle the increased train?
[00:54:14] ▶Will our grades be made to accommodate higher pedestrian volumes near Stanley Park?
[00:54:19] ▶Will bike lanes or seawall be widened?
[00:54:22] ▶How will the city address increasing e scooter and ebike congestion,
[00:54:27] ▶which is a very popular tourist activity around here,
[00:54:31] ▶and it is already associated with high accident and emergency rooms visits.
[00:54:37] ▶A 248
[00:54:39] ▶room hotel will require significant staffing,
[00:54:42] ▶likely dozens of employees on-site daily.
[00:54:45] ▶Well, where will the staff park? Where will guests park?
[00:54:49] ▶How about service vehicles, deliveries, waste removal, and tour buses?
[00:54:54] ▶The applicant only offers a 70 spot parking garage, which is not enough to service any of these things.
[00:55:02] ▶Consider a realistic long summer weekend scenario, potentially 200 check ins and 200 checkouts in a single day.
[00:55:11] ▶If only a portion of those guests arrive by car, that represents hundreds of additional vehicle movements in an area not designed for that level of traffic.
[00:55:20] ▶The West End was not built to function like the downtown core, where most large hotels are located precisely be beside roads
[00:55:29] ▶and public parkades that support that density.
[00:55:32] ▶Also consider the environmental impacts, the increased garbage, water usage, utilities, the spillover effects into Stanley Park,
[00:55:40] ▶increased tourism bring bring strain, vandalism,
[00:55:43] ▶and maintenance burdens.
[00:55:45] ▶Will the applicant go is go is will the applicant pay for these costs as well?
[00:55:52] ▶The council
[00:55:54] ▶council, I beyond the significant community opposition, I urge you to critically examine whether the stated benefits truly outweigh the cost.
[00:56:03] ▶It is not simply about being for or against development. It is about responsible planning and long term community impact.
[00:56:10] ▶Certainly, we can redevelop the site, but what we need is day cares. We need schools, rentals, and community spaces.
[00:56:18] ▶Do the applicants claim that they didn't submit a proposal for rental building because
[00:56:23] ▶it isn't allowed. Isn't that what a rezoning application is for?
[00:56:28] ▶I'm disappointed that the staff report makes no meaningful argument about why they have given to hotel development policy precedence over the West End community policy.
[00:56:39] ▶And only citing vague and dubious reasons for doing so, saying it was at their discretion.
[00:56:45] ▶Speaker 12: I'm I'm sorry. We're at the time. Yes.
[00:56:48] ▶Speaker 11: Thank you. I'm actually at the end. Thank you so much. Great. Thank you very much for speaking today.
[00:56:56] ▶Speaker 2: Speaker
[00:56:56] ▶15
[00:56:57] ▶or sorry, 21,
[00:56:59] ▶Dustin Leprere.
[00:57:03] ▶Speaker 17: Council, my name is Dustin Leprere, and I'm calling to share my support for the proposal at 2030 Barclay Street.
[00:57:10] ▶As someone who lives in a building in Downtown Vancouver,
[00:57:13] ▶that combines residences with the hotel.
[00:57:16] ▶Living in a mixed use building, I've seen how hotels can bring energy and convenience without disrupting the neighborhood.
[00:57:21] ▶Visitors walk the streets, stop at local cafes, and use public spaces, which makes the area feel safer and more active. It's part of what keeps downtown vibrant and welcoming for everyone.
[00:57:31] ▶This project will add two forty eight rooms, including serviced apartments and short term stays. That kind of capacity is exactly what Vancouver needs to stay competitive with other major cities,
[00:57:41] ▶attracting conventions, events, and visitors who contribute to the local economy in a way that integrates naturally into the community.
[00:57:48] ▶I also like that the proposal
[00:57:50] ▶includes plans for a charming restaurant that will be open to everyone.
[00:57:53] ▶That kind of amenity doesn't just serve hotel guests, it gives neighbors a place to meet, dine, and enjoy the streetscape.
[00:57:59] ▶From my experience living with a hotel in my building, these kinds of thoughtful features can generally enhance everyday life for residents.
[00:58:06] ▶This project shows that progress and livability don't have to be at odds. I fully support this proposal and hope to see this approved. Thank you.
[00:58:14] ▶Speaker 2: Great. Thank you very much. Speaker number 22,
[00:58:17] ▶Neha
[00:58:23] ▶Trevastava.
[00:58:24] ▶Neha, are you on the line
[00:58:25] ▶or in person?
[00:58:36] ▶Neha, are you there?
[00:58:44] ▶Speaker 6: 22 is not on the line. K. Great. Thank you very much.
[00:58:47] ▶Speaker 2: Speaker number 23, David Young.
[00:59:01] ▶Number 24, Roger Keyes.
[00:59:06] ▶Speaker 1: Yeah.
[00:59:10] ▶Speaker 16: Yeah.
[00:59:15] ▶Thank you.
[00:59:16] ▶Roger Keys, opposed.
[00:59:18] ▶Dear counsel and prime minister Carney. I know, prime minister, you're not at this meeting.
[00:59:23] ▶Housing is a provincial responsibility
[00:59:26] ▶given over to the municipalities
[00:59:28] ▶they create. And housing is what the '20,
[00:59:33] ▶'30 Barclay rezoning
[00:59:35] ▶really boils down to.
[00:59:37] ▶However, prime minister, your widely national
[00:59:40] ▶widely acclaimed national housing plan, which is so important and so appreciated in this affordability
[00:59:47] ▶crisis,
[00:59:48] ▶is already under threat.
[00:59:49] ▶Thousands of residents, my neighbors, have signed petitions.
[00:59:53] ▶I want you to know, sir, that there are heroes on the ground here. They are the neighborhood folks like Marine who volunteer at the petition table
[01:00:02] ▶outside Denman Mall and started this vigorous pushback.
[01:00:06] ▶These neighbors
[01:00:07] ▶belong to a great Vancouver tradition.
[01:00:10] ▶In the nineteen sixties, a similar grassroots movement
[01:00:14] ▶rose to vehemently oppose the destruction of the downtown core
[01:00:18] ▶by a council and its planning department of the time,
[01:00:22] ▶bent on the building of LA style freeways
[01:00:25] ▶throughout the downtown.
[01:00:27] ▶West End neighborhoods would have been devastated.
[01:00:30] ▶Sadly, the black Canadians of Hogan Alley can attest to this when their neighborhood full of families, shops, and social clubs like mine was expropriated
[01:00:40] ▶to build the Georgia Viaduct,
[01:00:42] ▶scattering them into a long forgotten
[01:00:44] ▶diaspora.
[01:00:45] ▶This and more happened all over The United States,
[01:00:49] ▶which resulted in dis dislocation,
[01:00:52] ▶crime, and food deserts. But in Vancouver,
[01:00:55] ▶it was elbows up.
[01:00:57] ▶Nearly sixty years later, the justification
[01:01:01] ▶of a planning department
[01:01:02] ▶to go ahead with a 25 story monstrosity
[01:01:06] ▶to house tourists
[01:01:08] ▶and not residents
[01:01:09] ▶is out of a Kafka novel.
[01:01:11] ▶The planning department recognizes this, but justifies it because it needs hotel rooms.
[01:01:17] ▶That's like saying to quote chef Gino when his dish was compared to a carbonary,
[01:01:22] ▶if my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike.
[01:01:26] ▶Absurd.
[01:01:27] ▶This is a quiet
[01:01:29] ▶narrow street which abuts, as you know by now, Stanley Park.
[01:01:33] ▶Parking, cabs, foot traffic, garbage trucks, not to mention noise from their proposed outside restaurant. Absurd.
[01:01:41] ▶We have little kids on the prime,
[01:01:43] ▶on this street, prime minister.
[01:01:45] ▶Kids who go to Pooh Corner Daycare.
[01:01:48] ▶This is a family street. We need more of these streets,
[01:01:53] ▶not
[01:01:54] ▶less. Absurd.
[01:01:55] ▶This, of course, is an area that we want our visitors to come to for its local culture and beaches and businesses.
[01:02:03] ▶But as the closing of the Coast Plaza Hotel attests to,
[01:02:06] ▶tourists wanna be downtown where the action
[01:02:09] ▶is. Not here. It's at least a twenty minute walk to Granville Street.
[01:02:14] ▶They won't walk. They'll take Ubers and taxis day and night.
[01:02:18] ▶This is not a tourism development plan. This is a replication of Barcelona
[01:02:24] ▶and Venice.
[01:02:26] ▶So why then is this really going on?
[01:02:29] ▶What would you say, prime minister, is the quiet part that is not being said out loud?
[01:02:35] ▶Let me rephrase
[01:02:36] ▶for this moment your brilliant Davos speech.
[01:02:41] ▶We know today
[01:02:42] ▶the story of the municipal
[01:02:44] ▶rules based order is partially false.
[01:02:48] ▶That the strongest will exempt themselves when convenient,
[01:02:51] ▶and we know now
[01:02:53] ▶that zoning laws are applied with varying rigor depending on the strength of the developments.
[01:02:58] ▶But let's be clear eye about where this leads.
[01:03:03] ▶A world of hotels
[01:03:05] ▶will make our neighborhoods and our cities poorer, more fragile,
[01:03:09] ▶and less sustainable.
[01:03:11] ▶The noise and disruption of two to four years of building this monstrosity
[01:03:16] ▶will force my neighbors and their children to leave.
[01:03:20] ▶Once their apartments are empty and can't be rented, even our most committed and decent landlords will have to sell to you know who. And then these beautiful little West End blocks of old and young,
[01:03:32] ▶partnered and single,
[01:03:33] ▶will become the hotel district that the planners and developers
[01:03:37] ▶wake up tonight at night thinking about.
[01:03:41] ▶Counsel,
[01:03:42] ▶these are real families. The boys who tromp down the stairs each morning to go to King George High School at one end of the street. The toddlers who toddle down to the other end of the street to Pooh Corner.
[01:03:53] ▶And in between these journeys back and forth from one end of Barclay Street to another
[01:03:59] ▶are lifetimes.
[01:04:00] ▶A dad and his little boy playing hockey at the end of the street.
[01:04:04] ▶A little boy now absurdly a towering young man attending UBC
[01:04:09] ▶or the young lady across the street whose dog, Pepper, I know so well.
[01:04:14] ▶These scenes will disappear
[01:04:16] ▶with the wink of an a.
[01:04:19] ▶Alright.
[01:04:20] ▶Prime minister, city council your Sorry. Let me just finish with this quick. Sorry. I Prime minister, we are here today to be at the table Yep. Not to be eaten.
[01:04:30] ▶Thank you.
[01:04:31] ▶Thank you.
[01:04:32] ▶Speaker 2: And sorry.
[01:04:34] ▶Sorry,
[01:04:35] ▶by the way, two comments. Roger, thank you for the the bike reference. I I saw that clip.
[01:04:41] ▶Probably a little small to my face.
[01:04:44] ▶If,
[01:04:45] ▶if I can just,
[01:04:47] ▶you know, send a send a message to everyone here today.
[01:04:52] ▶We do have a protocol where,
[01:04:55] ▶while we we appreciate people wanna clap,
[01:04:59] ▶you know, and show their support and we understand it,
[01:05:02] ▶we do have a protocol that says that we don't do that here because sometimes,
[01:05:06] ▶not necessarily
[01:05:07] ▶in all situations, but our team members can feel intimidated
[01:05:11] ▶by the crowd in the right circumstances. So we've just made it a policy of this council,
[01:05:17] ▶and existed before we were in council, by the way, that,
[01:05:20] ▶if you can refrain from clapping
[01:05:23] ▶when you hear words and you support them. The reason is we just wanna make sure that our our team members feel safe in every environment. So thank you. Okay.
[01:05:32] ▶Speaker number 25
[01:05:34] ▶withdraw has withdrawn.
[01:05:36] ▶Speaker number 26, Margaretta
[01:05:38] ▶Dovgill.
[01:05:40] ▶Did did I pronounce your name correctly?
[01:05:44] ▶Thank you.
[01:05:58] ▶Speaker 13: Register it or Oh, yeah. Please go ahead. Sorry. I was waiting for the the the mic to go. Thanks so much, Marisol, and, good afternoon, counselors.
[01:06:06] ▶My name is Margaret Adovgale. I was born at Saint Paul's Hospital. My parents were renting on this very block at the end of Barclay in a tower overlooking the lagoon when I made my way into the world.
[01:06:17] ▶Today, I again live on Barclay Street, have for a number of years now, renting a place I can barely afford like most of my neighbors. I'm a second generation Barclays Street resident. I'm also a public policy analyst and commentator. I sit on the city's renter's advisory committee, though I speak here today as an individual and as a neighbor.
[01:06:36] ▶Some of the buttons you've seen on a few of the lapels, top twenty thirty Berkeley,
[01:06:40] ▶they don't speak for me, and I love this proposal.
[01:06:44] ▶I actually went out of my way to write an op ed in the daily hive,
[01:06:48] ▶just last month speaking to how a lack of hotel units is putting pressure on housing supply. I know this to be true, for a variety of reasons.
[01:06:56] ▶My current West End building has largely been filled with initially legally, but now I believe mostly not so legally short term rentals. That's a story that we see across the West End. And I've also heard from city staff on this matter at the renter's advisory committee. And we know full well that enforcement is not keeping up with the market pressures,
[01:07:14] ▶to bridge this extreme lack of adequate hotel units across the region and particularly in the Downtown Peninsula.
[01:07:20] ▶Overall, I think the opposition,
[01:07:22] ▶while sincere,
[01:07:24] ▶is disconnected from the material conditions
[01:07:27] ▶that my neighbors and many others living in the West End and in the downtown core actually live with. So let me tell you what life for me looks like in the context of hotels or not. I live in a small apartment. Most of us do. So when my family and friends visit from out of town, the best that I can offer them is a small air mattress stuffed between my couch and my coffee table. That's not a complaint. That's just, the reality of renting in Vancouver in my late twenties. My cousin came from Hungary. She crossed an ocean to see me a few months back, and that was the best I could do for her. And friends of mine who live just steps away from this, proposed redevelopment,
[01:08:02] ▶just had a baby. Their baby's nursery used to be their former guest room. And when their grand the grandparents fly in to meet their grandchild,
[01:08:10] ▶they need somewhere to stay. $400
[01:08:12] ▶a night is kind of what they're looking at, assuming they can even find a room. So as a result, many of those trips and trips like that just don't happen.
[01:08:20] ▶So it's not also just about happy occasions. People use hotels when a loved one is in the hospital. Saint Paul's is right here, Vancouver General, not too far from where we are today.
[01:08:29] ▶Having affordable available hotel rooms in this neighborhood is not a luxury. It is core infrastructure,
[01:08:35] ▶and it's how families support each other through the hardest moments of their lives. We need to stop thinking about hotels as something only for, you know, latte sipping tourists on a bachelorette weekend.
[01:08:47] ▶They're for grandparents visiting a new baby. They're for family members supporting someone through surgery. And they're really for all of us who live in 500 square feet or so and still want to be part of a community that welcomes people in, that is livable. Let me now speak to the economics because I think this matters for how council ultimately weighs this decision. Vancouver is short roughly 10,000
[01:09:08] ▶hotel units. That shortage means sky high nightly rates. Those have consequences
[01:09:13] ▶economically.
[01:09:14] ▶They affect whether conventions
[01:09:16] ▶choose Vancouver or go somewhere else. They affect whether businesses hold their events here or in Calgary, Seattle, or further afield. So if you fail to build more hotel supply, that's revenue and jobs that we are missing out on that we need here in the tourism sector. I founded and organized a conference, the Indigenous Partnership Success Showcase. I ran it for three years, grew it to 1,500 attendees. And I can tell you from direct experience,
[01:09:38] ▶hotel availability and cost are among the first things organizers look at when deciding where to go. Vancouver is losing bids that it should be winning because we have not resolved this issue. This council has repeatedly said it is pro business and pro growth. This is a chance to prove it. A purpose built hotel on a site that has been a hotel for decades. And here's a piece that should matter most to anyone who cares about renters. Every year we fail to build adequate hotel capacity, we incentivize exactly what the province just cracked down on. Entire apartments converted to illegal short term rentals
[01:10:11] ▶off of places like Airbnb, which are easier to enforce. Better enforcement alone isn't gonna fix this. We need legitimate hotel rooms.
[01:10:17] ▶And I also understand that change is uncomfortable.
[01:10:20] ▶I'm someone who is living next to a soon to be construction site, so I feel that.
[01:10:25] ▶I've lived next to next to construction before. That's just a reality of being in a city. Change happens. And while the height of the proposed hotel is a little bit bigger than what is there today, it is still a strong contextual fit for the neighborhood. The Westin I was born and the one I know today after years of living here is one that is characterized by a diverse and beautiful built environment. I think this hotels a proposed hotel would be a lovely addition to its surroundings, and I hope that one day I can not only refer visitors to the hotel, but that I could also enjoy time with friends and neighbors on the patio, and then many others in our community can partake in those upsides too. Fundamentally, and I need to stress this, discomfort with change is not the basis for good urban policy. Vote yes.
[01:11:05] ▶Speaker 2: Great. And you're out of time. Thank you, Margaretta.
[01:11:08] ▶Speaker number 27,
[01:11:10] ▶Amber Apu.
[01:11:14] ▶Speaker 18: Hello? Close. It's Papo, but that's Papo. You are pretty close. Papo. No. No worries. No one can actually pronounce it. So,
[01:11:22] ▶thank you for,
[01:11:24] ▶inviting me, at least virtually, mayor and council.
[01:11:27] ▶Like, the speaker said, my name is Amber Pappo. I am the CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of British Columbia,
[01:11:34] ▶Ortaya, BC. We represent a very large sector.
[01:11:38] ▶We generate about $23,000,000,000
[01:11:40] ▶in annual economic activity into BC.
[01:11:42] ▶Our industry supports
[01:11:44] ▶17,000
[01:11:45] ▶tourism hospitality businesses across BC and a 117,000
[01:11:49] ▶direct jobs.
[01:11:51] ▶As the recently released 2026 provincial budget highlighted, the steady increase in travelers to BC over the past several years
[01:11:59] ▶is is also backed up by,
[01:12:01] ▶new data and new statistics and crew including things like record numbers of passengers through YVR,
[01:12:08] ▶predictions of a record number of, cruise ship lines into
[01:12:12] ▶into Downtown Vancouver.
[01:12:14] ▶And all indications also suggest that growth is gonna continue. We've got global events such as the FIFA World Cup coming up, and Vancouver is a gateway city. And I would argue in this province, it is the gateway city. And when the world comes to BC, it comes right through here.
[01:12:29] ▶However, we do face a huge structural challenge.
[01:12:33] ▶The hotel community impact study that was conducted recently by Destination Vancouver and the BC Hotel Association a few years ago, it clearly indicates that Vancouver will require about 10,000 new hotel rooms by 2050
[01:12:46] ▶to meet projected demand. And today, Vancouver hotels operate at near full capacity
[01:12:51] ▶with an average annual occupancy rate of about 80%, and that peaks up to 95%,
[01:12:58] ▶during peak seasons.
[01:13:00] ▶And and these rates will continue. And as we do that, we're seeing that, it's well above our peer cities.
[01:13:06] ▶And while high occupancy
[01:13:07] ▶seems like it's a positive thing, it also signals, limited flexibility. It reduces our capacity to track major
[01:13:11] ▶flexibility.
[01:13:12] ▶It reduces our capacity to track major conferences,
[01:13:16] ▶international conventions, and marquee events. And compounding
[01:13:20] ▶the issue, Vancouver has actually experienced a net loss of hotel rooms between 2002 and and 2022,
[01:13:27] ▶largely due to COVID, but at the same time, the development has also been limited.
[01:13:32] ▶So right now, there's only approximately new hotels that have been built in the past twenty years. And as a result, Vancouver has essentially the same number of hotel rooms today as it did in 2002,
[01:13:42] ▶but with very much an increase in,
[01:13:45] ▶demand.
[01:13:46] ▶From an economic standpoint, and money often speaks louder than words, the implications are significant.
[01:13:52] ▶If the required 10,000 new hotel rooms are built, the projected impact includes 5,450
[01:13:58] ▶direct local hospitality
[01:14:01] ▶jobs, up to 8,000 indirect jobs in retail events and services,
[01:14:05] ▶and approximately $78,000,000
[01:14:07] ▶in provincial tax revenue. But more importantly, for this council,
[01:14:11] ▶for the city of Vancouver specifically, the projected municipal tax revenue is about $125,000,000
[01:14:17] ▶annually.
[01:14:18] ▶The proposed hotel at 2030 Barclay would add 248
[01:14:22] ▶much needed rooms to the city's inventory,
[01:14:25] ▶including service apartments and short term stay accommodation. And this type of purpose built supplies precisely what Vancouver needs to meet demand and remain competitive as a global destination.
[01:14:34] ▶From an industry perspective, this proposal is not simply beneficial. It's necessary. Vancouver can't afford to fall further behind comparable cities and hotel development.
[01:14:43] ▶So on behalf of myself,
[01:14:45] ▶who was also born in Saint Paul's Hospital,
[01:14:48] ▶and TIABC
[01:14:49] ▶and the broader tourism sector, I respectfully encourage council to approve this project and others like it to support the long term economic health and vitality of the city and the province. So thank you very much for your time and consideration.
[01:15:01] ▶Speaker 2: Great. Thank you, Amber.
[01:15:04] ▶Speaker 16: You're very welcome.
[01:15:06] ▶Great.
[01:15:07] ▶Speaker 2: Speaker number 28,
[01:15:08] ▶Andrew,
[01:15:10] ▶Mathodius
[01:15:11] ▶Harlock.
[01:15:13] ▶Speaker 19: Yeah. Hello? Sorry. Can you hear me? We can hear you. Please go ahead. Oh, okay. Excellent. Yeah. My name is Mathodius Harlock. I'm a resident to the West, end, and I support this
[01:15:24] ▶building.
[01:15:25] ▶So my residence, is actually on Stovold Lane and,
[01:15:29] ▶Lagoon Drive here. So I'm gonna be hearing lots of construction,
[01:15:32] ▶like my other neighbors, and that's fine.
[01:15:34] ▶Construction happens. The West End hasn't had any construction,
[01:15:37] ▶really for, pretty much thirty six years with within this, West Of Demond kind of portion. I'm 36. So,
[01:15:45] ▶the West End plan pretty much froze all residential construction. So I'm very happy to hear that my fellow neighbors are in support of more rental, even though it's effectively frozen except for social housing, which is not being built. So,
[01:15:56] ▶the hotel, you know, I don't really care about the hotel use, so though I wouldn't mind my sister, brother-in-law, and niece,
[01:16:02] ▶not staying if within my 450 square foot apartment. It'd be great if my parents and I didn't have to walk about
[01:16:09] ▶thirty minutes. We do make that thirty minute walk all the way from Granville Street when they visit. It should be really nice if there's something a little bit more flexible in the neighborhood.
[01:16:17] ▶Honestly, the one thing I want counsel to look at
[01:16:20] ▶is part two
[01:16:22] ▶of the conditions letter. So this is page 19 of the referral report. So I I wanna make this really, really clear. My neighbors have great concerns concerning traffic.
[01:16:31] ▶Traffic doesn't just come from this one building. Traffic is gonna be coming from Metro Vancouver
[01:16:35] ▶cruise ships, etcetera. We're not gonna get less traffic. But what we can do is if we approve this building, as the West End doesn't get a lot of improvements, it's like for major infrastructure,
[01:16:44] ▶you know, like the Harrow Street,
[01:16:47] ▶water main upgrades. We don't really get street improvements.
[01:16:50] ▶So the Barclay, Chilco intersections,
[01:16:52] ▶it's been like that for day one, so a hundred years.
[01:16:56] ▶So we've had a lot of increase in traffic,
[01:16:59] ▶over a hundred years, of course,
[01:17:01] ▶but the conditions letter doesn't really state
[01:17:05] ▶what sidewalk and roadway improvements are gonna happen. So I work in real estate development.
[01:17:10] ▶Our building goes up on a street, and we put in, you know, a section of a bike lane, wider sidewalks,
[01:17:15] ▶a parklet.
[01:17:16] ▶And I love that because I put that in certain neighborhoods that haven't had a lot of investment.
[01:17:21] ▶I live in the West End, and not a lot of construction happens here. So I would really like council to take a look at the conditions letter, if any amendments can be, you know, placed in here,
[01:17:32] ▶and improvements to the intersection at Barklay And Chilco,
[01:17:36] ▶around Poo Corner. It's it's a very good point that the traffic mitigation and calming effects aren't present. Barklay And Laguna Drive, terrible intersection.
[01:17:46] ▶There's no clear pedestrian or cycling connections from the West End
[01:17:50] ▶into Stanley Park. Another comment I would really like to make is the reduction of parking on Chilco for the opening to Ted North Lane.
[01:17:58] ▶The site,
[01:17:59] ▶views, so, you know, kind
[01:18:02] ▶of site blocks that you don't pardon me. The the site lines aren't very clear. And so if you bulge out the sidewalks
[01:18:10] ▶to the entry to Ted North Lane and Chilco Street, which I believe aren't in reading the I don't have the services agreement for this building, but reading the conditions letter, I don't really see that. So I'd really stress counsel
[01:18:21] ▶that if you think about not approving this, a lot of street improvements aren't gonna happen because I don't think tax dollars are gonna improve our streets anytime soon. So having a hotel here, I love the, Roba Dimatti,
[01:18:33] ▶restaurant that's in the former hotel that is on around Guilford and Harrow.
[01:18:38] ▶I don't know. Just I live in the biggest, ugliest, tallest building in the West End, and I love it. So another tall building next to me in here, construction for two years is just life of living in a city. So that's just kind of how the way she goes. But what I really want is those DCL
[01:18:52] ▶monies that go into our neighborhoods that we can calm traffic. I mean, I think my whole neighborhood wants that as we've been kinda hearing speakers. So let's approve this building. Let's get that juicy TCL money into my neighborhood. Let's get the services agreement bumped up so we can get some, you know, curb bulges going on here, some traffic changes, you name it, so we can make everybody safe and fix those heaved, weird, root destroyed sidewalks that I see some of my neighbors walking on hand in hand. There's a guy with a cane and a walker who's, you know, one of those he's partially blind. I see him with his buddy walking down the street, Another lady holding hand in hand, and she's on a stroller.
[01:19:29] ▶Those sidewalks need to go. That DCL money can pay for it. So let's approve this hotel and get her going. Thanks.
[01:19:36] ▶Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Speaker
[01:19:38] ▶number 29,
[01:19:40] ▶Alexandra
[01:19:41] ▶Zisicki.
[01:19:49] ▶Can you hear me? We can hear you great. Please go ahead. Okay.
[01:19:52] ▶Speaker 21: Council, thank you for the time today. My name is Alex, and I live in the West End. I wanna start by clearing something up because I feel like it's starting to get misunderstood.
[01:20:01] ▶People in the West End are not anti density. We're not anti building. We're not anti housing. What we're opposing is a 25 story luxury hotel, and And I think it's important to note that this is not gonna be an affordable family friendly hotel as another speaker mused about. It's going to be for the rich. It's going to be inaccessible to regular people like my parents who also visit me and need a place to stay. It's a 25 story luxury hotel on a residential street on a land zoned RM 5 b under the West End Community Plan, and that really matters.
[01:20:33] ▶If this was a 25 story social housing project, many of us would be here supporting it. And if this were 25 stories of secured long term rental housing that people actually lived in,
[01:20:43] ▶I am sure it would be welcomed as well, but that's not what this is. It's also worth noting that this site has previously been approved for a 19 unit,
[01:20:51] ▶10 story condominium project by the developers that aligned perfectly with the zoning in the West End plan. That proposal was withdrawn despite already enlisting real estate agents, being on Instagram, and starting to sell units.
[01:21:03] ▶This hotel is not the only option for this site. It's a choice to replace a conforming residential project with a luxury hotel.
[01:21:11] ▶The West End plan was adopted by council to guide exactly these kinds of decisions. It clearly identifies
[01:21:22] ▶area
[01:21:23] ▶for the people who live here, and it does not identify this area for major commercial hotel use.
[01:21:28] ▶This proposal only exists through a c d one rezoning
[01:21:33] ▶because it does not align with the existing West End policy framework.
[01:21:37] ▶The city's own West End rezoning policy says rezonings are supposed to adhere to the community plan. And when a project requires level this level of rezoning, that tells us something about what's important, whether it fits with council's plan to be adopted or not.
[01:21:52] ▶Residents engaged in good faith in creating this plan. We showed up. We participated.
[01:21:56] ▶We compromised,
[01:21:57] ▶and we did that with the understanding that this plan would actually be upheld.
[01:22:02] ▶When a proposal like this moves forward anyways, it sends a clear message that the plan applies until it does not, and that community input has limits.
[01:22:12] ▶This project is often justified by pointing to a hotel room shortage, but high prices and high occupancy do not automatically mean this is the right solution or the right location. This is still a choice.
[01:22:23] ▶There's also environmental considerations
[01:22:25] ▶the West End plan asked the city to take seriously.
[01:22:28] ▶This site sits within the buffer zone of the Stanley Park Heron Colony, one of the largest urban heron nesting sites in North America.
[01:22:36] ▶These birds have lived and tolerated us and lived alongside us for decades, and they are sensitive to overhead disturbance.
[01:22:42] ▶The scale of this project creates a real risk to a colony that has existed here for generations.
[01:22:48] ▶These concerns are not coming from residents only. A park board commissioner recently spoke at our last hearing,
[01:22:54] ▶about the potential impact of the development on Stanley Park, including traffic and environmental pressures.
[01:22:59] ▶The park board has now asked the city staff to for additional information about this impact before the project moves forward. Part of that concern includes the potential legal exposure the city could face if impacts on Stanley Park and its ecosystem are not properly considered.
[01:23:14] ▶When the body responsible for protecting Vancouver's parks is raising questions about environmental impact and possible liability,
[01:23:21] ▶that should give council pause.
[01:23:26] ▶We also wanna briefly address the narrative that has been presented around this project. We've heard a polished story about how this hotel would seamlessly be woven into the neighborhood, but that story has not matched the facts. Residents repeatedly ask for clear information about scale and claims being made. We asked for evidence to support some of the justifications
[01:23:45] ▶raised, and that evidence was never provided.
[01:23:48] ▶At the same time, there's been very limited meaningful engagement with the community despite repeated requests. Public communications have suggested a level of outreach that many residents did not experience.
[01:23:59] ▶This makes it difficult to trust the narrative that we're being asked to accept.
[01:24:03] ▶I wanna also acknowledge that as a resident, I wanna feel as, like, part of the vision for the city.
[01:24:10] ▶I wanna feel like the decisions that are being made move all of us forward. And standing here today, this proposal does not feel like the kind of progress any of us are hoping for. But it feels like as a city that keeps listening to a few while many are asking to be heard.
[01:24:25] ▶I wanna feel like someone that you are running to represent. I wanna feel like someone who already lives here. Like, the people that already live here matter in decisions like this.
[01:24:34] ▶We are here. We are obviously engaged. We are pairing paying attention, and we care deeply about the city. We want Vancouver to succeed. We want it to be welcoming, but we also want it to be a city that keeps its word and investments residents and listens to the many, not the few. Please reject this rezoning. Thank you. Thank you very much. Speaker number 30, Philip Davis.
[01:24:56] ▶Speaker 2: Is Philip here?
[01:25:03] ▶Speaker number 31, Alan Farris.
[01:25:16] ▶Speaker 15: Good afternoon,
[01:25:18] ▶mayor, Sim, and council.
[01:25:20] ▶My name is Alan Farris. I'm the president of of the strata at 1934
[01:25:24] ▶Barclay, where I've lived for thirty years. I'm here to represent my neighbors and voice our strong opposition
[01:25:30] ▶to the rezoning of 2030 Barclay.
[01:25:33] ▶I don't speak to you today only as a concerned neighbor. I speak with the professional insight of someone who has worked for two major Vancouver hotels for the past forty years.
[01:25:42] ▶It is truly a pleasure to welcome visitors from around the world to our beautiful city.
[01:25:48] ▶But I also know the back of house reality that a glossy architectural rendering will never show you. A hotel is not just a building. It is a twenty four hour a day business operation.
[01:25:58] ▶I question the presenter's initial comments that the current property is already a hotel and receives deliveries.
[01:26:03] ▶Comparing a 27 room property with one almost 10 times the size
[01:26:08] ▶and saying that it would have minimal difference in deliveries
[01:26:11] ▶is simply absurd.
[01:26:13] ▶To give you a sense of scale, I consulted with our own receiver at my current hotel.
[01:26:17] ▶He estimates we receive between nine and ten thousand deliveries
[01:26:21] ▶per year.
[01:26:22] ▶We have 20 different food suppliers, liquor, beer, wine, soft drinks, four separate waste companies, laundry, dry cleaning, and endless supplies of guest products delivered daily just to operate.
[01:26:34] ▶These deliveries don't follow a nine to five schedule, often starting at 6AM and many after hours, and several are seven days a week.
[01:26:42] ▶While we are a 500 room hotel, even a fraction of that volume would be detrimental to any residential area.
[01:26:50] ▶The current property at 2030 Barclay does not have any amenities. No restaurant, no retail is noted, no rooftop pool, all of which will require service.
[01:26:58] ▶There is no front desk. There's no bellman.
[01:27:01] ▶Arriving guests enter a code to get in. It is truly an Airbnb
[01:27:05] ▶with housekeeping.
[01:27:07] ▶Introducing high traffic
[01:27:09] ▶operations directly contradicts the city's recent 30 kilometer speed limit reduction for the West Of Denman area.
[01:27:17] ▶Because the proposed hotel is not near SkyTrain,
[01:27:19] ▶guests will arrive via taxi, Uber, and potential buses.
[01:27:23] ▶Narrow streets of the West End simply cannot absorb the twenty four seven
[01:27:28] ▶twenty four seven volume of ride to your pickups,
[01:27:30] ▶food deliveries,
[01:27:31] ▶as well as the hundreds of staff required
[01:27:35] ▶to run a hotel of this size.
[01:27:37] ▶This simply won't happen without compromising the serenity of the residents who live beside and in the surrounding area.
[01:27:45] ▶The presented the presenter noted the proposed 240 room property is about 60 short room stays
[01:27:52] ▶and a 180
[01:27:53] ▶long term apartments.
[01:27:55] ▶While I understand this is the plan, it is certainly not the reality.
[01:27:59] ▶Quite simply, this is plan of a hotel, and I mean every hotel,
[01:28:03] ▶is to sell every room
[01:28:05] ▶every night at the best possible rate. It is that simple.
[01:28:10] ▶You can look at the Sutton Place as an example. They have a hotel block of 397
[01:28:15] ▶rooms and a tower of a 164
[01:28:18] ▶long term apartments.
[01:28:20] ▶Over time, the reality has changed. You can book these long term rooms for a single night.
[01:28:25] ▶If the hotel is to overbook the short term rooms,
[01:28:28] ▶guests are accommodated in the long term apartments. That's the business.
[01:28:32] ▶Why is this important?
[01:28:34] ▶Excuse me.
[01:28:36] ▶To be successful, a hotel of this size
[01:28:38] ▶will need to have some group or tours,
[01:28:40] ▶and, typically,
[01:28:42] ▶that means buses.
[01:28:43] ▶25 rooms is 50 people. That's a full size coat.
[01:28:48] ▶When the hotel is full, there will be close to four to 500 people
[01:28:53] ▶arriving and departing in the neighborhood every day, and that doesn't include the staff.
[01:28:59] ▶Looking at history, many of us remember that close
[01:29:02] ▶hotel in Jenman just blocks away.
[01:29:05] ▶It closed because it was not viable in this neighborhood with 269
[01:29:09] ▶rooms.
[01:29:10] ▶When this hotel fails, it will not be difficult to convert to condos.
[01:29:17] ▶To be financially successful, a new hotel should be situated in a high demand downtown area,
[01:29:23] ▶major transportation and convention, as outlined in the city's own hotel development plan.
[01:29:29] ▶This application also fails to meet the essential citywide rezoning standard
[01:29:34] ▶regarding livability.
[01:29:36] ▶The west of the area is a unique gem. In these 20 square blocks, there's virtually no commercial activity,
[01:29:42] ▶the exception of one long standing restaurant in Harrow.
[01:29:45] ▶I wanna stress that in our case,
[01:29:48] ▶it's
[01:29:50] ▶we it is not the tower we object to. This is the reality of the city.
[01:29:55] ▶I don't feel a current tower fits the neighborhood. The objection is to a twenty four hour business operation
[01:30:01] ▶in the middle of a high density residential neighborhood.
[01:30:04] ▶In conclusion,
[01:30:05] ▶people make a great community, building upon its rich history, unbeatable location, diversity of people, the West End embraces its natural asset built assets that make us so livable,
[01:30:16] ▶celebrate distinct character and fosters.
[01:30:19] ▶A mix of people, places, and
[01:30:22] ▶and contribute to a vibrant, resilient community. If this sounds familiar, it is the vision from the city's own West End plan. And, Alan, I I apologize. You're at time.
[01:30:31] ▶Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you very much for coming in and sharing your thoughts.
[01:30:36] ▶Speaker number 32, Veronica
[01:30:38] ▶Martisius.
[01:30:40] ▶Martisius. And I hope Yes. Hi. Can you hear me? I can hear you great. Please go ahead.
[01:30:45] ▶Speaker 9: Yes. And that was good pronunciation.
[01:30:47] ▶Thank you.
[01:30:48] ▶Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to speak to this matter.
[01:30:52] ▶I am a Vancouver resident, and I oppose
[01:30:55] ▶the recommended approval of the revised rezoning application at 2030 Barclay Street.
[01:31:02] ▶This is the first time I have ever taken a NIMBY position
[01:31:06] ▶or not in my backyard position,
[01:31:10] ▶but I cannot in good conscience remain silent about such an unreasonable
[01:31:15] ▶and frankly obscene proposal.
[01:31:17] ▶I live with my partner and our four year old daughter in a semi underground corner unit at the Chateau Lane at the corner of Chilco and Barclay.
[01:31:27] ▶The Chateau Lane is a 96 year old brick apartment building with single paned windows.
[01:31:34] ▶Our unit is kitty corner to the application site.
[01:31:38] ▶We can see it
[01:31:40] ▶from every window
[01:31:42] ▶in our home.
[01:31:43] ▶In fact, I'm looking at it right now.
[01:31:46] ▶And we often hear the hustle and bustle coming to and from the current hotel,
[01:31:50] ▶which is a tolerable
[01:31:52] ▶four floors.
[01:31:54] ▶Besides the sound of hotel guests rolling their suitcases down the sidewalk,
[01:31:59] ▶our densely populated part of the West End neighborhood is relatively calm and quiet.
[01:32:05] ▶The hotel guests are mostly respectful of our peace and enjoyment,
[01:32:10] ▶but there have been times when loud conversation
[01:32:13] ▶or interaction
[01:32:14] ▶occur in the front of the hotel late at night or in the early hours of the morning,
[01:32:19] ▶waking us from our sleep.
[01:32:22] ▶I shudder to think of the level of noise and traffic
[01:32:26] ▶a 25 story hotel and restaurant will generate.
[01:32:31] ▶I disagree that this proposal
[01:32:33] ▶is permissible under the city's hotel development policy,
[01:32:37] ▶especially considering that it is contrary to the West End Community Plan and the West End rezoning policy.
[01:32:44] ▶Although the hotel policy supports the expansion of existing hotels,
[01:32:49] ▶the revised rezoning application would be appropriate for a hotel
[01:32:54] ▶located on a commercial high street.
[01:32:57] ▶For example, the four story Barclay Hotel at 1348
[01:33:01] ▶Robson Street,
[01:33:03] ▶not smack dab in the middle of a densely populated residential neighborhood.
[01:33:08] ▶The policy does not
[01:33:10] ▶expressly
[01:33:11] ▶contemplate expanding existing hotels located in residential neighborhoods.
[01:33:16] ▶This distinction alone should be grounds for rejecting the revised rezoning application,
[01:33:22] ▶let alone the various daily disturbances,
[01:33:25] ▶congestion,
[01:33:27] ▶air pollution,
[01:33:28] ▶other environmental impacts as articulated by the parks board representative,
[01:33:33] ▶and other hazards that will come from such a massive redevelopment
[01:33:37] ▶between a dead end laneway and a narrow residential street.
[01:33:41] ▶I urge this council to refuse this application
[01:33:44] ▶and vote no. Thank you.
[01:33:46] ▶Speaker 2: Great. Thank you very much. The next speaker is speaker number 33, Britt Penn.
[01:34:01] ▶Speaker 22: Hello.
[01:34:03] ▶Good afternoon, mayor and council.
[01:34:05] ▶My name is Britt Penn, and my husband and I live just West of Denman, just a few steps from this site, and I oppose this rezoning.
[01:34:14] ▶Thank you for your thank you very much, I should say, for for your time this afternoon. And, thank you very much to the counselors who were present during our last hearing on the nineteenth,
[01:34:24] ▶for your line of questioning after the staff and applicant presentations.
[01:34:28] ▶The questions that you raised showcased,
[01:34:30] ▶similar concerns from the community and what has been shared in over 400 plus opposition,
[01:34:35] ▶comments now submitted online.
[01:34:38] ▶And based on the answers from both staff and applicant, I think that you surfaced many shortcomings,
[01:34:44] ▶in this application on topics ranging from tower size and current zoning to emergency access and competing policy plans,
[01:34:52] ▶as well as many other great points. So thank you very much for that.
[01:34:55] ▶I am not opposed to hotel development at this site.
[01:34:59] ▶Of course, tourism matters, jobs matter, and a strong local economy matters.
[01:35:04] ▶The hotel development policy enables you to make informed decisions on the very real consequences
[01:35:10] ▶of proposed commercial developments
[01:35:12] ▶that hold that balance of economic development and community impact.
[01:35:16] ▶And today, you have discretion,
[01:35:18] ▶Or perhaps on the twelfth, you will have discretion.
[01:35:22] ▶At our last hearing, the planning team offered what can only be termed as a very reluctant recommendation as they acknowledge that this project deviates from many,
[01:35:30] ▶West End Community Plan guidelines,
[01:35:32] ▶as it was acknowledged that they are, you know, feeling the pressure to balance competing priorities.
[01:35:37] ▶That's no easy task for this team.
[01:35:39] ▶And I believe this emphasizes the need for thorough and intentional processes,
[01:35:44] ▶with objective data from all impacted parties and stakeholders rather than relying so heavily on,
[01:35:50] ▶some biased developer led consultancy.
[01:35:54] ▶Speaker 2: As many have spoken to throughout this hearing, there is a Sure. Resounding Right. I I totally apologize. Yeah. I'm gonna have to unfortunately pause you just for one moment. Sure. Do we have a corner now?
[01:36:06] ▶Great.
[01:36:07] ▶We
[01:36:08] ▶need sir, we we
[01:36:11] ▶yeah.
[01:36:13] ▶Sorry about that. That that's on us, not you. I totally apologize. We stopped your timer, and I'm I'll give you, like, a little more time as well to re reset if you need as well.
[01:36:22] ▶Speaker 22: Okay. Great. Thank you. Sorry about that. No. We're good? We're great. Green light? Okay. Green light, and I'm gonna give you more extra time so you can reset. All good. No. No. No. We're good. Thank you for that.
[01:36:34] ▶As many have spoken to throughout this hearing, there is a resounding 6,000
[01:36:38] ▶signature petition,
[01:36:39] ▶that has been submitted to this council, and I believe that this volume of opposition is worth noting and speaks to the lack of community consultation done by Mark on despite what they deemed to be sufficient.
[01:36:50] ▶My primary concern,
[01:36:52] ▶is that a 25 story commercial tower,
[01:36:55] ▶is just far too large for this site specific constraints.
[01:36:59] ▶A six to 10 story boutique hotel would be a much more appropriate fit,
[01:37:04] ▶effectively meeting tourism demand while significantly reducing the operational and urban design impacts on the neighborhood.
[01:37:11] ▶Scaling down to the size would align the proposal with the sound planning principles established in the West End Community Plan,
[01:37:18] ▶ensuring we welcome visitors without compromising the residential integrity of the area.
[01:37:24] ▶The existing transit and traffic infrastructure simply cannot support a 25 story commercial property,
[01:37:30] ▶as the last speaker was just speaking to, you know, regardless of below grade access of this plan,
[01:37:36] ▶unlike residential land use, the hotel operates on a twenty four hour cycle of trip generation, passenger turnover, and operational logistics.
[01:37:44] ▶Funneling that commercial volume into a single no exit lane, which must already accommodate city services and resident parking is just a recipe for a neighborhood overflow.
[01:37:54] ▶And this just isn't inconvenient
[01:37:56] ▶for residents. This isn't just a NIMBY. Right? It it would completely change how the surrounding streets function and introduce major safety conflicts between vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists,
[01:38:07] ▶and Pooh Corner as was so thoughtfully mentioned.
[01:38:11] ▶Approving this project would grant a commercial operation an unfair advantage at the expense of public street function and safety.
[01:38:18] ▶Any development at the entrance of our beloved Stanley Park, regardless of scale, should not proceed without formal coordination with the park board as flagged by park commissioner Brennan Vasubanski
[01:38:28] ▶to ensure long term integrity of adjacent natural systems.
[01:38:33] ▶The herons have been mentioned here. Important to note.
[01:38:36] ▶As was outlined last hearing, advancing,
[01:38:38] ▶major commercial developments adjacent to the park without proper board deliberation,
[01:38:42] ▶invites litigation and injunctions,
[01:38:44] ▶and this council, does not have the necessary information
[01:38:48] ▶to make that informed decision on the impact.
[01:38:51] ▶In closing, you know, cities involve incrementally. One exception becomes the next benchmark, and long range planning only works when well designed community plans meaningfully guide decisions at key moments like this.
[01:39:02] ▶I've lived West Of Denman for about, ten of the last fifteen years, and it truly is a magical place,
[01:39:08] ▶where the urban form meets, you know, the rare natural beauty and history of our park,
[01:39:13] ▶and that balance is fragile. So,
[01:39:15] ▶you know, please use your discretion,
[01:39:18] ▶today or on the twelfth, and I ask that you please, oppose this rezoning. Thank you very much for your time.
[01:39:24] ▶Speaker 2: Great. Thank you very much, Britt. And once again, I wanna apologize for that little
[01:39:27] ▶thing there. Okay.
[01:39:30] ▶Speaker number 34, Stuart Robertson
[01:39:32] ▶or sorry, Robinson.
[01:39:36] ▶Stewart here?
[01:39:38] ▶Speaker 24: This is Stewart Robinson.
[01:39:40] ▶Hi. I live right here in the West End.
[01:39:44] ▶Speaker 2: Are you here?
[01:39:46] ▶Speaker 24: Thank you. I'm calling today because I want to share my support for the new hotel proposal
[01:39:51] ▶at 2030
[01:39:52] ▶Barclay Street.
[01:39:54] ▶I live in the area. I walk by this block quite often.
[01:39:58] ▶It's a beautiful part of Vancouver, so close to Stanley Park, the Seawall, and bustling demo demonstrate.
[01:40:05] ▶I truly believe that a thoughtfully designed hotel here can enhance the area, bring life and activity
[01:40:11] ▶without taking away from what makes it special.
[01:40:14] ▶I also live
[01:40:16] ▶on
[01:40:17] ▶Boughton Street in a in a condo built by Markon, and I've been very impressed by the quality of their work and the architecture and attention to detail that makes them stand out from other developers.
[01:40:29] ▶This experience has made me confident that this hotel will be built responsibly and with care for the community and the surroundings.
[01:40:36] ▶This hotel will also bring more accommodation to the West End and hopefully
[01:40:41] ▶keep the people walking into the lobby of my condo with their suitcases,
[01:40:46] ▶you know, away from our community here.
[01:40:50] ▶I wanna see jobs that support local tourism
[01:40:53] ▶and create
[01:40:54] ▶more jobs. I also like that it will include
[01:40:58] ▶a street level restaurant and rooftop amenities,
[01:41:00] ▶spaces that both residents and visitors can enjoy
[01:41:04] ▶while helping make the street feel more vibrant and welcoming.
[01:41:08] ▶I also appreciate that Markon has listened to community feedback along the way by lowering the height from 29 to 25 stories in height.
[01:41:16] ▶As someone who lives nearby
[01:41:18] ▶and has experienced the quality of Markon's workforce, and I'm happy to support this proposal
[01:41:23] ▶and hope the city will approve it. Thanks for your time and consideration.
[01:41:28] ▶Speaker 2: Great. Thank you very much. Speaker number 35, Terry Smith.
[01:41:34] ▶Speaker 20: Good afternoon, mayor and council. Can you hear me? We can hear you great. Please go ahead.
[01:41:39] ▶Okay. Thank you. My name is Terry Smith, and I'm the executive director of the West End Business Improvement Association.
[01:41:46] ▶The West End BIA represents approximately 650
[01:41:50] ▶businesses
[01:41:50] ▶and property owners across 21 blocks of Davie, Denman, And Robson Street.
[01:41:55] ▶Our role is to champion the collective sec success of our local business community through branding, marketing, placemaking, advocacy, and strategic partnerships.
[01:42:04] ▶While the twenty thirty Barclay site sits just outside of our formal catchment, it is very much part of the broader West End and downtown ecosystem
[01:42:12] ▶that supports our businesses.
[01:42:14] ▶And for that reason, we are here
[01:42:16] ▶online today to express our conditional support for Markon's rezoning proposal at 2030 Barclay.
[01:42:23] ▶Downtown Vancouver has experienced a significant loss of hotel inventory in recent years due to conversions to residential use, closures, and repurposing for social housing.
[01:42:33] ▶At the same time, Vancouver continues to attract tourism conventions and major festivals,
[01:42:37] ▶and an adequate hotel capacity is essential to meeting visitor demand and sustaining a vibrant downtown economy.
[01:42:44] ▶This proposal would add 248
[01:42:46] ▶hotel rooms, a net increase of 221
[01:42:49] ▶rooms over the former Resellence Suites, and rebuilding hotel capacity at the scale contributes to the visitor economy and generates increased foot traffic for our local businesses.
[01:42:58] ▶That said, we do want to acknowledge and respect the concerns raised by our residents. We understand the apprehension around neighborhood density, potential noise from street level, restaurant patio, and rooftop amenities,
[01:43:09] ▶and increased traffic from ride share and taxi activity.
[01:43:13] ▶We are encouraged by several elements of the proposal to address these concerns.
[01:43:17] ▶The long term stay model representing approximately two thirds of the total rooms should reduce high guest turnover and daily traffic impacts.
[01:43:26] ▶The inclusion of an underground drop off and pickup area, which is a thoughtful design feature intended to mitigate,
[01:43:33] ▶congestion on residential streets.
[01:43:35] ▶And, of course, Mark Markham's amendment of the project height from 29 to 25 stories in response to community feedback demonstrates a willingness to adapt.
[01:43:44] ▶Restaurant patios can contribute vibrancy to a neighborhood. However, given this location West Of Denman and outside the main commercial corridors, it is critical that operations respect,
[01:43:53] ▶adjacent residential buildings.
[01:43:55] ▶We have seen neighborhood patios operate successfully in similar contexts, including at Tavola, the Sylvia, and.
[01:44:03] ▶The key is reasonable operating hours, clear expectations, and enforcement of noise management.
[01:44:09] ▶Furthermore, we also understand that Markon intends to pursue designation through the International LGBTQ
[01:44:14] ▶plus Travel Association,
[01:44:16] ▶an organization that promotes safe, inclusive, and equitable travel experiences for LGBTQ
[01:44:21] ▶plus visitors worldwide,
[01:44:23] ▶an approach that aligns strongly with the values and identity of the West End community.
[01:44:27] ▶In closing, while we do in principle support this project in recognition of the much needed hotel rooms it will deliver and important economic stimulus it will bring to the neighborhood, our support is conditional upon Mark on demonstrating an ongoing commitment to being a responsible neighbor,
[01:44:41] ▶which means proactively managing traffic, ensuring respectful patio operations, and contributing positively to the livability and vibrancy of the West End. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Speaker number 36, Samantha Gooding. Oh,
[01:44:59] ▶Speaker 6: speaker is not on the line. Okay.
[01:45:01] ▶Speaker 2: Speaker number 37,
[01:45:03] ▶Holly Burke.
[01:45:14] ▶Speaker 6: Speaker is not on the line. Okay. Oh, she's here in person.
[01:45:28] ▶Speaker 23: Thank you, mayor and council.
[01:45:31] ▶My name is Holly Burke. I've lived in the West End for sixteen years,
[01:45:36] ▶and I'm about 50 yards from Rosellen.
[01:45:40] ▶On I vote no on behalf of myself
[01:45:43] ▶and our uniquely
[01:45:45] ▶balanced community.
[01:45:48] ▶And I'm so happy we've had so many great speakers today.
[01:45:54] ▶So
[01:45:56] ▶the decision that is made on this pivotal issue will have far reaching consequences
[01:46:01] ▶for Vancouver's future, for the West End's future.
[01:46:05] ▶So
[01:46:06] ▶will we be wise
[01:46:08] ▶and protect
[01:46:09] ▶our long term assets for future generations to enjoy,
[01:46:14] ▶or will we rush to make a buck,
[01:46:17] ▶jeopardizing the very character
[01:46:20] ▶of the West End
[01:46:22] ▶and our crown jewel,
[01:46:24] ▶Stanley Park.
[01:46:27] ▶The site has not been properly vetted or proven to be safe.
[01:46:32] ▶There is not enough footage on the site to insert
[01:46:35] ▶a 27 story building
[01:46:37] ▶deeply into seismically vulnerable ground.
[01:46:42] ▶It overwhelms neighboring buildings
[01:46:45] ▶and the community.
[01:46:48] ▶You cannot simply shoehorn in
[01:46:50] ▶a 27
[01:46:51] ▶story building
[01:46:53] ▶into seismically risky ground with an insufficient
[01:46:56] ▶lot size
[01:46:58] ▶overriding
[01:46:59] ▶the, residential zoning for the block and expect us to be happy.
[01:47:06] ▶You cannot override
[01:47:07] ▶the established plans,
[01:47:09] ▶community plans in favor of a single private development
[01:47:14] ▶rather than
[01:47:16] ▶community guided,
[01:47:17] ▶transparent
[01:47:19] ▶city planning.
[01:47:21] ▶If you let this through,
[01:47:23] ▶what happens next?
[01:47:27] ▶Okay. So we support hotel growth,
[01:47:30] ▶just not here,
[01:47:32] ▶and here's why.
[01:47:34] ▶The BC Hotel Association recommends downtown and commercial corridors
[01:47:39] ▶for commercial hotels
[01:47:41] ▶and six to eight story buildings,
[01:47:43] ▶boutique hotels in our area, not a tower. The West End is very boutique oriented.
[01:47:49] ▶The Broadway Corridor and downtown near the cruise ships where transport is already established as is good. These areas are already cleared for high density.
[01:48:00] ▶These better choices would support
[01:48:02] ▶long term hotel supply
[01:48:04] ▶more effectively.
[01:48:06] ▶There are too many problems and sensitivities in an area like Stanley Park. Too many red lines being crossed.
[01:48:12] ▶Hey. We don't want our skyline
[01:48:15] ▶filled in.
[01:48:19] ▶We're already dealing with the huge water main project, which
[01:48:22] ▶which negatively impacts us daily.
[01:48:25] ▶In fact, we'd like to call for a moratorium
[01:48:28] ▶on large projects West Of Denham until the water main is complete.
[01:48:34] ▶Speaker 1: If you lived in the West End, you would understand
[01:48:37] ▶Speaker 23: why so.
[01:48:40] ▶So,
[01:48:43] ▶our Stanley Park and and our neighborhood should be protected,
[01:48:48] ▶not exploited.
[01:48:51] ▶Anyone can see how inappropriate and damaging a large commercial hotel would be, bringing significantly
[01:48:58] ▶more taxis,
[01:48:59] ▶traffic, buses, ride hailing, especially in an area not designed
[01:49:04] ▶or approved
[01:49:05] ▶for commercial hotel traffic?
[01:49:07] ▶Why has there been no open house?
[01:49:10] ▶No prop proper public consultation and overall transparency?
[01:49:15] ▶Why has there been no consultation
[01:49:17] ▶with the parks board?
[01:49:20] ▶We care
[01:49:22] ▶about planning coherence,
[01:49:26] ▶and we're counting on you
[01:49:29] ▶to uphold
[01:49:31] ▶planning coherence.
[01:49:33] ▶And we will be expressing ourselves in the election, of course, depending on how this goes.
[01:49:39] ▶How can you approve
[01:49:42] ▶a project that isn't good for the West End, a real Vancouver neighborhood?
[01:49:48] ▶Sure. Let's build more hotel rooms. Let's evolve. Let's embrace prosperity in Vancouver's future,
[01:49:55] ▶by all means.
[01:49:58] ▶But not at the expense of our regulations,
[01:50:02] ▶ethics,
[01:50:02] ▶or compromising our neighborhood's very character,
[01:50:06] ▶the thing that attracts people here in the first place.
[01:50:11] ▶So mayor and council,
[01:50:13] ▶please
[01:50:15] ▶vote no to the rezoning
[01:50:18] ▶and protect the West End. Thank you very much.
[01:50:22] ▶Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Holly.
[01:50:24] ▶Speaker number 38, Gwendel Castellan.
[01:50:31] ▶Speaker 5: Speaker 38 Speakers not on the line.
[01:50:34] ▶Speaker 2: Not on the line?
[01:50:39] ▶Speaker number 39, Adil
[01:50:41] ▶Ahmed.
[01:50:47] ▶Speaker 25: Good afternoon, mayor Sim, members of council, and city staff.
[01:50:51] ▶My name is Adil Ahmed, and I represent the owners of 2010 Berkeley Street, and we oppose the rezoning application as it's presented.
[01:50:59] ▶I'm speaking today in reference to concerns laid out in our letter to city council dated 02/17/2026.
[01:51:05] ▶We've been private family owners of 2010 Barclay for approximately forty years. Somewhere along the way, an assumption was made and then a decision taken that seemingly for us, our site was not a development site.
[01:51:17] ▶I wanna talk to you about fairness today, the fairness principles that owners and long term housing providers rely upon when making decisions
[01:51:26] ▶about maintaining or reinvesting in aging rental buildings like ours.
[01:51:31] ▶My perspective today will be slightly different, and it should not undermine at all,
[01:51:34] ▶the,
[01:51:36] ▶the concerns that were raised by many of the other speakers, but I will focus on the perspective of, being a neighborhood, owner.
[01:51:43] ▶The rezoning proposal permanently impairs not one but two neighborhood sites.
[01:51:47] ▶The city staff referral report shows that the proposed hotel tower places only a 20 foot setback at the shared property line
[01:51:55] ▶far below an equally shared 40 foot tower separation required under the West End policy.
[01:52:00] ▶This creates a condition where both 2010 And 2040 Barclay Street would have to absorb the remaining separation room, making future meaning redevelopment impossible.
[01:52:09] ▶This isn't speculation.
[01:52:11] ▶City staff themselves acknowledge that the proposed form prejudices and constraints the redevelopment potential of neighboring sites. That's on page 29, for an exact reference.
[01:52:21] ▶We've spoken to the owners of 2040 Barclay as well, and they are fully aligned with us on this concern. And together, we represent two legacy West End housing properties that stand to lose density if this single site rezoning is approved in its current form.
[01:52:35] ▶Sorry. Go to the next page here. Oh, okay. Fairness principle. As owners, we rely on a predictable regulatory framework. We cannot understand why the hotel policy would supersede the RM five b and the West End plan. Our building at 2010 Berkeley is a seventy year old rental property. We continue to invest in its upkeep, and we pay taxes and maintain rental homes in good faith,
[01:52:56] ▶based on the city's established zoning and planning rules. What happens when the building completely fails?
[01:53:02] ▶But when a proposal seeks over four times the allowable density and a height increase of 22 meters over to over 80 meters, while shifting the negative impact onto long standing neighbors, we believe it violates the basic fairness principles we depend on.
[01:53:15] ▶We're not opposed to hotels nor development nor the city's efforts to expand tourism capacity.
[01:53:20] ▶We're opposing an approach that gains that grants one property extraordinary benefits while transferring
[01:53:26] ▶extraordinary costs onto the others permanently.
[01:53:29] ▶Page four of the city staff report actually says the maximum height and densities under existing zoning are not achievable.
[01:53:37] ▶We are not asking council to deny growth. We are asking you to prevent a permanent impairment of two potential future housing sites in a city that needs it.
[01:53:46] ▶The letter we submitted to council explic explicitly noted that this proposal did not consider alternatives that would preserve neighborhood development rights. To be clear, we are not asking for site consolidation.
[01:53:57] ▶Instead, we respectfully ask council to consider a block wide rezoning approach,
[01:54:01] ▶of this part of Barclay Street. This would enable all three sites, 2010, 2030, and 2040 Barclay, to retain future development potential,
[01:54:10] ▶allow for a rational policy aligned tower replacement, prevent one property from dictating the future of its neighbors,
[01:54:17] ▶support the city's rental and housing objectives by keeping future redevelopment pathways open, and address the concerns raised by all the speakers that have presented and will present in this hearing.
[01:54:28] ▶This is a policy consistent and fair alternative to approving a project that would otherwise permanently
[01:54:33] ▶sacrifice two adjacent properties.
[01:54:36] ▶Moreover, we believe that housing shortages now and in the future as our city grows will necessitate a steady and update to the West End policy to adapt current and future city needs, and so the extensive aging rental housing stock can be adequately and mindfully replaced as buildings start to reach end of life.
[01:54:53] ▶The city has already acknowledged housing as an issue.
[01:54:56] ▶Staff have warned that this rezoning would impair our future ability to contribute new housing through redevelopment.
[01:55:02] ▶Are we okay sacrificing two potential future residential buildings for less than 3% contribution of rooms to the 10,000
[01:55:09] ▶hotel rooms that are envisioned?
[01:55:11] ▶This is the exact scenario fairness principles are supposed to prevent.
[01:55:15] ▶In closing, mayor and council, we ask that we be treated fairly. We ask the council don't rush your decision. This is a permanent decision. Do not approve a rezoning that permanently eliminates the redevelopment potential of two long standing properties.
[01:55:28] ▶Defer and adopt a block wide plan to approach so that all properties are treated fairly so that 2010 and 2040 Barclay retain the ability someday to contribute new modern housing stock to the West End.
[01:55:39] ▶Consider a new renewed study of the West End policy to mindfully adapt current and future needs. Thank you for your time and for considering fairness and long term viability of this very, very special unique neighborhood. Thank you.
[01:56:12] ▶Speaker 2: Got four minutes left.
[01:56:16] ▶Just to, like, to the last.
[01:56:20] ▶K.
[01:56:22] ▶Would someone like to move a motion just to extend,
[01:56:26] ▶this session to hear the next speaker?
[01:56:29] ▶Okay. We'll move. Second. Any discussion?
[01:56:33] ▶All in favor say yay.
[01:56:35] ▶All opposed say nay. Great. Thank you. We will hear, the next speaker. Speaker number 40, Timothy
[01:56:41] ▶Rohenbush.
[01:56:48] ▶K. Why don't we try it? Stanley Lee, speaker number 41.
[01:56:58] ▶Nope. Okay. Speaker number 42, Crystal Tadman.
[01:57:07] ▶43, withdrawn.
[01:57:09] ▶44, Randy Nill.
[01:57:11] ▶I believe he's here.
[01:57:15] ▶Yes. Okay.
[01:57:34] ▶Speaker 26: My name is Randy Nill. Hello, mayor and council.
[01:57:38] ▶My name is Randy Nill, and I've I've I've lived at 1010 Choco, one block south of this project, for about thirty years and West of Denman for almost forty years. I'm speaking on behalf of the strata council of our building, Choco
[01:57:53] ▶Park, at 1010 Choco.
[01:57:55] ▶We strongly believe this proposal should not progress any further because it negatively
[01:58:00] ▶affects our entitled quiet enjoyment of our neighborhood.
[01:58:03] ▶On the two page summary and recommendations which you have been reading,
[01:58:07] ▶recommends moving forward with the proposed design and principle with a few minor changes,
[01:58:12] ▶but this summary does not clearly explain the problems with the proposed project that are in the 32 page referral report.
[01:58:19] ▶These include
[01:58:20] ▶that the height is nearly four and a half times
[01:58:23] ▶the existing policy.
[01:58:25] ▶The density is 4.3
[01:58:27] ▶times the policy.
[01:58:29] ▶The policy minimum lot frontage is a 130
[01:58:32] ▶feet minimum,
[01:58:33] ▶and this site's only 99
[01:58:35] ▶feet.
[01:58:37] ▶Shadowing is obviously an issue. Tweaking the edges of the 25 story building is not a significant change to the overall shadowing.
[01:58:46] ▶This what this, well known 80 foot separation between towers
[01:58:49] ▶extends over the adjacent properties, like we heard the last gentleman say, and affects their, development potential. They can't even build what they're zoned for now, let alone higher buildings,
[01:59:00] ▶And they're then they're not consolidated.
[01:59:03] ▶Other other obvious issues are the parking and servicing.
[01:59:07] ▶Are 55 stalls
[01:59:09] ▶and 15 for the rep for the restaurant
[01:59:12] ▶Enough for a 248
[01:59:13] ▶room hotel?
[01:59:15] ▶Even the engineering department does not support a relaxation of parking and loading requirements in this location.
[01:59:21] ▶Perhaps there are shuttle buses, Ubers, and taxis, but there's not even a lay by drop off for any cars to stop without blocking the street.
[01:59:29] ▶The site is two blocks from Denman where there's one number five bus with a bad reputation.
[01:59:35] ▶It's not near any rapid transit. There's no overnight parking spots available and street parking spots nearby.
[01:59:42] ▶The traffic report indicates that large truck loading is possible,
[01:59:46] ▶but there have never been large delivery trucks along Barclay Street and the dead end Ted North Lane, So this is a major change to the character of the neighborhood.
[01:59:54] ▶And if you look at the site plan, the drive down,
[01:59:58] ▶driveway is shared with the residential next door, and it's a one way
[02:00:02] ▶curving
[02:00:03] ▶path down into the underground parking.
[02:00:09] ▶Anyways,
[02:00:11] ▶I couldn't I couldn't find what changes in the noise bylaw are.
[02:00:15] ▶But if a new restaurant and rooftop bar make too much noise, is the proper solution to change the bylaw?
[02:00:21] ▶Maybe the neighbors should be given earplugs instead.
[02:00:24] ▶The restaurant Markon tested is a small community oriented restaurant a couple blocks away behind a landscape buffer,
[02:00:32] ▶not a street oriented
[02:00:34] ▶tourist
[02:00:35] ▶filled restaurant.
[02:00:37] ▶So I don't think that noise,
[02:00:39] ▶comparison makes any sense at all.
[02:00:41] ▶Other hotels in the area, as we've heard, on Robson And Demond Street have been torn down or reduced in size
[02:00:48] ▶because there are far better locations.
[02:00:50] ▶Our our neighbors all agree that the city needs more hotel rooms.
[02:00:54] ▶We're not anti development by any stretch, but they should be located appropriately.
[02:01:00] ▶This proposal violates every existing zoning, community planning, and neighborhood vision that has been created over the years with significant community citizen input.
[02:01:09] ▶It contradicts the Vancouver model that says that allowing high density around the perimeter of this neighborhood
[02:01:17] ▶along and near Georgian barred streets would protect the tower the the the lower density of the interior part of the West End while providing plenty of new residential
[02:01:28] ▶units. And we've seen lots of high rises go up around the perimeter.
[02:01:33] ▶This is clearly stated by previous planning department officials.
[02:01:37] ▶The former director of planning, Larry Beasley, earned the order of Canada
[02:01:42] ▶and many, many awards for his work on the Vancouver plan that created this concept
[02:01:47] ▶among other world famous planning ideas.
[02:01:50] ▶We know the Vancouver plan has been altered in other neighborhoods, but the planning concepts in the West End have never been really challenged until this project came by.
[02:02:03] ▶Against every
[02:02:04] ▶planning vision, this proposal relies on a small loophole in the hotel development policy that allows new hotels to be located where there's an existing hotel. It's hard to imagine this statement envisioned a 25 story building to replace a four story building. I wonder what the folks who drafted the hotel development policy thought about that.
[02:02:23] ▶Anyways, we strongly hope this proposal gets stopped now and might reappear as a future of design that fits into the neighborhood of our the character of our wonderful neighborhood.
[02:02:34] ▶Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, Randy, for coming in. I'm glad we got to you.
[02:02:40] ▶This meeting is recessed until Thursday, 03/12/2026
[02:02:44] ▶at 09:30AM
[02:02:45] ▶here in Council Chamber and electronically to continue with speaker number 45.
[02:02:50] ▶I will remind council that it's
[02:02:53] ▶incredibly important that you do not engage in any discussion or correspondence in regard to the remaining application.
[02:02:59] ▶Thank
[02:03:05] ▶Speaker 1: you.