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.
[00:29:18] ▶Speaker 0: Just confirming that you heard me.
[00:29:24] ▶Speaker 1: Okay. Welcome back, everyone. I'm gonna,
[00:29:27] ▶continue on with the agenda. We are on, report number 12 now, c d dash one rezoning,
[00:29:32] ▶05/03 1 through 595 West 27th
[00:29:35] ▶Avenue. Before we begin this agenda item, if anyone believes that they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it.
[00:29:42] ▶Seeing no one's hands up,
[00:29:44] ▶we'll get into,
[00:29:46] ▶the presentation.
[00:29:47] ▶So there is a presentation. We have team members here to present the item,
[00:29:51] ▶unless, for whatever reason, council wants to waive the presentation.
[00:29:58] ▶Oh, alright.
[00:30:34] ▶Speaker 2: Hey.
[00:30:35] ▶Good afternoon, mayor, council, and members of the public. My name is Hannah Jarrett, rezoning planner for this application being considered under the transit oriented areas rezoning policy.
[00:30:46] ▶The site shown in red is located on the North side of West 27th Avenue between Ash And Camby Streets in the South Camby neighborhood.
[00:30:54] ▶The surrounding context consists of single detached houses, townhouses, and apartment buildings along Camby Street.
[00:31:00] ▶The site is located within 400 meters of the King Edward Sky Train Station, and is also close to BC women's and children's hospital.
[00:31:09] ▶Currently, there are seven single detached houses on-site with 19 units of secondary rental housing.
[00:31:14] ▶There are tenants eligible for protections under the tenant relocation and protection policy.
[00:31:23] ▶The site's generalized land use designation under the Vancouver ODP is residential mid rise, which allows residential uses up to 12 stories.
[00:31:32] ▶The proposed land use and height are consistent with this designation.
[00:31:38] ▶The site is within tier two of the transit oriented areas rezoning policy,
[00:31:42] ▶which allows for consideration of rezonings up to 12 stories and four FSR.
[00:31:47] ▶The policy requires rental housing with 20% of the residential floor area secured for below market rental rental units.
[00:31:56] ▶The application proposes two six story residential buildings
[00:32:00] ▶with a height of 26 meters and density of three FSR.
[00:32:04] ▶222
[00:32:05] ▶secondured market rental units are proposed.
[00:32:08] ▶Parking and loading access would be provided from the lane.
[00:32:12] ▶The application proposes 100% market rental units, as opposed to the 20% below market units
[00:32:18] ▶per the TOA policy.
[00:32:20] ▶Staff conducted a pro form a analysis to evaluate the land lift generated by this rezoning.
[00:32:26] ▶The analysis demonstrated that the land lift was insufficient to support 20% below market units.
[00:32:32] ▶The site is currently zoned RM eight a, which permits greater density than site zoned r one one, which reduces the land lift typically associated with a rezoning for a lower zone site.
[00:32:43] ▶Per the community amenity contributions policy,
[00:32:46] ▶staff went through a negotiated CAC process, and the applicant offered a cash CAC.
[00:32:54] ▶A virtual q and a period was held in October 2025, and 75 pieces of correspondence were received.
[00:33:01] ▶Support was expressed for adding new rental housing supply to help address Vancouver's housing crisis.
[00:33:06] ▶The location of the project close to transit schools, parks, hospitals, and jobs, and the low rise building form.
[00:33:14] ▶Concerns related to the proposed buildings being too tall for the neighborhood.
[00:33:18] ▶The impact on the small scale character of the area
[00:33:22] ▶and insufficient parking and impact of traffic on existing infrastructure.
[00:33:27] ▶In response to these concerns, the proposed height and density are less than what the TOA policy allows
[00:33:33] ▶up to 12 stories and four FSR are permitted while six stories and three FSR are proposed.
[00:33:39] ▶Conditions have been included to improve the building's fit within the neighborhood,
[00:33:43] ▶including stepping back the Top Floor of the West Building and reducing the apparent building width through design measures.
[00:33:51] ▶The site is also located close to the Canada line
[00:33:53] ▶buses on King Edward Avenue and cycling routes to encourage modes of transportation other than private vehicles.
[00:34:02] ▶The public benefits accruing from this application are approximately 6,200,000
[00:34:07] ▶in total,
[00:34:08] ▶including a CAC, development cost levies, and a public art contribution, as well as 222
[00:34:13] ▶rental units.
[00:34:17] ▶In conclusion, the application generally meets the transit oriented areas rezoning policy.
[00:34:22] ▶Staff recommend approval subject to conditions in appendix b of the report.
[00:34:27] ▶Speaker 1: Staff and the applicant team are available to answer questions. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Would the applicant like to make a presentation?
[00:34:34] ▶Well,
[00:34:39] ▶I have some questions.
[00:34:43] ▶Great. Please go ahead.
[00:34:45] ▶Sorry. We have nothing further to add to Hannah's comments, but we're available to answer any questions. Thank you very much. Council members, you have up to five minutes to ask questions of team members and the applicant. Are there any questions?
[00:34:59] ▶Councilor Orr.
[00:35:00] ▶Speaker 5: Yeah. I guess I held this, item. But I could you just explain to me this,
[00:35:07] ▶walk me through the the,
[00:35:09] ▶the the difference in that, in land lift in terms of it's not enough land lift to generate,
[00:35:16] ▶20% of BMR, but it is enough
[00:35:19] ▶to generate,
[00:35:20] ▶CAC contribution. Can you just walk me through, like, how you get to that? Mhmm.
[00:35:25] ▶Speaker 2: Yeah. So as I mentioned, the site is currently zoned RM 8 a, which is a townhouse district that allows 1.2 FSR.
[00:35:32] ▶So, basically, the increase in density going up to three
[00:35:35] ▶is not as much as if the site were, say, zoned r one one,
[00:35:39] ▶which I believe, off the top of my head, allows point seven five FSR.
[00:35:44] ▶So,
[00:35:45] ▶essentially,
[00:35:46] ▶if the site was zoned r one one or a lower district, there would be a greater amount of land lift and more ability to provide BMR. But because this site is already zoned for 1.2 FSR, it decreases
[00:35:57] ▶that increase in land value.
[00:35:59] ▶Speaker 5: So the c We just said 1.2. Is it 4.2 or 1.2?
[00:36:04] ▶Speaker 2: The current zoning allows 1.2. 1.2. R. Okay.
[00:36:07] ▶Speaker 5: And this is going up to how what what's the density it's going up to? Three. Three. Three point o. But that's not significant enough of a jump to?
[00:36:16] ▶Speaker 2: So through the pro form a analysis, it was enough,
[00:36:19] ▶to generate an $800,000
[00:36:21] ▶cash CAC, but the equivalent in BMR units would not have been 20%
[00:36:26] ▶as the policy
[00:36:28] ▶Speaker 5: required. And then there's,
[00:36:31] ▶there was talk, sorry, of the TOA policy allowing 12 stories around this so that it could actually even be even quite higher. That's correct. That that what would that be? What would the FSR be, like, potentially could be?
[00:36:44] ▶Speaker 2: The TOA policy in this location allows 12 stories and four FSR.
[00:36:49] ▶Speaker 5: And this is how what's what's this again? Three?
[00:36:51] ▶Speaker 2: Three FSR is proposed. So it's okay.
[00:36:54] ▶Speaker 5: Interesting.
[00:36:55] ▶Okay. That's all my questions. Thanks.
[00:36:58] ▶Speaker 1: Thank you, councilor.
[00:37:00] ▶Seeing no one else in the queue, would someone like to move a motion?
[00:37:05] ▶Great. Councilor Meisner, seconded by councilor Montague. Council, is there any discussion?
[00:37:11] ▶K. I don't see anyone in the queue, so I'm gonna bring this to a vote.
[00:37:16] ▶If you can go to the voting panel, please.
[00:37:22] ▶Great.
[00:37:23] ▶And if you could register your vote.
[00:37:28] ▶Vote, counselor Klassen, if you can turn on your camera.
[00:37:36] ▶Speaker 0: Get a vote in support to put assistance support, please. Sure. Great. Thank you.
[00:37:48] ▶Speaker 1: Okay. And so that passes unanimously.
[00:37:51] ▶Thank you very much. So that completes
[00:37:53] ▶item
[00:37:54] ▶number 12. We'll just wait for it to go up on the board.
[00:38:05] ▶Is it too late?
[00:38:10] ▶Yeah. So move for consideration. Do we need a seconder?
[00:38:14] ▶Great. Sorry. Councilor Joe, thank you. Any discussion?
[00:38:19] ▶Ah, okay. So we have to get someone else to move for reconsideration.
[00:38:23] ▶Councilor Joe, thank you. Seconded by councilor Maloney. Is there any discussion?
[00:38:27] ▶Great. All in favor of reconsideration, say aye. All opposed, say nay. Great. We will reconsider. So we bring this back to the vote now. Is that correct? Thank you. And councilor Klassen, would you wanna vote do you wanna vote assist in favor again?
[00:38:41] ▶Speaker 0: Yes, please, mayor. Thanks. Great. Thank
[00:38:46] ▶Speaker 1: you. Great. And we're
[00:38:49] ▶just
[00:38:50] ▶waiting on councilor Orr Meissner
[00:38:53] ▶and Bly.
[00:38:56] ▶Great. And that passes you
[00:38:58] ▶excuse me, unanimously.
[00:39:01] ▶Great. So that is, item 12.
[00:39:06] ▶The next item is actually item number 15.
[00:39:10] ▶Okay. C DDash1 rezoning 8 88 West 8th. Oh, that's a lucky number.
[00:39:16] ▶Avenue. Before we begin this, agenda item, if anyone believes that they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it. Seeing no one's hand's up, this item does have a presentation. We do have team members here to present the item unless someone would like to waive it. If not
[00:39:32] ▶alright.
[00:39:33] ▶Let's, have the presentation.
[00:39:36] ▶Okay. Counselor,
[00:39:38] ▶excuse me, Meisner,
[00:39:41] ▶seconded,
[00:39:42] ▶by counselor Joe.
[00:39:44] ▶Any discussion?
[00:39:45] ▶All in favor of waving at the presentation, say aye.
[00:39:48] ▶All those opposed, say nay.
[00:39:51] ▶It's two.
[00:39:52] ▶So we will waive the presentation.
[00:39:55] ▶Would the applicant like to make a presentation?
[00:40:03] ▶Is the applicant online?
[00:40:06] ▶Speaker 5: Good afternoon, mayor council. We are not going to make a presentation, but we're happy to answer any questions,
[00:40:11] ▶Speaker 1: that anybody has today. Thank you very much. Counsel, you do have up to five minutes to ask questions of team members and the applicant.
[00:40:19] ▶And, counselor Orr, you did hold this, presentation.
[00:40:25] ▶Oh,
[00:40:26] ▶Speaker 5: perfect. Please go ahead. My my question is about procedure in terms of,
[00:40:30] ▶this essentially not triggering,
[00:40:33] ▶a public hearing. This
[00:40:36] ▶it does say that it's consistent with the general land use designation,
[00:40:40] ▶but it's but it's a 100% commercial. So,
[00:40:44] ▶can you explain sort of the the difference there? I thought I thought if it was 50%,
[00:40:49] ▶plus one residential,
[00:40:52] ▶Speaker 7: that would sort of skip the the public hearing. So why why if there's no residential component here? Mhmm. Yeah. So this, as you identified, is a 100% commercial, and it is compliant with the Vancouver ODP. So as a result, we brought the this project's not prohibited from a public hearing, so we brought it on April 14 for referral.
[00:41:10] ▶Staff recommended that it go to a regular council meeting because of its compliance with Broadway plan policy and with, the Vancouver plan ODP.
[00:41:18] ▶But council does have the discretion to have sent it to a public hearing. But at that referral, it was sent to a regular council meeting. That's why we're here. Okay. And then so,
[00:41:30] ▶Speaker 5: just because this is all new territory, and we're just, trying to figure it out as as we go as we go along here. But,
[00:41:37] ▶so so say then if there had been,
[00:41:40] ▶a large sort of batch of correspondence
[00:41:44] ▶or, like, public interest about this,
[00:41:46] ▶then that would have,
[00:41:48] ▶triggered a public hearing?
[00:41:50] ▶Speaker 7: If oh, so we would have still brought it to,
[00:41:53] ▶referral,
[00:41:54] ▶and counsel could have decided. If you'd seen that there was a lot of correspondence, then you could have decided to, send it to a public hearing route instead, but that would have happened at the referral at the point of referral. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it'd be at your discretion.
[00:42:07] ▶Speaker 1: Mhmm. Okay.
[00:42:10] ▶Speaker 5: Okay. That's really all my questions. Thanks. Thank you very much, counselor.
[00:42:14] ▶Speaker 1: Seeing no one else in the queue, would someone like to move a motion?
[00:42:17] ▶Counselor,
[00:42:18] ▶Kirby Young, I think councilor Dominato, you seconded it.
[00:42:21] ▶Council, is there any discussion?
[00:42:24] ▶Seeing no one in the queue,
[00:42:27] ▶I'm gonna now call the vote. A reminder to,
[00:42:30] ▶if you're online, voting, please turn your camera on.
[00:42:36] ▶Speaker 0: Great. Bonus assist. Can I have a vote assist in favor with councilor Boston? Great. Yes. You can.
[00:42:41] ▶Speaker 1: Thank you. Great. Thank you.
[00:42:46] ▶And councilor Bligh and councilor Cho.
[00:42:50] ▶Great. Thank you. And that passes,
[00:42:53] ▶with councilor Orr abstaining.
[00:42:56] ▶Thank you very much. Okay.
[00:42:59] ▶So now we're gonna go into bylaws. We do have 19 bylaws on the agenda for enactment. Before we begin this, agenda item, if anyone believes that they have a conflict of interest, please declare it. Does anybody have a conflict to, declare it?
[00:43:14] ▶No? Okay. Council members who, were present or, sorry, who were absent for the meetings related to public hearing enactment bylaws must confirm that they've reviewed the proceedings of the meetings, including the video clip to be eligible to vote. Bylaw two was from the public hearing on 09/18/2025.
[00:43:31] ▶Counselor Bly and myself were absent for this item at public hearing. Counselor Bly, have you reviewed the proceedings, and will you be voting on the enactment?
[00:43:38] ▶Haven't I will. Great. And I have not, and I will not. Bly law three was from the public hearing on January
[00:43:45] ▶2525.
[00:43:46] ▶I was absent for this item at public hearing, and counselors Maloney and Orr were not on council at the time,
[00:43:52] ▶of this public hearing. Counselor Maloney, have you reviewed the proceedings, and will you be voting on the enactment?
[00:43:59] ▶Thank you, councilor Orr.
[00:44:01] ▶And I have not, and I will not. My law 13 was from the public hearing on 12/14/2023.
[00:44:09] ▶I was absent for this item at the public hearing, and councilors Maloney and Orr Orr were not on council at the time of this public hearing. Councilor Maloney,
[00:44:17] ▶have you reviewed the proceedings, and will you be voting on the enactment?
[00:44:22] ▶Great. Thank thank you. Councilor Orr?
[00:44:24] ▶Great. And I have not, and I will not. Bylaw 15 was from the public hearing on 05/07/2024.
[00:44:30] ▶Councilor Montague and myself were absent for this item at the public hearing, and councilors Maloney and Orr were not on council at the time of this public hearing. Councilor Classen advised,
[00:44:40] ▶to have reviewed the proceedings at the council meeting on 04/14/2026.
[00:44:45] ▶Counselor Maloney, have you reviewed the proceedings, and will you be voting on the enactment?
[00:44:52] ▶Counselor Montague?
[00:44:54] ▶Councilor Orr?
[00:44:56] ▶Great. And I have not, and I will not.
[00:44:58] ▶Would someone like to move the motion to adopt bylaws one through 19?
[00:45:02] ▶Great. Councilor Domino's, seconded by councilor Kirby Young. Council, is there any discussion?
[00:45:07] ▶Great. All those in favor say yay.
[00:45:10] ▶All those opposed say nay. Great. The motion carries unanimously.
[00:45:18] ▶The list of approved bylaws can be found on the city's website.
[00:45:22] ▶K. So now we're into administrative motions.
[00:45:26] ▶Number one, resolution closure and sale of land adjacent to 1750
[00:45:30] ▶Franklin Street and 1717
[00:45:32] ▶through 1771
[00:45:34] ▶East Hastings Street.
[00:45:35] ▶Before we begin, does anybody need to declare a conflict of interest on this item?
[00:45:41] ▶Council,
[00:45:42] ▶are there any questions for team members?
[00:45:46] ▶Okay. Would someone like to move, a motion?
[00:45:49] ▶Councilor Joe, thank you. Seconded by
[00:45:53] ▶councilor Montague. Council, is there in discussion?
[00:45:56] ▶No? All those in favor say yay.
[00:45:58] ▶All those opposed say nay.
[00:46:01] ▶Okay.
[00:46:03] ▶So can we get that again? All those in favor say yay?
[00:46:06] ▶Okay. Great. And all those opposed say nay? Great. Thank you. So the motion carries
[00:46:11] ▶with, councilor Frey in opposition.
[00:46:15] ▶Item number two, resolution of twenty twenty six tax levies for provincial
[00:46:20] ▶schools. Before we begin this agenda item, if anyone believes that they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to, disclose it.
[00:46:28] ▶Seeing no one disclosing,
[00:46:29] ▶council, are there any questions for team members?
[00:46:34] ▶Would someone like to move, a motion?
[00:46:38] ▶Anyone? Great. Councilor Kirby Young, councilor Dominato, thank you very much.
[00:46:44] ▶Is there any discussion?
[00:46:46] ▶Okay. All those in favor say yay. All those opposed say nay. Okay. The motion carries unanimously.
[00:46:51] ▶Resolution,
[00:46:52] ▶or item number three, resolution twenty twenty six tax levies for South Coast BC Transportation Authority, TransLink.
[00:47:00] ▶Before we begin, is there, anyone wishing to declare a conflict of interest?
[00:47:05] ▶Council, are there any questions for team members?
[00:47:07] ▶K. Would someone like to move the motion?
[00:47:10] ▶Great. Councilor Kirby Young. Thank you. Seconded by
[00:47:14] ▶councilor Montague. Council is, is there any discussion?
[00:47:17] ▶Seeing none, all those in favor say yay.
[00:47:20] ▶All those opposed say nay. Great. The motion carries unanimously.
[00:47:24] ▶Item number four, resolution twenty twenty six, tax levies for the BC Assessment Authority.
[00:47:30] ▶Any conflicts to declare?
[00:47:32] ▶Counselor, are there any questions for team members?
[00:47:35] ▶Would someone like to move the motion?
[00:47:37] ▶Counselor, Montague, seconded by councilor Kirby Young. Any discussion?
[00:47:42] ▶All those in favor say yay.
[00:47:44] ▶All those opposed say nay. Great. The motion carries unanimously.
[00:47:49] ▶Item number five, resolution twenty twenty six tax levies for municipal finance
[00:47:53] ▶authority of BC.
[00:47:55] ▶Any conflicts to declare?
[00:47:57] ▶Any questions, to you team members?
[00:48:00] ▶Would someone like to move the motion?
[00:48:02] ▶Councilor Montague, thank you very much. It's seconded by councilor Kirby Young. Council, any discussion?
[00:48:08] ▶All those in favor, say yay.
[00:48:10] ▶All those opposed, say nay. Great. The motion carries
[00:48:13] ▶unanimously.
[00:48:15] ▶Okay.
[00:48:17] ▶Notice of council member motions. Are there,
[00:48:21] ▶are there any notices of council member motions for upcoming standing committee meetings? Reminder to please state the title of the motion of the date of the standing committee meeting on which you intend to move the motion, and be sure to send the title and date of the standing committee, meeting via email to the city clerk.
[00:48:39] ▶K. So I guess I'm up.
[00:48:41] ▶So I'd like to call notice of two motions, both for the standing committee meeting on 05/20/2026.
[00:48:47] ▶The first one is entitled eliminating regulatory
[00:48:50] ▶barriers to housing affordability
[00:48:52] ▶through alignment with the provincial building code.
[00:48:56] ▶The second one is titled carrying on Joe, Joe Forte's legacy,
[00:49:01] ▶universal access to basic swimming lessons and expansion of aquatic infrastructure
[00:49:06] ▶as core public safety policy.
[00:49:09] ▶Thank you. Councilor Maloney.
[00:49:12] ▶Speaker 11: I've got two,
[00:49:13] ▶motions for the standing committee
[00:49:16] ▶meeting on the May 20. The first is building the evidence base for sustained investment
[00:49:21] ▶in Vancouver's arts and culture sector, and the second is preparing community centers for post disaster use.
[00:49:28] ▶Speaker 12: Thank you, councilor. Councilor Joe? Yeah. Thanks, mayor. I'm calling, notice a motion for the, May twenty twentieth, standing committee meeting.
[00:49:36] ▶The motion titled review and the refinement of multiplex housing policy
[00:49:41] ▶based on the early implementation experience. That is co submitted by myself,
[00:49:45] ▶councilor Zhou, and councilor Meissner. Thanks. Thank you very much. Councilor Dominato.
[00:49:50] ▶Speaker 13: Thanks, mayor. Calling notes for,
[00:49:53] ▶the May 20 standing committee meeting, motion entitled supporting Italian day on Commercial Drive in 2026.
[00:49:59] ▶And also calling notice, although I'll try to do it under, new business this afternoon, is amending the acting mayor's schedule for June 22 to twenty third twenty twenty six. Because it is administrative, I will attempt to do that today. But I'm gonna call notice anyways. Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilor Frey.
[00:50:15] ▶Speaker 8: Two notices,
[00:50:17] ▶motion for May 20 standing committee. Number one, understanding and prioritizing sex worker safety policies and resources.
[00:50:23] ▶Number two, managing and mitigating development pressures on existing small business,
[00:50:27] ▶arts, and nonprofit uses.
[00:50:30] ▶Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilor Orr.
[00:50:32] ▶Yeah.
[00:50:33] ▶Speaker 5: Notice of motion,
[00:50:34] ▶for the May 20, standing committee. Two motions, one titled work to live, live near work, affordable workforce housing for health care workers, and
[00:50:43] ▶a second one entitled, you just made the list, creating a local landlord registry for the city of Vancouver.
[00:50:50] ▶Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Okay.
[00:50:52] ▶Alistair Bly.
[00:50:54] ▶Speaker 14: Thank you very much. I have one notice of motion for May 20, Pride in Vancouver strengthening and celebrating the Vancouver Pride Festival.
[00:51:02] ▶Speaker 1: Awesome. Great. Any other,
[00:51:05] ▶notice of member motions before we move on to new business?
[00:51:09] ▶No? Okay.
[00:51:12] ▶New business. We have two items to new business on the agenda today. The first one is requests for leaves of absence.
[00:51:19] ▶This motion has been circulated to counsel at the beginning of the meeting and is available on the screen.
[00:51:24] ▶So why don't we pull that up?
[00:51:40] ▶Alright.
[00:52:07] ▶Okay.
[00:52:09] ▶Did everyone get a chance to review that to make sure it's accurate?
[00:52:12] ▶K. Would someone like to move a motion? Great. Thank you, councilor Kirby Young, seconded by councilor,
[00:52:19] ▶Meisner. Council, is there any discussion?
[00:52:22] ▶K.
[00:52:23] ▶All those in favor say yay. K. All those opposed say, nay. Great. The motion carries
[00:52:29] ▶unanimously.
[00:52:32] ▶Speaker 0: Mayor, it's, councilor Klassen. Can you put me on the queue for new business? Thank you. You we sure can.
[00:52:39] ▶Speaker 1: Where is it here?
[00:52:42] ▶Okay. I just added him. Great.
[00:52:45] ▶Okay.
[00:52:46] ▶So sorry. Do I have to see the chair on this one?
[00:52:51] ▶Sorry?
[00:52:52] ▶Yes.
[00:52:53] ▶Okay.
[00:52:54] ▶I'm gonna see the chair. I think it is it to councilor
[00:52:58] ▶Meisner or Kirby Young?
[00:53:02] ▶Okay.
[00:53:06] ▶K.
[00:53:08] ▶So I'd like to move two motions as urgent business and one motion of new business,
[00:53:13] ▶and I've sent the first two, two into the clerks. So the first one
[00:53:18] ▶is, regarding,
[00:53:20] ▶the ope, the overdose prevention,
[00:53:23] ▶site at 900
[00:53:24] ▶Hellmican.
[00:53:25] ▶I'm moving an urgent motion that requires the attention of council in connection to public health and safety. In recent days, we've heard very real concerns from residents, businesses, and frontline workers regarding the proposed overdose prevention site at 900 Helmington Street. I do wanna be very clear here. Vancouver will not support solutions that fail both the people struggling with addiction
[00:53:47] ▶and the communities around them. We've already seen what happens when facilities are placed without,
[00:53:52] ▶proper planning, oversight, or accountability.
[00:53:55] ▶The monthly rate of police calls for service to the site at 1100 Seymour Street almost tripled
[00:54:01] ▶after the OPS opened. There are also ongoing concerns about the track record of Rain City Housing as an operator.
[00:54:08] ▶When facilities are not managed to the highest standard, they do not stabilize neighborhoods.
[00:54:13] ▶They destabilize
[00:54:15] ▶them. Once again, this the site appears to have been secured before residents, businesses, and frontline workers were meaningfully,
[00:54:22] ▶engaged.
[00:54:23] ▶Staff at nearby Saint Paul's Hospital have spoken publicly,
[00:54:28] ▶that the
[00:54:29] ▶unacceptable situation related to drug use not feeling safe accessing or working around these environments.
[00:54:36] ▶Continuing to rely on piecemeal measures like this without scaling treatment and recovery options is not good enough.
[00:54:43] ▶The point of this motion is to give the city manager and the team clear direction from council to prevent the OPS from opening its doors.
[00:55:05] ▶Speaker 15: Okay. Thanks, Mayor Sim, for,
[00:55:08] ▶the description of the urgent motion.
[00:55:11] ▶As chair, I'm just gonna need a few minutes,
[00:55:13] ▶to rule,
[00:55:15] ▶on whether, this qualifies as an urgent motion or not. So I'd like to take a five minute recess, please.
[00:56:55] ▶Speaker 1: Yep.
[00:57:00] ▶Yep. Then I just go yeah. So I just keep going back and forth.
[01:00:23] ▶Speaker 15: Okay. Thank you everyone for your patience.
[01:00:26] ▶I have,
[01:00:27] ▶taken some time, to meet with our our city manager and deputy city manager as well as re review the procedure by law,
[01:00:34] ▶which stipulates that, an urgent motion must,
[01:00:39] ▶be business that requires the urgent attention of council in connection with,
[01:00:43] ▶possible public safety or life safety issues. And I I would concur that,
[01:00:48] ▶this, topic, meets meets that test.
[01:00:52] ▶And in addition to that, given the announcement by Vancouver Coastal Health,
[01:00:56] ▶that they have already signed the lease, for this new overdose prevention site at Halmachin And Hornby Street in Downtown Vancouver for June 1.
[01:01:04] ▶And given their statement that they intend to open, this the new OPS,
[01:01:08] ▶as soon as possible,
[01:01:09] ▶and given the fact that council just found out about this last week despite
[01:01:14] ▶many promises about community consultation and consultation with the city,
[01:01:18] ▶I, as chair, am ruling that, this urgent motion is in order,
[01:01:23] ▶and, we will debate it today. So I just need a seconder to the motion, please. Seconded by councilor Montague. Okay. Councilors, if you'd like to speak,
[01:01:32] ▶yes. Councilor Orr, could you hand yourself to the or just turn your mic on, please? I would like to,
[01:01:40] ▶Speaker 5: move that this motion is out of order,
[01:01:43] ▶under 8.7
[01:01:44] ▶a and 8.7
[01:01:46] ▶b.
[01:01:47] ▶8.7 a saying that this is not compatible with the perverseness of an object of the Vancouver Charter, including the good rule and government of the city or the health, safety, and welfare of its inhabitants.
[01:01:58] ▶And b, conflicts with the law or by law. The law, in this case would be, executive order 4.88,
[01:02:06] ▶which falls under the,
[01:02:09] ▶an actual law, which is the emergency health,
[01:02:14] ▶EHSA. Sorry. And,
[01:02:17] ▶I can't remember. It would be also be under the,
[01:02:20] ▶sorry, the Emergency Health Services Act and Health Authorities Act. These are two laws on the books that this would, interfere with.
[01:02:28] ▶So I'd like to
[01:02:29] ▶Speaker 15: for the chair to move on that, please. Okay. Thank you, councilor Orr, for your comments. So just, so everyone's following along here. Councilor Orr is appealing, my decision as chair. Is there a seconder to that appeal?
[01:02:43] ▶I didn't appeal. I Is it a point of order not a appeal of the decision? No. Yeah. Okay.
[01:02:49] ▶Okay.
[01:02:50] ▶So,
[01:02:51] ▶given that point of order has been stated, but it's not appeal, we'll move to the debate.
[01:02:57] ▶I have to re so it is a point of order. Okay. Sorry for the confusion.
[01:03:02] ▶I understand. Okay. So I'm just gonna take, a recess, again for about three minutes while I, concur with,
[01:03:08] ▶staff on this, and we'll be back.
[01:08:50] ▶Okay. Thanks everyone for your patience.
[01:08:53] ▶I've,
[01:08:54] ▶conferred with,
[01:08:56] ▶our city managers,
[01:08:57] ▶with our clerks and our legal,
[01:09:00] ▶team and
[01:09:04] ▶counselor Orr, on a point seven,
[01:09:07] ▶it does not,
[01:09:09] ▶fall outside of counsel's power
[01:09:11] ▶and the authority of a good government,
[01:09:14] ▶to have this, debate on the surge of motion. And on a point seven b, it's not within our judgment,
[01:09:21] ▶as counsel,
[01:09:23] ▶as you allege,
[01:09:24] ▶to say that it conflicts with any law or by law as the motion from mayor Sim is not prescriptive
[01:09:31] ▶about what tool
[01:09:33] ▶specifically would be used.
[01:09:36] ▶So I I rule that this is an order,
[01:09:40] ▶and we can have this debate.
[01:09:43] ▶So I'll need a seconder, please.
[01:09:46] ▶And I was seconded by councilor Montague. Apologies. So we'll now move, to debate on this item. Council, please add yourself to the queue should you wish, to participate in the debate.
[01:09:55] ▶And I'll have to get the clerks to advance, councilor Frey.
[01:09:58] ▶Thanks.
[01:09:59] ▶Speaker 8: Yeah. I'd also like to, call a point of order,
[01:10:02] ▶in a similar vein.
[01:10:06] ▶First, capturing this in,
[01:10:09] ▶section 8.7
[01:10:10] ▶b,
[01:10:11] ▶the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom section seven,
[01:10:14] ▶the landmark case Canada versus the PHS in 2011, which ruled it was unlawful to try and block
[01:10:21] ▶overdose prevention services,
[01:10:23] ▶in 2011
[01:10:25] ▶as a fundamental charter right for,
[01:10:28] ▶freedom of security of person and life, liberty, and happiness. And then under 8.7
[01:10:34] ▶a of,
[01:10:37] ▶procedure by law
[01:10:38] ▶and, Vancouver Charter 3.1,
[01:10:41] ▶the obligation to give due notice
[01:10:43] ▶allow the public to participate in in debate on this matter.
[01:10:48] ▶Speaker 15: Okay.
[01:10:49] ▶Acknowledging,
[01:10:50] ▶that point of order, councilor Frey. Unfortunately, we will need to take another recess, for approximately five minutes while I talk again, to our, city manager team. So we'll be back in five minutes approximately. Thank you.
[01:16:40] ▶Okay. Thank you for your patience,
[01:16:43] ▶everybody.
[01:16:44] ▶Okay.
[01:16:45] ▶I've made my ruling, on councilor Frey's point of order.
[01:16:49] ▶The point is not in order, and I've ruled that the emergency motion is in order.
[01:16:56] ▶I've conferred again with, our city manager, our deputy city manager, as well as, the city legal team.
[01:17:02] ▶And the first clause,
[01:17:04] ▶in the motion is to take, quote, all lawful steps
[01:17:08] ▶to prevent or pause the opening of the OPS.
[01:17:12] ▶This motion does not advocate
[01:17:15] ▶or stipulate that the city take any unlawful steps, only lawful steps.
[01:17:21] ▶So, again, councilor Frey's point is not in order, and the motion is in order, and, we will debate it. Thank you. That's my willingness to chair. So, counselors,
[01:17:30] ▶if you want to speak,
[01:17:32] ▶to this emergency motion, it's now on the floor, and, please add yourself to the queue.
[01:17:41] ▶Hey.
[01:17:42] ▶Clerks, if you could please advance, councilor Orr. Thank you.
[01:17:46] ▶Speaker 5: Okay. Thanks.
[01:17:48] ▶So it's noted by Vancouver Coastal Health's chief medical officer
[01:17:54] ▶that 94 people in this neighborhood died of overdose last year.
[01:17:59] ▶Questioned through the mover,
[01:18:01] ▶to staff, I suppose.
[01:18:03] ▶If this site is blocked, are we predicting that those number of overdose deaths in this neighborhood will increase or decrease? And I'd rather that be asking
[01:18:12] ▶VCH themselves, but, I suppose
[01:18:15] ▶the city manager will do.
[01:18:19] ▶Speaker 16: Sandra Singh, deputy city manager.
[01:18:22] ▶I'm afraid I'm not I'm not in in a position to speculate on on what could happen in terms of this,
[01:18:28] ▶but, but, certainly, council has access to to data on this.
[01:18:33] ▶Speaker 5: Similar question to this chair. Are there any reported cases of fatal overdoses at these overdose prevention sites?
[01:18:42] ▶Speaker 16: I would have to I would have to follow-up with these Answer is no. No. Not a single one.
[01:18:48] ▶Speaker 5: Is the reduction of prevention of overdose deaths in alignment with ministerial order four eight eight?
[01:18:57] ▶Speaker 16: Counselor, I'll I would need to review that ministerial order. I don't have it in front of me. It's not.
[01:19:04] ▶Speaker 5: Would the anticipated increase in overdose deaths be in opposition to or in contravention of ministerial order four eight eight?
[01:19:13] ▶Speaker 16: Counselor, if you could
[01:19:15] ▶me a moment to review
[01:19:17] ▶order four eight eight, I could certainly do so.
[01:19:21] ▶Speaker 5: Do we need a recess then too?
[01:19:27] ▶Speaker 15: I would, like to know from the, deputy city manager if, they need a recess in order to review that section.
[01:19:35] ▶Speaker 16: If council would like me to provide
[01:19:38] ▶an opinion on on alignment with that ministerial order, I would need some time to review it. It's been some time since I've looked at it.
[01:19:45] ▶Speaker 15: Okay. And councilor, you're wishing to yep. And, and what's, length of recess would be roughly required?
[01:19:52] ▶If I could Deputy city manager. Five minutes. Five minutes? Okay. Okay. We'll take, we'll take a five minute recess, and, we'll return at 04:25.
[01:20:00] ▶Thanks.
[01:26:01] ▶Okay.
[01:26:02] ▶Thank you.
[01:26:04] ▶Thank you everyone, for your patience.
[01:26:08] ▶So,
[01:26:09] ▶I understand that, the deputy city manager has a response to, councilor Orr's questions, so I'll I'll turn it over to, Sander Singh.
[01:26:17] ▶Speaker 16: Thank you for the time to to review the ministerial order from 12/09/2016.
[01:26:23] ▶So this is a very brief ministerial order, that is directed toward the regional health authorities and the BCEHS.
[01:26:30] ▶It is not directed toward municipalities.
[01:26:33] ▶So council,
[01:26:34] ▶is so it's, it's not directed to us.
[01:26:37] ▶Speaker 15: Hey. Thank you,
[01:26:39] ▶Sandra, for clarifying,
[01:26:41] ▶Speaker 5: that question. Councilor Orr. Yeah. I was gonna have one more question.
[01:26:59] ▶Thanks. Thanks for that answer.
[01:27:01] ▶One more question to the, deputy city manager through the chair. Does the city's responsibility to maintain the appearance of public order supersede its responsibility
[01:27:11] ▶to follow all applicable issued health directives by the province and its responsibility to protect the health, well-being, and lives of its residents.
[01:27:21] ▶Speaker 16: Councilor, I think the consideration of the of the balance of different public interest would be something that council could direct staff to back on as part of this motion.
[01:27:30] ▶And it and, ultimately, at times, it will be council's deliberation.
[01:27:34] ▶Speaker 4: Alright.
[01:27:37] ▶Speaker 5: I'm gonna move a motion to defer,
[01:27:40] ▶this so that we can hear from Vancouver Coastal Health. I'm just sending it through now.
[01:27:46] ▶I don't think I don't think we can make a decision on this with with the answers that we've been given,
[01:27:50] ▶and that's seeing that the the ministerial order does,
[01:27:55] ▶go towards Vancouver Coastal Health.
[01:27:57] ▶We need to hear from them,
[01:27:59] ▶in order to make a decision on this.
[01:28:02] ▶Speaker 15: K. So just to confirm, councilor, you're moving a motion to refer? Yeah.
[01:28:07] ▶Okay.
[01:28:09] ▶If we could, move to the amendments.
[01:28:11] ▶Actually, I'm not sure. Do we need to move to the amendment queue for a referral motion? Can't recall. Apologies.
[01:28:16] ▶Works.
[01:28:18] ▶We have a referral motion. I'm just wondering if we need to move to the amendment queue or not.
[01:28:24] ▶Yep. So we'll move to the amendment queue that was seconded by councilor Bly.
[01:28:29] ▶So please please add yourself, to the queue if you wish to speak
[01:28:33] ▶to councilor Orr's, referral motion, which,
[01:28:36] ▶he's just, sent in. It should be in your email.
[01:28:40] ▶Okay. Councilor Kirby Young.
[01:28:42] ▶Please go ahead.
[01:28:45] ▶Speaker 10: I have microphone.
[01:28:46] ▶I have point of procedure.
[01:28:47] ▶This is not deferring to anything, to to a meeting, to a date, to anything. So I'm just wondering, chair, through you, it's a point of procedure if this is actually a
[01:28:54] ▶a, complete amendment.
[01:28:57] ▶Speaker 15: That's a very good point, councilor Kirbiong. I'm just Provides I would argue it provides insufficient direction.
[01:29:03] ▶I'm just looking at the motion now as, obviously, it's fast moving moving situation, and I would agree it doesn't have any specifics
[01:29:09] ▶as to when.
[01:29:10] ▶It just says defer in order to hear for Vancouver Coastal Health, but there's no timeline.
[01:29:14] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. Then and that I to save us sort of going through endless points of order, I'm just gonna call the question on this one so we can move this along because we have 429.
[01:29:24] ▶Speaker 15: Okay. Councilor
[01:29:26] ▶is calling the question,
[01:29:27] ▶on, the motion. The deferral motion.
[01:29:31] ▶We need a seconder.
[01:29:34] ▶On councilor's deferral motion.
[01:29:37] ▶And the calling the question has to be seconded. Correct, clerks?
[01:29:41] ▶Yeah. Obviously. So, councilor Montague has, seconded that.
[01:29:46] ▶We're called to question. We're not gonna vote on it. It's on the deferral.
[01:29:51] ▶Speaker 9: Chair, this is councilor Claussen. Can I have a a vote assist in opposition? Yes. Noted. Councilor Claussen. Thank you. Sorry, chair, if I may. So this is a,
[01:30:00] ▶Speaker 17: you the call to question. So you now need to have a two thirds vote required to move on,
[01:30:06] ▶with proceeding on the voting on the amendment.
[01:30:09] ▶Speaker 1: Okay.
[01:30:11] ▶Speaker 17: Vote on the call to call to question. Call to vote first. Sorry about this. I haven't,
[01:30:15] ▶Speaker 15: shared in this situation before.
[01:30:17] ▶Okay. So,
[01:30:18] ▶first, as stated, we need to vote on, the calling of the question. So we need two thirds majority in order to
[01:30:25] ▶advance that. Do we do a recorded vote or a show of hands?
[01:30:28] ▶Recorded vote? K. If we could please do that. Thank you.
[01:30:33] ▶And this is on calling the question. Correct?
[01:30:37] ▶Speaker 0: Yeah. Thank you. Hey. Chairs, this is councilor Klassen. Can I have a vote and assist in favor of calling your question? Noted. Thank you.
[01:30:47] ▶Speaker 15: So I'm not able to see those results in this seat, but, oh, they're they're on screen there.
[01:30:54] ▶It doesn't pass. It doesn't pass. We needed a two thirds.
[01:30:59] ▶Yeah. So okay. So that doesn't pass,
[01:31:02] ▶as we needed two thirds.
[01:31:03] ▶In opposition is councilor Bly, councilor Frey, councilor Orrin, councilor Maloney.
[01:31:09] ▶Okay. So we're not able to call the question.
[01:31:11] ▶We will,
[01:31:13] ▶continue with debate.
[01:31:19] ▶Speaker 10: Yep. So, I will just say that, I think there is a sense of urgency about this. And,
[01:31:24] ▶just with no definitive timeline and no direction in the motion,
[01:31:28] ▶as to how and when that would be considered makes it doesn't make sense to me, and I think that we should get into the substantive debate and not the procedural wrangling. So I'm opposed. Thanks.
[01:31:37] ▶Speaker 15: Thanks, councilor Kirbeeong. Councilor Frey.
[01:31:40] ▶Speaker 8: Well, I, would like to state that I do not believe this meets any threshold for urgency given the timing. We do have another scheduled council and committee meeting between now and
[01:31:50] ▶the time that the,
[01:31:52] ▶applicant is suggesting they would open. Although, I would probably have some questions of staff as to what they would require to open, including a development permit, building permit, change of use, all the various ancillary kind of conditions
[01:32:05] ▶to open in the first place. So I do not believe this at all reflects,
[01:32:09] ▶an urgent
[01:32:10] ▶prerogative,
[01:32:11] ▶and I and I disagree with the chair's original ruling. So that said, I think the opportunity for Vancouver Coastal Health to opine on,
[01:32:19] ▶the extent to which this is needed and necessary
[01:32:22] ▶is is prudent,
[01:32:24] ▶to reflect on our obligations
[01:32:26] ▶under the,
[01:32:27] ▶Canadian Charter Rights and Freedoms,
[01:32:31] ▶section seven. And, really, our our obligations as good governments, I think buying us some time to do this right is the appropriate thing. And I do need to highlight that not only are we not
[01:32:42] ▶allowing Vancouver Coastal Health, our
[01:32:45] ▶designated health authority to comment on this this this
[01:32:49] ▶air quotes urgent motion, we are also denying the public and immediate stakeholders an opportunity to opine on this air quotes urgent motion.
[01:32:57] ▶We have time to do this the right way, and,
[01:33:01] ▶this chair and and the mover of this motion are choosing to do it the wrong way. And so,
[01:33:07] ▶I support this motion to to further this so we can hear from the experts, not the opinions. Thank you.
[01:33:15] ▶Speaker 15: K. Thank you. Councilor Blythe.
[01:33:17] ▶Speaker 14: Thanks very much. I have a point of information,
[01:33:20] ▶through you, chair,
[01:33:22] ▶to the city manager. And there's been some comments relate
[01:33:26] ▶and maybe deputy city manager, appreciate it,
[01:33:29] ▶who's been focusing on this perhaps file, longer. But,
[01:33:33] ▶so we received
[01:33:34] ▶I'm not sure if it's confidential the date we received an update, but it was almost twelve days ago, I would say. Not just last week, almost two weeks ago.
[01:33:43] ▶So in this space of the past
[01:33:45] ▶many months, my understanding is there have been liaison tables that have been set up for community consultation, and they've been set up by
[01:33:54] ▶our city manager's office in some form. Could you speak to that level of community engagement that actually has been going on for almost a year as I understand it?
[01:34:19] ▶Your microphone's not on.
[01:34:21] ▶Can I get that time back and ask that the deputy city manager
[01:34:24] ▶start from the top? Because we the public has to hear this. Thank you.
[01:34:28] ▶Speaker 16: VCH,
[01:34:29] ▶is a member of the downtown south neighborhood liaison table, which is where they've had conversations
[01:34:34] ▶relating to the,
[01:34:36] ▶to the to the siting of the OPS mobile ban, and and it's,
[01:34:40] ▶it is a table that they have,
[01:34:42] ▶provided updates to on their work to identify a ongoing site for an OPS in the downtown. Okay. But with those meetings,
[01:34:50] ▶Speaker 14: were we part of those meetings as a city? City leadership, city sorry. My back is too. It's just my microphone's this way. City, it is a city convene table that includes various stakeholders and public agencies.
[01:35:01] ▶Okay. So this is not
[01:35:03] ▶surprise news to the city if we've been involved in those
[01:35:07] ▶liaison tables, I would suspect.
[01:35:09] ▶Speaker 16: So the the city staff are aware and VCH kept city staff aware of the area that they were looking,
[01:35:16] ▶for for a relocated site and including contemplating St. Paul's,
[01:35:21] ▶and and including,
[01:35:23] ▶Speaker 15: a number of But but all those sites are within about two blocks of each other. It's a it's a it is a it is a, a focused area. Yeah. It's it's Sorry. Counselor Blah, apologies for interrupting. I'm just noting that, your questions are not germane to the motion to refer. They're more germane. They are because they're about Vancouver Coastal Health. Thank you. They are because they're about Vancouver Coastal Health. I would just encourage you to keep your questions focused and comments focused on the referral, and then we can move to the main motion. What I'm trying to do is understand whether or not the referral is justified. And I think the
[01:35:52] ▶Speaker 14: the liaison
[01:35:53] ▶roundtables that have been hosted by Vancouver Coastal Health speaks to
[01:35:57] ▶the amount of work that has already happened between the city of Vancouver Coastal Health about the service in this site in this area.
[01:36:04] ▶So a referral does make sense in the sense that if we don't have Vancouver Coastal Health to speak to council
[01:36:11] ▶on both their requirement, their mandated,
[01:36:13] ▶requirement by the province
[01:36:16] ▶to provide these services somewhere in the vicinity
[01:36:19] ▶because it's the second highest
[01:36:21] ▶number of overdoses in the city,
[01:36:23] ▶in this particular area, which is part of the ministerial order that was referenced by councilor.
[01:36:28] ▶That's one piece of it. I think it justifies a referral to at least include Vancouver Coastal Health in this decision.
[01:36:35] ▶And the second
[01:36:37] ▶part is,
[01:36:40] ▶is
[01:36:41] ▶lost my train of thought. Thanks.
[01:36:43] ▶It's too
[01:36:44] ▶so there's the the liaison tables and then also,
[01:36:51] ▶I'll have to come back on.
[01:36:54] ▶Speaker 15: K. Thanks, councilor Blythe.
[01:36:57] ▶If I could please be advanced,
[01:36:59] ▶and, I just wanna make, some comments. So I'll,
[01:37:03] ▶turn the chair to deputy mayor, councilor Kirby Young. Okay. Thank you.
[01:37:09] ▶It's interesting. Councilor Frey,
[01:37:12] ▶re supports the referral because, you know, he wants to see more consultation.
[01:37:16] ▶I think that's really the issue here is that there has been a a lack of community consultation. So the neighborhood, liaison,
[01:37:23] ▶table,
[01:37:24] ▶which is a small group of residents, business owners, nonprofit representatives, I understand,
[01:37:30] ▶has, you know, been aware of this and has been discussing this, I don't know, potentially for several months.
[01:37:35] ▶We we as council as councilors
[01:37:37] ▶who are represented
[01:37:39] ▶to represent,
[01:37:40] ▶citizens of Vancouver just found out about this last week.
[01:37:44] ▶So in that is not meaningful meaningful consultation.
[01:37:47] ▶Vancouver Coastal Health, has made many statements and promised after the last,
[01:37:52] ▶two iterations of these
[01:37:55] ▶disastrous
[01:37:56] ▶sites in Downtown Vancouver that have caused chaos and public disorder in Yaletown and Downtown South that there would be meaningful community consultation.
[01:38:05] ▶And
[01:38:06] ▶finding out,
[01:38:07] ▶a month before when they've already signed a lease that the site they'd like to open it a month from now,
[01:38:15] ▶that's not meaningful community consultation.
[01:38:19] ▶I've been hearing from,
[01:38:20] ▶neighbors,
[01:38:21] ▶and residents on Hornby Street all morning
[01:38:24] ▶who say that they had no idea that this was happening.
[01:38:29] ▶No one from Vancouver Coastal Health has reached out to them. No postcard has been dropped on their mailbox.
[01:38:34] ▶They have been invited to no community listening sessions.
[01:38:38] ▶And in fact,
[01:38:39] ▶again, as we learned, they've already signed the lease. So that is not meaningful community consultation.
[01:38:46] ▶All that said,
[01:38:48] ▶the deferral motion,
[01:38:50] ▶is not complete. I do not support it. This is urgent,
[01:38:53] ▶and we need to,
[01:38:56] ▶address, the urgency
[01:38:57] ▶of of this and ensure that the community is consulted on this, this new site.
[01:39:02] ▶So I'll take the chair back and go to councilor Maloney.
[01:39:13] ▶Speaker 11: Just in relation to,
[01:39:15] ▶counselor Orr's,
[01:39:19] ▶referral motion,
[01:39:22] ▶I'm supportive of it because,
[01:39:25] ▶Vancouver Coastal Health is required by
[01:39:28] ▶this provincial
[01:39:29] ▶ministerial,
[01:39:31] ▶order to open overdose prevention services where the number's warranted.
[01:39:36] ▶And that's, ministerial order number M488,
[01:39:40] ▶order of the minister of health under the Emergencies
[01:39:43] ▶Health Services Act.
[01:39:45] ▶And, obviously, the complaints that I've heard in introducing this motion,
[01:39:52] ▶are that
[01:39:54] ▶is lack of consultation. So it seems entirely incongruous not to give Vancouver Coastal a healthy opportunity
[01:40:01] ▶to be involved in this decision. Thanks.
[01:40:05] ▶Speaker 15: Hey. Councilor Kirby Young.
[01:40:07] ▶Speaker 10: Yeah. I I'm I just reiterating similar comments. I'm struck by the irony that, we're proposing to defer to, some unknown date
[01:40:16] ▶at some future time, which could actually be after an OPS is opened so that we can hear from Coastal Health when Coastal Health has not met its obligations very
[01:40:23] ▶clearly stated,
[01:40:25] ▶one's to consult, to engage, with key stakeholders like council and, importantly, the the local area
[01:40:32] ▶stakeholders. And when in speaking with the senior leadership at the Wall Center Hotel,
[01:40:37] ▶immediately across the street in the heart of downtown.
[01:40:40] ▶They didn't find out about it. Some of them did not know about it till Sunday.
[01:40:44] ▶It's Tuesday.
[01:40:45] ▶And yet, apparently, we want to provide an further opportunity for Coastal Health who did not see fit
[01:40:51] ▶to actually fulfill their commitment. So I'm struck by the irony,
[01:40:55] ▶that, we're looking to kick this down the road. And the impact of this amendment is that, with no framing, no date, no sense of urgency is that
[01:41:04] ▶they will be having a debate after this open very similar to the decision that the public are advised after the decision is made and the lease is signed. And that is exactly the problem that we find ourselves in. We went through this last term.
[01:41:15] ▶It did not end well.
[01:41:17] ▶I did not support the OPS site on Seymour Street, because of anticipation of a number of problems, and,
[01:41:23] ▶we apparently are looking to repeat exactly the same cycle with the same operator in a very similar location. And you know the old adage, if you keep if you did the same thing you did before, you're going to get the same results. And I do not see any difference here in the heavy handed approach that was taken last time for the one on Seymour Street and what is being taken here today. So I'm hopeful that we can continue moving through this business and get to this important item that is attempting to, stand up for
[01:41:50] ▶the residents of Vancouver and quite frankly, get people to better. I'll say substantive comments on on the motion because I know we're just debating the referral, and it's important to stay focused on that.
[01:42:00] ▶That's, that's my perspective on this one. Hopefully, we can move through this piece and carry on. Thanks. K. Thanks, councilor Kirbiong. Councilor Joe.
[01:42:07] ▶Speaker 12: Yeah. Thanks, chair. So I also have a point of information through your chair to the deputy city manager.
[01:42:13] ▶So when you talk about, the the downtown south liaison table,
[01:42:18] ▶who are the stakeholders
[01:42:19] ▶sitting at that table?
[01:42:23] ▶Speaker 16: So I don't have the complete membership list for me, but our neighborhood liaison tables typically
[01:42:29] ▶include,
[01:42:30] ▶BCH, BC Housing,
[01:42:33] ▶the BIAs,
[01:42:34] ▶the CPCs
[01:42:35] ▶that serve the area, community policing centers,
[01:42:38] ▶and, and then staff from a number of city departments and residents associations
[01:42:44] ▶representatives. So that's the so their, their tables of basic of community organizations and public agencies that work in the area. So p d VPD is there as well. Okay. So were there any discussion regarding the the location of,
[01:42:57] ▶Speaker 12: the site?
[01:42:59] ▶Speaker 16: So,
[01:43:00] ▶my I I would my understanding is that,
[01:43:04] ▶is that, there was general discussion around the area that,
[01:43:08] ▶that VCH was looking at. I'm not I don't know what at what point they started to enter they entered into lease discussions, for example, with the owner. I'm I'm we're not privy to that. Okay. Good. And, also, do we know when exactly we know the the the the the dislocation?
[01:43:23] ▶So,
[01:43:24] ▶we,
[01:43:25] ▶we had an update from, from VCH
[01:43:28] ▶colleagues just before
[01:43:30] ▶Speaker 15: the letter was sent. I'm really sorry to interrupt, but I just wanna remind counselors that we need to focus on the motion that's in front of us,
[01:43:38] ▶which is the motion to refer.
[01:43:40] ▶Speaker 12: Yes. So that's related.
[01:43:42] ▶100%. So when exactly we know the decision that this this side has been selected?
[01:43:48] ▶We're we're we're discussing the referral right now. That's right. I'm asking this question, which is related to the referral
[01:43:54] ▶about the community engagement part.
[01:43:56] ▶Speaker 16: So I received the the letter from,
[01:43:59] ▶from doctor Daly on April 23 and sent that on to counsel, and we had received
[01:44:04] ▶an in person update from a BCH just prior to that, and we had asked for something in writing that we could send an offer
[01:44:10] ▶Speaker 12: to counsel. Yeah. Thanks. So so very similar to my my colleague. I think,
[01:44:14] ▶the community engagement is only happening, like, less than ten days ago. So from that perspective, I think Vancouver Coastal Health has enough time to then community engagement,
[01:44:24] ▶also communicate with council, but they haven't done that. We just heard the news about ten days ago. The lack of transparency is something I'm really concerned of. I think, you know, I talked to one of my friend who's living right there in that building, in the intersection, in that in that high res building. She's not aware of this at all. So I don't think I think we get enough opportunity to do to facilitate
[01:44:46] ▶this community engagement that we haven't heard anything. So with that, I'm not gonna support this, referral motion. K. Thanks, councilor.
[01:44:54] ▶Speaker 15: Councilor Bly,
[01:44:57] ▶will add her back onto the queue when she's back in the chamber.
[01:45:01] ▶Speaker 8: Councilor Frey. Oh, I thought I had a little time with, councilor Bly
[01:45:06] ▶there.
[01:45:07] ▶Speaker 15: She's not present, so, I can come back to you if you like. Oh,
[01:45:10] ▶well, just continue, councilor Frey. Well, no. I'm well, actually, if because I'm just trying to collect what else We can go to the next councilor. Councilor Montague.
[01:45:17] ▶Please go ahead.
[01:45:19] ▶Speaker 20: Yeah. Thanks. I'm gonna save my comments for the main motion, but noting the time, I'd like to throw a motion,
[01:45:25] ▶on the floor to,
[01:45:27] ▶Speaker 15: extend past 05:00 and finish this item. K. We need a seconder to extend to finish the item, seconded by councilor Dominato.
[01:45:33] ▶All those in favor, say yay.
[01:45:35] ▶Any opposed, say nay.
[01:45:38] ▶Okay. So that passes.
[01:45:40] ▶So we'll continue past five to complete the item, councilor Montague. That's it. Thank you. K.
[01:45:45] ▶Councilor Bly, I know you stepped away. Do you want an opportunity to
[01:45:49] ▶I can put you next if you would like. I will hold my comments to the end. Thanks. Thanks. Count or pardon me. Mayor Sim, please go ahead.
[01:45:58] ▶Speaker 1: Thank you. I'll keep my comments brief because I wanna, you know, talk to the main motion.
[01:46:03] ▶But on the referral,
[01:46:04] ▶I do think it's incredibly important that we have this, discussion. We have this debate right now.
[01:46:12] ▶Look. I'm I'm here to stand up for Vancouver and Vancouver rights and, and the people that call Vancouver home and do business in the city of Vancouver. And the reason we're here in the first place, I believe, is in well, my opinion,
[01:46:23] ▶it's actually a lack of transparency coming from Vancouver Coastal Health.
[01:46:28] ▶We've held numerous press conferences in the Granville Entertainment District. We have talked about this issue a whole bunch of times about all the different challenges, all the,
[01:46:36] ▶things that have not worked in the past. And
[01:46:39] ▶I'm sorry. When, you know, when I was, downtown today and we're at another press conferences,
[01:46:45] ▶business owners, residents,
[01:46:47] ▶people that work in hotels, they were all surprised by this.
[01:46:50] ▶You
[01:46:51] ▶know, and so let's have the debate. Let's not play games here and try to kick it down the street.
[01:46:58] ▶You know, people's lives are at stake here, and we we want to fight for meaningful outcomes. I'm gonna talk about a lot that more,
[01:47:05] ▶during the main motion,
[01:47:07] ▶but let's have that conversation right now. Thank you.
[01:47:11] ▶Hey. Thanks, mayor. Councilor Frey.
[01:47:15] ▶Speaker 8: Yeah. I appreciate the mayor's comments. I think we're all here to stick up for Vancouverites, and and and that's that's why we do this job, and that's why we're here.
[01:47:25] ▶if I may, through
[01:47:27] ▶you, Jared, question of, the city manager, is
[01:47:31] ▶or deputy city manager, is this a is this a turnkey location?
[01:47:35] ▶Are we anticipating that
[01:47:37] ▶that Coastal Health might need permits or
[01:47:40] ▶any such things?
[01:47:54] ▶Speaker 10: I have a point of order, chair, and I'm wondering if you can guide council towards,
[01:47:57] ▶focusing comments on the motion to refer or not, because I think we're getting into substantive debate on the motion itself,
[01:48:04] ▶which is,
[01:48:06] ▶there's an appropriate time for that. But I think that it would be best use of counsel's time to dispense with the referral motion one way or the other and then to get into the substantive debate, and that's where those comments should be made. Well, actually yeah.
[01:48:17] ▶So I was It's just like this. It's a point of proceed it's a point of procedure. Point of procedure. Point of Thank you. I believe it's a point of order because we're not in there with You didn't say a point of order. So let's get on with the the, you know Right. Question I was asking, to be very clear If I if I may was around as as a chair, I'm just going to indulge I'm sorry. I'm gonna let you speak, but please just let me resolve this debate that's occurring outside of the parameters. If I may just finish, I was encouraged by my colleagues to call a point of order, so I did that. I'm looking for guidance from the chair as to whether you consider point of order or point of procedure, but I'm really looking for the chair to guide this discussion, please. Thank you, councilor Kirby Young. I have, encouraged councilors,
[01:48:52] ▶Speaker 15: several times throughout this debate already to please speak to the referral, and then we can have a more substantive debate,
[01:48:59] ▶if this is not,
[01:49:01] ▶if it doesn't pass.
[01:49:03] ▶So
[01:49:04] ▶Speaker 8: Right. That's what I think the third time I've I've mentioned this, so I would just appreciate it. And and and I would remind the chair and and and the speakers that point of order does need to be,
[01:49:12] ▶accompanied with a number from our procedure by law. The reason I was asking about what,
[01:49:17] ▶what Coastal Health's needs might be is because this is a motion to refer to hear from Vancouver Coastal Health. So when I asked about it being a turnkey operation, what does Coastal Health need? It is germane to, I think, this, hearing more from Coastal Health. So I'm wondering if the deputy city manager might be able to respond. Do we know what Vancouver Coastal Health is suggesting they need in in order to inform whether we should hear from them?
[01:49:43] ▶Speaker 16: This site,
[01:49:44] ▶we understand that tenant improvements would be required.
[01:49:48] ▶A change of use would be required for this site as well, so there would need to be a
[01:49:53] ▶Speaker 8: Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that.
[01:49:56] ▶I'm gonna submit an amendment to this amendment,
[01:49:59] ▶Speaker 15: which I just did. Okay. So, clerks, if you please take us to the amendment queue and, councilor Frey, please, continue on the amendment to the amendment.
[01:50:07] ▶Speaker 8: So so, I mean, I think that, fundamentally, what we've heard just from the response from the deputy city manager right there is that there would be a change of use. There would be building permits needed. There would be development permit needed. This is not a turnkey operation that is gonna open first thing June 1. There's work that has to happen.
[01:50:24] ▶And I think that there is conversation that has to happen. And in order to have an informed conversation,
[01:50:30] ▶an informed discussion, and make informed decisions,
[01:50:33] ▶we are obliged to hear evidence, not conjecture, not what has been presented before us.
[01:50:39] ▶As well intentioned as it may be sticking up for certain Vancouverites, I think we have a responsibility to take a big picture and an informed decision. So,
[01:50:47] ▶I've added to counselor, Orr's deferral motion,
[01:50:50] ▶to defer this to the next scheduled standing committee, which is May 20, in order to hear from Vancouver Coastal Health. Additionally, the Vancouver police recognizing that this may be cons considered a public safety issue, neighborhood stakeholders, and planning and permitting staff in order that we can have an informed discussion and decision. Because, frankly, I find that what we're talking about now is so
[01:51:11] ▶based in in non facts, and the fact that we've just heard that that this is not a turnkey operation and will not be opening June 1 despite the
[01:51:19] ▶the the sometimes hyperbolic,
[01:51:22] ▶rhetoric around this. I think it's important for us to have an informed and grounded discussion. So I do think it's appropriate for us to refer this to the next council committee meeting to hear some of the facts and
[01:51:33] ▶stick to the facts. Thank you.
[01:51:41] ▶Speaker 15: Pardon me. I'll turn my microphone on. Seconded by councilor Orr.
[01:51:45] ▶If I could, pass the chair to deputy mayor, Kirby Young to make some comments, please.
[01:51:51] ▶Thank you. Go ahead. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you.
[01:51:55] ▶It's interesting,
[01:51:56] ▶councilor Frey's
[01:51:58] ▶rationale,
[01:51:59] ▶for this,
[01:52:00] ▶deferral,
[01:52:01] ▶amendment to the amendment.
[01:52:03] ▶To me, it's clear that the opposition is doing everything they can to stall this process and,
[01:52:09] ▶ensure that,
[01:52:10] ▶council cannot exercise its rights in response to police. To,
[01:52:16] ▶Speaker 11: that,
[01:52:18] ▶accusation
[01:52:19] ▶Neighborhood safety. About the Counselor counselor Malone. For Counselor Malone. Of
[01:52:26] ▶motive of opposition counselors. Counselor Malone.
[01:52:30] ▶Speaker 10: Yes. I'm asking if you can advise if you are calling a point of order or point of procedure, or you're just making a general comment.
[01:52:36] ▶Speaker 11: I because you don't because you don't have the queue. So I'm just looking for clarity, please.
[01:52:41] ▶I,
[01:52:42] ▶point of,
[01:52:44] ▶privilege
[01:52:45] ▶that,
[01:52:47] ▶that's point of order. Sorry. Counsel.
[01:52:50] ▶Speaker 10: That is If we can it's not a point of privilege.
[01:52:53] ▶Do you wanna call a point of order a point of procedure?
[01:52:56] ▶Speaker 11: Point of order that,
[01:52:58] ▶councilor Meisner
[01:53:00] ▶shouldn't be impugning,
[01:53:02] ▶the motivations
[01:53:04] ▶of other councilors by accusing them
[01:53:08] ▶of
[01:53:10] ▶Speaker 10: improper conduct in the in the chamber. And I would ask that he Okay. To rule that. I I think that the public can, can, listen to the debate, and we'll ask councilors to refrain from that. Councilor Meiser, please carry on with the rest of your comments.
[01:53:27] ▶Speaker 15: Thank you. Not making any allegations of improper conduct at all. Just, speaking to the the amendment to the amendment by councilor Frey, which I think is pretty crystal clear for the public.
[01:53:38] ▶So there was a comment by councilor Frey and the rationale for this amendment to the amendment
[01:53:42] ▶that this is not a a, quote, turnkey operation.
[01:53:45] ▶That is not what we saw with the last failed OPS site on House Street. I will just remind council and the public
[01:53:53] ▶that as a city councilor has who has been engaged on this file
[01:53:57] ▶as a downtown resident of the past twenty years
[01:54:00] ▶who has been asking VCH and asked VCH repeatedly for information about where they were planning to relocate
[01:54:06] ▶the OPS given all the issues with open drug use and street disorder with the last site.
[01:54:11] ▶Council literally found out the night before
[01:54:14] ▶the second OPS opened.
[01:54:16] ▶We literally had eight hours notice as councilors
[01:54:20] ▶before the site opened. So this could very much happen with this third site, and that's what I'm concerned about. And that's why I won't be supporting this amendment to the amendment.
[01:54:29] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you, councilor Meisner. Councilor Bly, you're next.
[01:54:33] ▶Yeah. Oh, yes. Sorry. Go ahead. Councilor Bly.
[01:54:36] ▶Speaker 14: Yeah. I'm gonna support the amendment. I think it addresses the concern raised by councilor Kirby Young that there were no parameters around the previous amendment. So I think this provides a very short window of time for there to be,
[01:54:48] ▶information shared back to us as a council before making,
[01:54:52] ▶any decision on this from Vancouver Coastal Health and the police and the lay the neighborhood stakeholders that have been referenced.
[01:55:01] ▶I am aware that there was a meeting,
[01:55:04] ▶on this exact site, and this is and the
[01:55:08] ▶whether it's this location or, as I say, in the vicinity, we have to remember this shouldn't come as a surprise
[01:55:14] ▶that all three OPSs, including this one that's proposed, have been within about two blocks of each other because the need that's where the need is.
[01:55:22] ▶So,
[01:55:24] ▶and there were there was a meeting with Downtown BIA,
[01:55:28] ▶Downtown BIA,
[01:55:30] ▶early February,
[01:55:32] ▶through the neighborhood liaison table. So
[01:55:35] ▶the idea that there hasn't been sincere effort and engagement,
[01:55:39] ▶is, I just think, disingenuous.
[01:55:42] ▶I also think
[01:55:44] ▶that we have to,
[01:55:46] ▶recognize
[01:55:47] ▶that while I appreciate,
[01:55:51] ▶this is very difficult for communities to manage, and I would agree.
[01:55:56] ▶We learned from the first one that it was far too small,
[01:56:00] ▶and that, inhalation was a critical part of that service.
[01:56:05] ▶And then the Murray Hotel,
[01:56:07] ▶the the location on Howe Street, I should say, not the Murray Hotel, but the location on Howe Street was better.
[01:56:13] ▶But, of course, you know,
[01:56:15] ▶you you have some neighborhood objection. And then
[01:56:18] ▶even though that was a good location,
[01:56:20] ▶and it was off the street, and there was the the area in the back that allowed for,
[01:56:26] ▶people to get the supports that they need with, that mitigated interruption that we found happened,
[01:56:32] ▶on Seymour and how and now here we are again. I think it's disingenuous
[01:56:36] ▶disingenuous to suggest that,
[01:56:39] ▶you know, if Vancouver Coastal Health had done this or that, that that that there would be,
[01:56:45] ▶less opposition from this council. I think the opposition is that this service exists at all,
[01:56:50] ▶and I wish that we would just talk about that and be honest about it.
[01:56:54] ▶It's a pragmatic
[01:56:57] ▶this is a I don't want to have to need an overdose prevention site either.
[01:57:01] ▶I really don't. I don't I can see why, you know, across from a hotel
[01:57:06] ▶during,
[01:57:07] ▶with tourism, with,
[01:57:09] ▶FIFA coming, this is not ideal at all. Nobody thinks this is ideal. But I can tell you having been on council before the other one opened
[01:57:16] ▶that it was the calls from the buildings,
[01:57:19] ▶the calls from the residents in and around Yaletown
[01:57:22] ▶where drug users were using drugs in their doorways, in their stairwells.
[01:57:27] ▶It was really quite shocking. It was leading up to COVID. I know you were not here, councilor Meisner, so you don't know. I understand, but you don't own you don't own Yale at Yale Town counselor Meisner. I was on counseling and had to field a lot of the calls. Okay? I had to field a lot of the calls as a counselor. And what happened is people got to go inside and get the services they needed.
[01:57:46] ▶So all I'm saying is as a from a pragmatic perspective,
[01:57:50] ▶the drug users do not go away because you get rid of an OPS.
[01:57:54] ▶From a pragmatic
[01:57:55] ▶perspective, I don't want people out on the street and on sidewalks because there is nowhere else for them to go. Because I can tell you getting rid of the
[01:58:03] ▶getting rid of an OPS doesn't stop them using drugs. It doesn't push it all back down into the Downtown East Side.
[01:58:09] ▶This is where overdoses happen, and it's because people are using and they don't have the supports. I want the treatment beds
[01:58:15] ▶as well. I want people to be brought inside and and given options to not use anymore.
[01:58:21] ▶But until we get there, the pragmatic
[01:58:23] ▶option is to make sure that they can come inside somewhere.
[01:58:27] ▶And so this is an ideological,
[01:58:29] ▶although I think this is being driven by an ideological position
[01:58:33] ▶of intolerance.
[01:58:35] ▶But this is about the safest,
[01:58:38] ▶way to mitigate
[01:58:40] ▶the issues that are created
[01:58:42] ▶around substance use disorder
[01:58:44] ▶and the disorder on streets that affect businesses, that affect tourism,
[01:58:48] ▶is to leave it unchecked
[01:58:50] ▶and without services.
[01:58:52] ▶And so I support this referral because
[01:58:55] ▶we have to be honest about where we're coming from on this debate. We have to be honest about the fact that this is already an issue that we're dealing with in our city, and just deleting the services does not delete the problem.
[01:59:09] ▶So I support the referral.
[01:59:11] ▶And if this fails, which I suspect it will,
[01:59:14] ▶we'll come back to debating
[01:59:16] ▶the actual merit of of the motion, which I have questions to staff on.
[01:59:22] ▶Speaker 15: Okay. Thanks, councilor Bly.
[01:59:24] ▶I'm wondering if, council might wanna entertain a motion. I'd invite any member to bring it forward to complete the business for today.
[01:59:32] ▶Speaker 1: K.
[01:59:33] ▶Speaker 15: K. Brought forward by councilor Domino and seconded by councilor Joe.
[01:59:36] ▶All in favor, say aye.
[01:59:39] ▶Any opposed?
[01:59:42] ▶Let's complete the business for today.
[01:59:45] ▶Second motion to extend to complete the business
[01:59:48] ▶for today.
[01:59:49] ▶Speaker 14: Sorry. What's the motion?
[01:59:51] ▶Speaker 15: Just to repeat myself. The motion is to extend to complete the business for today.
[02:00:01] ▶It's been seconded, and it's been voted on.
[02:00:03] ▶I noted councilor in opposition.
[02:00:06] ▶Okay. So that's what we're going to do.
[02:00:08] ▶Previously, we had, voted to extend to complete this item, but now we're gonna extend to complete the business.
[02:00:17] ▶Pardon me?
[02:00:18] ▶I only saw councilor or a post.
[02:00:24] ▶We can do a recorded vote.
[02:00:29] ▶So this, just to be clear, is a motion
[02:00:31] ▶to extend to complete today's business,
[02:00:34] ▶everything on the agenda.
[02:00:39] ▶Councilors, if you're gonna use both Can I have a vote assistant
[02:00:43] ▶favor? Noted. Thank you.
[02:00:50] ▶Hey. That passes,
[02:00:51] ▶with, councilor Frey and councilor in opposition and councilor Maloney abstaining.
[02:00:57] ▶We'll go to councilor Maloney, for comments.
[02:01:02] ▶Speaker 11: You. I am I think that this is a very sensible amendment to the motion to defer because
[02:01:10] ▶what we really need is to have,
[02:01:13] ▶Vancouver Coastal Health available
[02:01:16] ▶and,
[02:01:17] ▶give residents and give other stakeholders an opportunity,
[02:01:22] ▶to speak to this motion.
[02:01:24] ▶I am a Yaletown parent.
[02:01:27] ▶Right? And I,
[02:01:30] ▶go along here all the time and, unfortunately, visit,
[02:01:34] ▶Saint Paul's more often than I would like.
[02:01:36] ▶And,
[02:01:39] ▶the idea
[02:01:40] ▶that we
[02:01:42] ▶shouldn't have,
[02:01:43] ▶an overdose prevention site and we should block it and and prevent it from do do everything to,
[02:01:51] ▶prevent it from happening.
[02:01:53] ▶For for me as a a parent of teenagers
[02:01:57] ▶who are, walking
[02:01:59] ▶and riding around here all the time,
[02:02:03] ▶this,
[02:02:06] ▶this is not going to
[02:02:09] ▶prevent drug use. It's just gonna,
[02:02:11] ▶bring it out into the open, which is something that people complain about. I don't like seeing it. I don't necessarily want my kids to be exposed to it, and I I don't want,
[02:02:21] ▶people to be at risk of death,
[02:02:24] ▶because
[02:02:25] ▶we block an overdose prevention facility when we could,
[02:02:29] ▶vote in favor of this,
[02:02:33] ▶amendment to the,
[02:02:35] ▶deferral motion,
[02:02:37] ▶and have it properly considered in a very short amount of of time.
[02:02:41] ▶So I'm I'm gonna be voting in favor of this motion,
[02:02:45] ▶this amendment to the motion to defer.
[02:02:49] ▶Speaker 15: Hey. Thank you.
[02:02:50] ▶Councilor Kirby Young has stepped out of the room.
[02:02:53] ▶I'm next on the queue, but, given that councilor Kirby Young, deputy mayor, is not currently present, I need to turn the chair to,
[02:03:00] ▶councilor Dominato.
[02:03:02] ▶Go ahead. Councilor Meisner. Thank you. I just wanna make a few more comments that I just think need to be, addressed,
[02:03:09] ▶here.
[02:03:10] ▶Councilor Bly said, quote, that it's disingenuous
[02:03:13] ▶to say that there hasn't been engagement.
[02:03:16] ▶My response to that is how do you explain that,
[02:03:19] ▶neighboring businesses and residents
[02:03:21] ▶had no idea that this lease had already been signed? I've heard from many of them before, including small business owners.
[02:03:28] ▶And how do you explain
[02:03:30] ▶that the one of the largest hotels in the city with hundreds of rooms
[02:03:35] ▶had no idea that this was happening or that the lease had been signed, and it's up until a couple days ago, and that
[02:03:42] ▶major hotel is literally located
[02:03:45] ▶across the street.
[02:03:46] ▶So this is my issue is that there is a lack of community consultation.
[02:03:51] ▶And I'll just reiterate, council found out about this, you know, a week ago or a few days ago. That is not Folsom Community Consultation.
[02:04:00] ▶I would also
[02:04:02] ▶there's there was comments around, well, I don't own Yaletown.
[02:04:06] ▶I get that. I'm passionate about my neighborhood. I've lived there for a long time.
[02:04:10] ▶And I've talked to residents for years about the negative impacts of the street disorder and open drug use and chaos
[02:04:18] ▶that was created outside of these previous two sites. So when counselors are saying that these sites reduce street disorder,
[02:04:26] ▶they know full well that they don't. They know that they create street disorder. For years, this council has been fielding concerns from residents with photos and videos of what's been happening outside these sites. Parents who are afraid to walk their kids to the Emery Bards Park because of the previous site because they feel unsafe.
[02:04:45] ▶I have witnessed fistfights in the street outside one of these previous sites. We have predatory drug dealers
[02:04:52] ▶waiting outside these sites preying on the users of these sites to sell them fentanyl,
[02:04:57] ▶and people are dying because of it.
[02:05:00] ▶This has to stop,
[02:05:02] ▶and I am not going to stand for another failed experiment
[02:05:07] ▶in the middle of our downtown core
[02:05:10] ▶and see people continue to suffer
[02:05:13] ▶on the sidewalk
[02:05:14] ▶in the throes of addiction
[02:05:16] ▶when the provincial government is doing nothing for them in terms of creating treatment beds and recovery beds. Two years ago, the premier promised
[02:05:24] ▶that Vancouver would get subs a substantial number of treatment and recovery beds. Two years later, we've seen nothing.
[02:05:33] ▶And I'm tired of it, and I'm not gonna stand for it.
[02:05:36] ▶Not for our city, not for our neighborhood, not for our residents, not for our businesses, and most of all, not for the people who are suffering, who are not getting the help that they need.
[02:05:46] ▶They are literally dying on the sidewalk
[02:05:49] ▶outside of these sites.
[02:05:52] ▶It's not good enough.
[02:05:54] ▶Speaker 13: Thank you, councilor Meissner. I'll return the chair to you.
[02:06:01] ▶Speaker 8: Well, again, I think the,
[02:06:04] ▶and I appreciate, councilor Meisner's impassioned,
[02:06:07] ▶please there. I think that, you know, the the quiet part that's not being maybe said out loud here is is is where are these folks gonna go, and what is an acceptable
[02:06:15] ▶level of of overdose death in Downtown South? Because
[02:06:20] ▶canceling stopping this location, I get the sense that this is about stopping any location.
[02:06:25] ▶I I don't know that, and, again, because we're not having the informed conversation.
[02:06:29] ▶And I think what's I struggle with the most is we have a responsibility
[02:06:32] ▶as a council,
[02:06:34] ▶as elected officials, to make informed decisions
[02:06:37] ▶free from personal motivation,
[02:06:39] ▶free from,
[02:06:41] ▶you know, influence and that kind of thing. We have to consider the evidence before us. And that's why, you know, I've submitted this amendment to include the Vancouver Police Department because they have a valid perspective that can lend to this. Is this a good location? Is it a bad location?
[02:06:56] ▶I can tell, councilor Meisner from my own experience when we were on council during COVID and approved that site at Helmkin.
[02:07:03] ▶It was, like, literally the size of one of our offices. It was ridiculously small, doomed to fail because it was too small and because there was no inhalation facilities.
[02:07:12] ▶My understanding is that this is a much larger site. This was a former acting studio. It's got lots of space.
[02:07:17] ▶Presumably, they have plans
[02:07:19] ▶to include
[02:07:21] ▶any matter of inhalation services
[02:07:23] ▶that I would like to hear more about, that I would like to see how. Do they have a plan? Have they learned from
[02:07:28] ▶the the the previous mistakes with locations
[02:07:31] ▶and are proposing to do something different here and to do it in a way that can mitigate some of the street disorder because that is the opportunity that presents itself. There are overdose,
[02:07:41] ▶consumption sites that are less intrusive in neighborhoods, and it does come down to the design. It does come down to the operation. I would like to hear what's being proposed in order to do this, unless we're just throwing our heads up and saying, guess what? If you do drugs in Downtown South,
[02:07:55] ▶sorry. We'll we'll we'll we'll we'll set you up with a popper's grave or something, but we're not really gonna care about how we're gonna deal with the reality of folks who are overdosing and dying or getting brain injury or getting any number
[02:08:08] ▶of preventable outcomes.
[02:08:10] ▶We have a responsibility to consider the evidence and work with the experts
[02:08:15] ▶and work with the stakeholders and come up with reasonable solutions.
[02:08:19] ▶I think that we have not demonstrated that there is an urgency to make this decision right now without the input from experts, without the input from Vancouver police, without the input from stakeholders, neighbors, businesses, everybody,
[02:08:31] ▶including drug users,
[02:08:33] ▶let's take the evidence. Let's take the time. Let's do it right because, otherwise, this is just a politically motivated decision that fails the basic standards of good governance.
[02:08:43] ▶Speaker 15: Counselor Kurbjerg.
[02:08:47] ▶Mhmm. Point taken. I would agree.
[02:08:50] ▶Speaker 8: Alright. Well, I said my piece anyway. I think
[02:08:54] ▶Speaker 15: Thank you, councilor Frey. Councilor Maloney.
[02:08:57] ▶Speaker 11: I think it's really important to address the the idea
[02:09:01] ▶that,
[02:09:03] ▶overdose prevention sites
[02:09:05] ▶encourage open drug use when it's absolutely the opposite. I mean, an overdose prevention site like the one contemplated
[02:09:13] ▶is gonna get drug users indoors. And,
[02:09:17] ▶I think that
[02:09:18] ▶it's very distressing to have
[02:09:23] ▶incorrect assertions
[02:09:25] ▶spread around because it it doesn't help with the stigma associated
[02:09:30] ▶with with these sites.
[02:09:32] ▶Thanks.
[02:09:34] ▶Speaker 15: Thank you. Councilor Kirviong.
[02:09:36] ▶Speaker 10: Yeah. I I I just have to say I'm I
[02:09:39] ▶I I think I've been consistent on this issue with respect
[02:09:43] ▶to needing to have balance between
[02:09:48] ▶providing services and standing up for, quite frankly, a new paradigm. And
[02:09:52] ▶I have heard many folks that revolve with previous administrations who have now admitted that,
[02:09:58] ▶a lot of things were a failed experiment because the four pillars approach did not deliver on the,
[02:10:04] ▶prevention component, on the treatment, and the recovery piece. And we are lacking in that. And I think that when you take a step back, that is what this council, and its majority has been trying to stand up for in terms of funding the mental health nurses, in terms of trying to get people to get to better. And perpetuating the status quo doesn't make sense to me. We're talking about responsible decisions here. In response to the comments just raised by councilor Frey that the last one was doomed to fail, and I'm I'm unquoting,
[02:10:29] ▶so I'm not mischaracterizing
[02:10:30] ▶recently. And yet, councilor Frey voted for it, knowing as in his words that it was too small,
[02:10:36] ▶that it was doomed to fail. It didn't have, all this sufficient space, etcetera. With respects to the neighborhood, this is really not far off. It's the same operator.
[02:10:44] ▶It has it lacks the community consultation.
[02:10:47] ▶It is rammed the decision is rammed through.
[02:10:50] ▶It I have a lot of,
[02:10:53] ▶deja vu around
[02:10:54] ▶how it happened last time except for,
[02:10:57] ▶we now have Coastal Health taking, I would say, unfortunately, not an engaged approach in my characterization.
[02:11:05] ▶And we don't have the BC housing CEO coming down like we did last time who attempted
[02:11:10] ▶to,
[02:11:12] ▶chastise,
[02:11:13] ▶and I think that was a fair characterization,
[02:11:15] ▶counselors. And then the,
[02:11:17] ▶there was also a a a very
[02:11:19] ▶dubious change that was made overnight during that hearing
[02:11:22] ▶to switch it from, required a two thirds vote because it was gonna be a a grant directly to Rain City. And overnight, the report and the threshold was changed, and all of a sudden, Coastal Health said they didn't want the grant.
[02:11:33] ▶This is these are facts on the record and that they would pay a market price in order to achieve the outcome they wanted and get a majority vote on council, and that's how it passed.
[02:11:42] ▶And so if forgive me if I am dubious and skeptical about the track record of the partners
[02:11:48] ▶involved here,
[02:11:50] ▶because it is the same ones that were last time, and I'm seeing a lot of the same behavior exhibited. And so I don't have confidence. I'm being consistent
[02:11:58] ▶about against the last one because a lot of those parameters weren't in place, and they are not here. And the bigger conversation here is around getting people to better,
[02:12:07] ▶and this isn't doing it. It's perpetuating the status quo. We should be putting all of our energy around things. I think that all of council could all of our energy around things I think that all of council could align between and saying we need a better circumstance. We need our SROs rebuilt. We need better quality housing. People need to live in dignified
[02:12:20] ▶conditions. They deserve recovery. They deserve treatment, and they deserve other options. And this sort of
[02:12:25] ▶ongoing suggestion that they can't, utilize the Saint Paul's, that space will be there not just when it relocates next year. It's not gonna be redeveloped for some time. There are other options here to locate something in a health setting,
[02:12:37] ▶that provides more sufficient space and to look at that, and there has been a complete and utter unwillingness to do it and to sort of ram this down the throats of of the community. And the fact, again, and I will repeat it, that the general manager of the hotel did not know about this and heard rumor been on Sunday.
[02:12:53] ▶Something is wrong.
[02:12:56] ▶So I'm voting against this deferral. Thank you.
[02:12:59] ▶Speaker 15: Thanks, councilor Kirby Young. Seeing no other councilors to speak to this, we're gonna vote on the amendment to the amendment.
[02:13:15] ▶Not sure if councilor class is online, but did not hear anything from him. So,
[02:13:20] ▶that fails,
[02:13:21] ▶with mayor Sim in opposition, councilor Kirby Young in opposition, councilor Dominato in opposition, councilor Montague in opposition, councilor Claset in opposition, myself in opposition, and councilor Joe in opposition.
[02:13:43] ▶Speaker 1: And
[02:13:54] ▶Speaker 8: Oh, it's a holdover. Thank you. Councilor Bly.
[02:13:59] ▶Speaker 14: Yes.
[02:13:59] ▶Thanks. I just have a one quick follow-up, and it's from some of the debate.
[02:14:06] ▶In terms of,
[02:14:12] ▶I don't wanna ask the question. I suspect another well, I will. As a point of information through you, chair, to, the mayor.
[02:14:18] ▶And my question is, has there been any outreach to Vancouver Coastal Health and specifically to doctor Daly,
[02:14:25] ▶regarding an OPS in this area given the consternation that's happened over the last three years?
[02:14:31] ▶And, I mean, at any point in the last
[02:14:34] ▶three years.
[02:14:39] ▶Speaker 1: I I have had conversations
[02:14:41] ▶with, doctor Daley and, health authorities on this in a whole
[02:14:46] ▶host of other issues. I'm not worried about the other things. Just specifically on this Sorry. I'm trying to answer the count your question to counselor. Yeah. K.
[02:14:54] ▶I've had multiple conversations. We've had meetings,
[02:14:58] ▶with link with the health authorities,
[02:15:00] ▶sitting down with Vancouver Coastal.
[02:15:02] ▶Speaker 14: And what was what was doctor I know it's my time. Thank you. So you've you've just you've had a great your question, you you you're not even letting me answer your question. Hey, Cheah.
[02:15:10] ▶Speaker 15: Members, I would just encourage you to be respectful to each other. Thank you.
[02:15:14] ▶Speaker 14: So I it sounds fake, so I'll I'll just leave it there. I think it's clear what the answer is on the specifics. Well, no. Because you didn't let me finish my answer, and I can tell you the reason we're here right now is,
[02:15:26] ▶Speaker 1: you know,
[02:15:27] ▶we haven't had any consultation in the last week, and this has been surprise this has been, like,
[02:15:33] ▶put on to us as a surprise. That's why we're debating this issue. And we've had multiple conversations over the last three years on this and other issues If that's deal with, with to deal with, Sarah. My time. Unfortunately, the mayor has, so I can't respond, so I'll leave it there.
[02:15:51] ▶Speaker 15: Okay.
[02:15:52] ▶Okay. See, no one else on the queue, we're gonna vote on, this amendment.
[02:16:10] ▶Okay. That fails.
[02:16:12] ▶Mayor Sim in opposition, councilor Kirb Young in opposition, councilor Dominato in opposition,
[02:16:16] ▶councilor Montague in opposition, councilor Klassen in opposition, and myself in opposition, and councilor Joe in opposition.
[02:16:22] ▶So
[02:16:24] ▶we're now gonna go back to the main motion.
[02:16:28] ▶Speaker 5: Councilor Orr. Yeah. This council has prided itself on making data informed decisions, and this is the exact opposite of that.
[02:16:36] ▶This area has the second highest rate of ODs in the city and fourth highest in the province. This motion is an opposition of ministerial order four eight eight eight, which directs all regional health boards and BC emergency health services to implement overdose prevention in any place required. The community liaison table has been set up for a year. The community has been consulted. And in terms of not having noticed, BCH had two weeks notice when it was first ordered to close. I believe not allowing our health authority and stakeholders to comment is an abrogation of our duties and not good government. But beyond the moral implications of this attempt to block the OPS, even if one agrees with the mayor on the premise that Vancouver Coastal Health and the BC government should focus on mandatory care,
[02:17:17] ▶blocking this o p s OPS from opening will mean certain death for individuals who use substances in the city center while we wait for the shift to magically happen.
[02:17:27] ▶Similarly, if the mayor's aim is to reduce the perception of street disorder and public drug use, how exactly is refusing to allow this facility to open
[02:17:36] ▶going to do anything but encourage public drug use? It's just not pragmatic as councilor Bly has noted. In the mayor's words, this approach is,
[02:17:47] ▶only disastrous. If you don't consider saving human lives a worthwhile goal or use of resources,
[02:17:53] ▶fifty one thousand eight hundred and fifty eight overdoses and not a single one was fatal, and the mayor calls it a disaster. So I asked what precisely about one hundred percent sex success rate when it comes to preventing fatal overdoses
[02:18:05] ▶at these sites is disastrous.
[02:18:08] ▶In my mind, this is the politicization
[02:18:10] ▶of a health crisis and reminiscent of the moral panics of the seventies and eighties, and I will not be supporting. Thank you.
[02:18:17] ▶Speaker 15: Councilor thank you. Councilor Blythe.
[02:18:21] ▶Speaker 14: Thank
[02:18:23] ▶thank you very much.
[02:18:25] ▶So, yeah, I'll be speaking in opposition
[02:18:28] ▶to this motion.
[02:18:30] ▶I think
[02:18:32] ▶what we've heard in this debate is a framing that is being presented as decisive action.
[02:18:38] ▶But what it
[02:18:40] ▶shows in this council term
[02:18:42] ▶of less than four years is a pattern
[02:18:44] ▶of mismanagement
[02:18:45] ▶that is actually costing the city time, money, and putting people at risk.
[02:18:50] ▶So we've now seen the same cycle repeat.
[02:18:53] ▶A site that is shut down or blocked, no ready alternative in place, and the system's forced to start over.
[02:18:59] ▶That is not a one off decision. This is a pattern
[02:19:03] ▶of leadership failure.
[02:19:06] ▶The cost
[02:19:08] ▶of this pattern, we need to be honest about because every single site time a site is canceled or relocated,
[02:19:14] ▶we are not just moving a service, we are rebuilding it. And that includes lease negotiations,
[02:19:20] ▶site preparation, clinical and outreach staff,
[02:19:23] ▶security contracts, equipment, and community consultation.
[02:19:27] ▶And so taken together, it's easily in the range of the multimillion dollars that's required
[02:19:33] ▶collectively over the three moves that have happened
[02:19:36] ▶in this council term, less than four years.
[02:19:40] ▶So
[02:19:41] ▶every time this council that is led by
[02:19:44] ▶and it it was already identified
[02:19:47] ▶as oppositions and in favor. So those in favor,
[02:19:51] ▶ABC in favor of intervening at the last minute without any viable plan. Millions of public dollars are effectively written off and then ultimately spent again.
[02:20:02] ▶So it's not fiscal responsibility notwithstanding
[02:20:04] ▶the lives
[02:20:05] ▶that are impacted by this, but it is waste
[02:20:09] ▶driven by an inability to see decisions through and get to some solutions.
[02:20:15] ▶So at the same time, these interventions
[02:20:18] ▶create conflict
[02:20:19] ▶instead of any resolution. There is no
[02:20:22] ▶suggestion
[02:20:23] ▶of what we should do instead.
[02:20:25] ▶So instead of aligning partners to get a solution,
[02:20:29] ▶we see decisions that divide communities and delay
[02:20:33] ▶outcomes. And so, yes, it may serve a political narrative,
[02:20:37] ▶one that I think mostly lives
[02:20:39] ▶on x.
[02:20:40] ▶It undermines the work on the ground. Vancouver Coastal Health would not be going through this three times in three years unless it was necessary.
[02:20:49] ▶And so while this cycle repeats, services don't open on time.
[02:20:54] ▶People are pushed back into unsafe conditions
[02:20:57] ▶in a toxic drug crisis that delays have real consequences.
[02:21:02] ▶The site is not the problem. The drugs are. And the reason people use drugs are the problem.
[02:21:08] ▶Getting rid of the site does not get rid of the problem.
[02:21:12] ▶And that is the part where, quite frankly, I feel like
[02:21:16] ▶I personally feel like I am
[02:21:19] ▶banging my head against a wall trying to
[02:21:22] ▶you find the logic
[02:21:25] ▶in what's happening here on a repeated cycle.
[02:21:29] ▶I just cannot I get I get the impact. We have to solve for that in terms of surrounding, and a lot of it is
[02:21:35] ▶we can show leadership and solve for the public realm issues.
[02:21:40] ▶We we should be able to partner with Rain City. We should be able to partner with Vancouver Coastal Health,
[02:21:46] ▶so that what happened at some at Seymour and Hellmackin does not happen again.
[02:21:51] ▶But the reality is
[02:21:53] ▶this isn't about just this motion.
[02:21:56] ▶In my mind and why I feel
[02:21:59] ▶frustrated to my core
[02:22:01] ▶is this is a pattern of mismanagement
[02:22:03] ▶that is actually wasting millions of dollars,
[02:22:07] ▶of health care dollars,
[02:22:09] ▶of city dollars,
[02:22:11] ▶of police
[02:22:13] ▶enforcement dollars,
[02:22:15] ▶of reactive emergency response to overdose dollars.
[02:22:20] ▶By not having these services,
[02:22:22] ▶those costs skyrocket.
[02:22:24] ▶We know that. We have that data.
[02:22:27] ▶And what it's preventing is stable life saving services
[02:22:31] ▶so that when treatment and recovery, which I fully support, and I think I'm one of the counselors, maybe the only to bring a motion forward to increase the availability
[02:22:42] ▶of recovery
[02:22:43] ▶options when it comes to city owned,
[02:22:46] ▶facilities.
[02:22:49] ▶That that also has to happen at the same time.
[02:22:52] ▶So we need we really need to show leadership that we can follow through and get services open
[02:22:59] ▶so that
[02:23:00] ▶we can both
[02:23:02] ▶advocate for treatment and recovery, but also control the things that we can control. And all I have heard here, which is just deafening,
[02:23:11] ▶is all the things we want. Replace the SROs. Get repeat treatment and recovery as if it's just a flip of a switch, and no accountability from this council
[02:23:19] ▶to show any work
[02:23:21] ▶in making progress in getting to those solutions. Zero. Just pointing fingers at the province. I cannot support that anymore.
[02:23:28] ▶We have to do better. Life. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Montague.
[02:23:33] ▶Speaker 20: Yeah. Thanks, Jared. I won't be long. I don't know if I can, match,
[02:23:38] ▶your passion chair. I think you you said exactly what what I was thinking.
[02:23:44] ▶I'll add
[02:23:45] ▶that,
[02:23:47] ▶counselors in the chamber have talked about,
[02:23:50] ▶how we should listen to the experts
[02:23:54] ▶at Vancouver Health and the province.
[02:23:56] ▶Those experts have failed,
[02:23:58] ▶the residents and citizens of Vancouver,
[02:24:01] ▶the businesses of Vancouver,
[02:24:03] ▶and they failed drug users.
[02:24:05] ▶They've given them no hope.
[02:24:08] ▶We've been dealing with this for
[02:24:10] ▶six six years,
[02:24:12] ▶in this area.
[02:24:14] ▶Six years of multiple OPS sites, and all of them have failed miserably.
[02:24:19] ▶Whether it's Seymour And Helmkin or Howell Street or
[02:24:22] ▶a temporary operation beside the Murray Hotel, they've all had they've all they've all been successful in one thing, causing absolute chaos.
[02:24:36] ▶I'll say that if an OPS were to go into this location,
[02:24:41] ▶the first thing that will happen is an immediate 40%
[02:24:44] ▶increase,
[02:24:45] ▶in calls for service to police.
[02:24:47] ▶I don't know what the calls for service increase to fire would be, but I can can I can guarantee it would be an increase.
[02:24:53] ▶That 40% increase over
[02:24:55] ▶time would double,
[02:24:58] ▶and start pushing,
[02:25:00] ▶the triple,
[02:25:01] ▶mark in calls for service.
[02:25:05] ▶District one, which is the district that this, OPS is
[02:25:11] ▶is slated for,
[02:25:13] ▶is the
[02:25:14] ▶it has the highest calls for service in the city.
[02:25:21] ▶It is the busiest district.
[02:25:24] ▶It is,
[02:25:25] ▶to a point where, the VPD are doing review of resources
[02:25:29] ▶that are actually needed to properly, safely, and and effectively police the downtown core.
[02:25:35] ▶And,
[02:25:37] ▶Vancouver Coastal Health thinks it's a good idea to just
[02:25:40] ▶plunk another one in another site here, another another issue into the downtown core.
[02:25:47] ▶Promise after promise by the provincial government to do things differently
[02:25:50] ▶and nothing.
[02:25:52] ▶It it just it's insanity to me that that Vancouver Coastal Health
[02:25:57] ▶and the province
[02:25:59] ▶continue to do the same thing over and over, and we we heard it,
[02:26:03] ▶today. Every council here has talked about multiple OPS sites within a stone's throw of each other.
[02:26:09] ▶All of them getting closed down because of the the issues that arise. The same issues that we will see here.
[02:26:16] ▶This is a failed experiment.
[02:26:18] ▶This will fail again.
[02:26:22] ▶We need to do things differently.
[02:26:24] ▶Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting and expecting a different result
[02:26:28] ▶is nothing but insane.
[02:26:35] ▶And I think there are counselors here that that, again,
[02:26:39] ▶think that it's okay to just
[02:26:41] ▶do the same thing
[02:26:43] ▶again.
[02:26:44] ▶It's not a solution.
[02:26:46] ▶It is just,
[02:26:48] ▶it will just be another chaotic mistake. Thank you. Thanks, councilor Montague. Mayor Sim.
[02:26:55] ▶Speaker 1: Great. Thank you. And, thank you for the lively debate.
[02:26:59] ▶I'm gonna approach this a little differently.
[02:27:01] ▶I I do wanna level set a little bit here.
[02:27:06] ▶I genuinely
[02:27:07] ▶believe that everyone in this chamber,
[02:27:10] ▶really cares,
[02:27:11] ▶and they care about the people. They care about vulnerable populations.
[02:27:16] ▶And,
[02:27:16] ▶you know, we have different ways of approaching it, but I think there's a lot of goodness in everyone's heart here.
[02:27:23] ▶K.
[02:27:24] ▶So,
[02:27:25] ▶I'm actually gonna stand back and use some of the tools that I've learned over, my lifetime.
[02:27:31] ▶No politics.
[02:27:32] ▶What would a normal or what what would someone looking at a challenge
[02:27:37] ▶that's stepping back
[02:27:39] ▶with, you know,
[02:27:41] ▶and assuming there's no stake in the outcome whatsoever,
[02:27:44] ▶how would they view this situation?
[02:27:47] ▶So what do I know?
[02:27:48] ▶One,
[02:27:49] ▶we were surprised last week.
[02:27:52] ▶We didn't know this was happening.
[02:27:55] ▶And, if it was maybe just us, you could sort of chalk it up to, well, maybe we missed something. But when you talk to residents, business owners, and hotels that are literally right across the street from this, OPS, and they were surprised too, that leads me to believe that we were all surprised.
[02:28:12] ▶What else do we know?
[02:28:14] ▶Two overdose prevention sites in the neighborhood
[02:28:17] ▶have failed,
[02:28:18] ▶and they created street disorder,
[02:28:21] ▶safety concerns,
[02:28:23] ▶open drug use,
[02:28:24] ▶significant challenges and concerns for residents and businesses.
[02:28:29] ▶Even staff what else do we know? Even staff at Saint Paul's Hospital
[02:28:35] ▶publicly commented about the unacceptable
[02:28:38] ▶situation related to drug use
[02:28:40] ▶and unsafe,
[02:28:42] ▶workplace conditions.
[02:28:44] ▶We also know that there are concerns around Rain City as an operator.
[02:28:50] ▶We also know that this has not worked in the past. It has created,
[02:28:56] ▶chaos,
[02:28:57] ▶and that's not good enough. You know, we can talk about, you know,
[02:29:01] ▶residents, businesses,
[02:29:04] ▶and that's super important, and we have to treat them just as well. Think of the vulnerable populations
[02:29:11] ▶that are suffering.
[02:29:13] ▶This situation
[02:29:14] ▶is not compassionate.
[02:29:17] ▶It's not caring.
[02:29:18] ▶And as a couple of counselors met mentioned in this chamber,
[02:29:22] ▶repeating trying to do the same thing that we've done in the past and expecting different results,
[02:29:29] ▶is the definition of insanity.
[02:29:32] ▶So what is one of our jobs as mayor of council?
[02:29:35] ▶Well, we should do our job in general, do the stuff that we were elected to do, and also hold the province and Vancouver Coastal Health
[02:29:45] ▶accountable
[02:29:46] ▶when they don't do their jobs and it affects
[02:29:49] ▶residents
[02:29:50] ▶and businesses
[02:29:51] ▶and stakeholders in Vancouver.
[02:29:54] ▶And that's exactly what is happening. We wouldn't even be having this conversation if the situation was great. So we know,
[02:30:02] ▶on the health care file,
[02:30:04] ▶the province is failing miserably.
[02:30:06] ▶You know, I I go back to the promises that were,
[02:30:10] ▶you know, the,
[02:30:11] ▶premier Eby made to us about two years ago
[02:30:15] ▶when we all acknowledge that we have a significant mental health crisis going on in our city or province, in our region,
[02:30:23] ▶and that he committed to 400 beds
[02:30:26] ▶of mandatory care for people that have significant mental health challenges or substance use disorder that need help.
[02:30:33] ▶And to date, not a single one has been built in Vancouver or for Vancouver.
[02:30:39] ▶I think that's the biggest failure here. And so we're asking the province
[02:30:43] ▶to help
[02:30:45] ▶by doing their job.
[02:30:47] ▶We need a balanced approach when it comes to care, recovery,
[02:30:51] ▶and public safety.
[02:30:52] ▶I will 100%
[02:30:54] ▶agree with, councilor Montague's,
[02:30:57] ▶comments.
[02:30:58] ▶These are the experts,
[02:31:00] ▶and they failed us. They failed our community.
[02:31:03] ▶And so today, we do have a choice.
[02:31:06] ▶Are we gonna repeat
[02:31:07] ▶what has failed,
[02:31:09] ▶or are we gonna chart a new path?
[02:31:11] ▶And are we gonna hold the province and the health authority accountable for what they should be doing? And I choose, you know, not not, repeating
[02:31:19] ▶failed policies and actually charting a new path. And so that's why, I'm gonna be supporting my motion. Thank you. Thank you, mayor.
[02:31:26] ▶Speaker 15: I'll just pass the chair to deputy mayor Kirby Young.
[02:31:31] ▶I wanna thank, mayor Sim for his comments just now and also for bringing this urgent motion
[02:31:36] ▶forward because I agree. We cannot continue to make the same mistakes over and over again.
[02:31:42] ▶We know full well that this model does not reduce street disorder
[02:31:47] ▶as stated by
[02:31:49] ▶several counselors around this chamber.
[02:31:51] ▶I wish it did. I used to believe it would,
[02:31:55] ▶but in fact, it does the opposite.
[02:31:57] ▶It encourages street disorder and open drug use and predatory drug dealers outside of these sites
[02:32:03] ▶because they don't these sites do not include
[02:32:07] ▶treatment or recovery.
[02:32:09] ▶And Vancouver Coastal Health knows full well
[02:32:12] ▶that these sites
[02:32:14] ▶have been and are a nightmare for neighborhoods.
[02:32:18] ▶I don't think any counselor in this chamber wants to live next to an open air inhalation
[02:32:23] ▶site.
[02:32:25] ▶I know that I don't, not the way they're being managed in our city.
[02:32:30] ▶Vancouver Coastal Health refuses to do meaningful meaningful consultation with communities,
[02:32:36] ▶and they continue to work with this same nonprofit
[02:32:40] ▶operator, which has
[02:32:42] ▶a dismal track record at operating OPSs.
[02:32:45] ▶In fact, the last two
[02:32:47] ▶were shuttered.
[02:32:48] ▶So we've been down this road before. Again, this is the third time this site has been relocated due to street disorder, due to chaos, and open drug use. This is a proposal from the same operator, as I mentioned, that hasn't been successful with the previous sites.
[02:33:00] ▶The real negative impacts of these sites
[02:33:03] ▶are why Downtown Vancouver BIA
[02:33:06] ▶and the Hospitality Vancouver Association
[02:33:09] ▶came out to our press conference this morning to stand with ABC counselors opposed to this new OPS site because their
[02:33:17] ▶thousands of members are impacted by the negative
[02:33:21] ▶impacts we see from these sites.
[02:33:23] ▶This these sites have been disastrous for Granville Street and for Downtown Vancouver.
[02:33:28] ▶But most important to me,
[02:33:30] ▶and I don't want this to get lost in my comments,
[02:33:33] ▶is the issue that the people that use these sites,
[02:33:36] ▶they are not getting the access to treatment and recovery that they so desperately need.
[02:33:42] ▶And to the mayor's comments around the promises from the provincial government and the premier,
[02:33:48] ▶what more will it take for the province and the premier to act
[02:33:52] ▶to give people real treatment and recovery options who are suffering?
[02:33:57] ▶We haven't seen a single new involuntary care bed in Vancouver since that promise was made two years ago. Not a single bed.
[02:34:06] ▶I don't know how they sleep at night.
[02:34:08] ▶That's the real issue here. People suffering and the cycle continuing. And right now, they have no way out of that cycle.
[02:34:16] ▶So I'm not gonna be part
[02:34:18] ▶of supporting the continuation
[02:34:20] ▶of this tragic cycle of human suffering and despair in our city.
[02:34:25] ▶And that's why I'm supporting the surge of motion to intervene,
[02:34:29] ▶to do things differently,
[02:34:30] ▶and stop us from repeating past mistakes. Thanks.
[02:34:35] ▶I'll take the chair back, councilor Kirby Young. Yeah.
[02:34:38] ▶Speaker 10: Thanks, chair. I I'm just gonna level set us a little bit. One of, one of the other councilors suggested that, the city was wasting millions of dollars and sites have been shut down three times in three years. I think what was neglected to mention is one of those sites was actually shut down by a private owner,
[02:34:53] ▶because it was not sustainable. And so this is not just the city of Vancouver where it's had issues. They that was a private owner that simply could not continue and canceled the lease. So I think just in terms of, you know, characterizing this appropriately and not putting misinformation out there, I think that's important.
[02:35:09] ▶To me, this is about not accepting the status quo. I want better for people that are
[02:35:16] ▶suffering, with drug issues.
[02:35:18] ▶I want better for the residents in the area. I want better for the local businesses in that area. I want better for our downtown. I want better for our city.
[02:35:27] ▶And I think that we as a council collectively should,
[02:35:30] ▶This council has moved forward on a number of things, and it was questioned around what are we doing, $8,000,000 for mental health nurses,
[02:35:37] ▶record, delivery of housing and partnerships with nonprofits in terms of affordable units. The city, I think, is doing a lot that it can within its own levers, and we're really clearly trying to be good partners. We've also taken very strong stands on phasing out quite honestly inhumane and decrepit,
[02:35:52] ▶SROs, and I referenced that earlier. It's not easy, and it takes courage to call out some of these things. What do I know happens around a lot of these OPSs? And I have no reason to believe this was different. Repeat first responder calls,
[02:36:05] ▶putting neighborhoods,
[02:36:06] ▶at odds.
[02:36:08] ▶It will have an impact on tourism. I think that if we continue to do this and locate this in, these very specifically chosen locations, we'll see a hollowing out of our downtown over time. We've seen it in other cities,
[02:36:19] ▶whether it's Seattle, Victoria is pulling back in a lot of their policies and reversing course.
[02:36:25] ▶People that are are not being moved to getting to better, if I thought that that was happening and we had demonstrable outcomes, if,
[02:36:33] ▶our coastal health authorities were willing to share that they had success in getting people into recovery and moving them along, I would be the first person
[02:36:41] ▶to support it in a heartbeat, but that is not what is happening. The status quo will not change unless we,
[02:36:47] ▶push for that to happen. I am not here to I'm hearing myself an echo. I'm not here to simply accept things.
[02:36:54] ▶I saw the movie last term, and I think the sequel is coming. I'm not particularly interested in seeing, round two of it.
[02:37:02] ▶BCH last term, BCH again. Rain City without consultation
[02:37:06] ▶Uncommunication,
[02:37:07] ▶Rain City last term, Rain City again.
[02:37:09] ▶The lack of engagement as I mentioned.
[02:37:12] ▶Things of, precipitous openings,
[02:37:15] ▶issues with people
[02:37:17] ▶dealing drugs outside where,
[02:37:19] ▶not prepared to take a stand,
[02:37:21] ▶where people are testing their drugs inside and a few feet outside, they are being given ones, that they are taking outside of the OPS,
[02:37:28] ▶that are not safe. There are no safe drugs. There's just an ability to test them. Let's be honest about it. So I think, honestly, I'm here to push for change. The harder decisions are the ones that challenge,
[02:37:39] ▶and get questioned
[02:37:41] ▶the status quo, and they do demand,
[02:37:43] ▶that we really hold, all levels of government, including ourselves, to account on what role can we play in actually in actually changing the status quo and getting it to better and simply accepting what we accepted last time without an expectation that's gonna be different is not that.
[02:38:01] ▶Speaker 15: Thank you, councilor. Councilor Joe.
[02:38:06] ▶Speaker 12: Yeah. Thanks, chair.
[02:38:09] ▶Clark, can you advance me, please?
[02:38:12] ▶Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for the discussion. I want to begin by being very clear.
[02:38:17] ▶One, I'm thinking about this motion. I'm thinking about everyone.
[02:38:21] ▶So I'm thinking about the child, the residents, including seniors, children
[02:38:25] ▶who live in this neighborhood, who walk by every single day. I'm thinking about the small business trying to stay alive under this economic situation.
[02:38:34] ▶And I'm also thinking about the individuals struggling with the addiction.
[02:38:39] ▶They are suffering and dying on the street
[02:38:42] ▶because of this failed model,
[02:38:44] ▶just like the decriminalization.
[02:38:46] ▶I'm thinking about their families, friends who are watching and often feel hopeless and helpless
[02:38:53] ▶as they suffer.
[02:38:54] ▶It's a human crisis from every angle,
[02:38:58] ▶and that's exactly why we have to get this one right.
[02:39:02] ▶Because if we we are serious about helping people,
[02:39:05] ▶then we cannot settle the approach that risk trapping individuals
[02:39:10] ▶in bad cycle
[02:39:11] ▶over and over again.
[02:39:14] ▶Harm reduction is important. It's one of the four pillars, but it is not the only pillar.
[02:39:20] ▶Focusing on harm reduction only is not helping the issue.
[02:39:25] ▶We also need prevention.
[02:39:26] ▶We also need treatment and recovery like other con our council colleagues said.
[02:39:31] ▶I remember when I talked to a guy, Felizla,
[02:39:34] ▶he said very clear. He said, I wouldn't be alive today without harm reduction. I wouldn't have the life I have today
[02:39:42] ▶without recovery. We need both. And we are missing a very important pillar, which is recovery and treatment.
[02:39:49] ▶If we are all doing is focusing on focusing on harm reduction without equal emphasis on the pathway to recovery,
[02:39:57] ▶then we are not helping people for a way out.
[02:40:00] ▶That is not good enough for the people who we are trying to help here.
[02:40:05] ▶And at the same time, we cannot ignore the impacts on the surrounding community.
[02:40:10] ▶This proposed site is located on on a very dense,
[02:40:14] ▶highly populated area
[02:40:16] ▶surrounded by homes,
[02:40:18] ▶seniors, small businesses,
[02:40:19] ▶restaurants,
[02:40:21] ▶a very good good noodle noodle house downstairs,
[02:40:24] ▶hotels,
[02:40:25] ▶and also cons constant food traffic.
[02:40:28] ▶We have seen what has happened in the areas before.
[02:40:31] ▶The concerns, risks are not hypothetic.
[02:40:34] ▶They are based on the lived experience.
[02:40:37] ▶So this motion is not is about responsibility
[02:40:40] ▶to business, to residents,
[02:40:42] ▶to people struggling with addiction themselves.
[02:40:45] ▶It's about ensuring that we do not repeat
[02:40:49] ▶the past mistakes.
[02:40:50] ▶We are talking about people's life, the real people.
[02:40:53] ▶The business and the residents should not be sacrificing themselves
[02:40:57] ▶because of this failed model and experiment.
[02:41:01] ▶It's about to make sure that any proposal meets cities at that a standard,
[02:41:05] ▶respects the community,
[02:41:07] ▶and is a part of a broader balanced approach that actually helps people move towards recovery.
[02:41:14] ▶Because compassion is not just about meeting people where they are, not about giving people whatever they want. It's about
[02:41:22] ▶actually helping them get to a better place. And we owe them, We owe that to the residents, to the business, and most importantly,
[02:41:31] ▶we owe those who are struggling and deserve a real path forward.
[02:41:36] ▶So with that, I really appreciate the mayor's team for bringing forward this motion, and we will fully support this motion.
[02:41:42] ▶Speaker 15: Thanks, councilor Joe. Councilor Maloney.
[02:41:44] ▶Speaker 11: This is the most hyperbolic motion I've seen in my time on council. It directs staff to throw every tool at the city's disposal
[02:41:53] ▶to block a proven tool to prevent overdose
[02:41:56] ▶deaths from our toxic
[02:41:58] ▶drug supply.
[02:42:00] ▶This new location will be the only overdose prevention site open to the public in the Vancouver City
[02:42:06] ▶Center area.
[02:42:07] ▶Before they were closed, the city center over overdose prevention site saw more than 149,000
[02:42:14] ▶visits and responded to one, four hundred and eighty overdoses
[02:42:19] ▶since 2021.
[02:42:21] ▶That is four hundred and eighty people who would otherwise likely be dead today.
[02:42:26] ▶This motion doesn't chart a new path. It doesn't suggest a better alternative. It just shuts down
[02:42:32] ▶VCH's critical life saving work.
[02:42:35] ▶It would be nice to keep users alive long enough to give them the option of treatment and recovery.
[02:42:41] ▶We can't just say these people are not getting the help they need, so we're gonna make life worse for them. Overdose prevention sites are a proven research backed response that prevent toxic drug deaths here in Vancouver and around the world. These sites save lives by bringing substance use into a clean and dignified health care setting. People can go to an o OPS and know that staff and trained volunteers
[02:43:06] ▶will respond in moments
[02:43:08] ▶if they have purchased toxic street drugs and lapsed into unconsciousness.
[02:43:13] ▶Without these sites, users who could be your friend, your coworker,
[02:43:17] ▶sibling, child, or grandchild
[02:43:19] ▶would die alone at home or behind a dumpster or in a dark doorway.
[02:43:24] ▶OPS sites also limit the transmission of infectious diseases
[02:43:28] ▶by providing sterile equipment. They also connect people with health services, including treatment.
[02:43:35] ▶According to Vancouver Coastal Health, this site took into consideration the years of cons consultation
[02:43:42] ▶with various community partners, including the city.
[02:43:45] ▶VCH
[02:43:46] ▶locates overdose prevention sites according to demonstrated
[02:43:49] ▶need.
[02:43:50] ▶The 900
[02:43:52] ▶location
[02:43:53] ▶logged the second highest rate of overdose deaths in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and the second highest number of calls to BC Emergency Health Services.
[02:44:03] ▶The engagement revealed that 900 Helmkin location
[02:44:06] ▶would benefit from its close proximity to a community health center. This location also offers ample dedicated outdoor and indoor space, which reduces the potential for its clients to congregate nearby.
[02:44:20] ▶This is a very important feature
[02:44:22] ▶to address neighborhood concerns about street disorder.
[02:44:26] ▶Drug toxic toxicity is the leading cause of death in the province for people aged 10 to 59, and every single one of those deaths is a preventable death. If this site is blocked without another site being found, people will overdose and die.
[02:44:42] ▶Our role as elected officials is to keep people safe
[02:44:47] ▶if and especially when they're having the worst day of their lives.
[02:44:51] ▶This motion falls far short of that goal. It further stigmatizes
[02:44:55] ▶substance use disorder when we desperately need to start treating this as the public health crisis that it is. Only then, when we act based on evidence, will we start to see deaths decline?
[02:45:08] ▶People are still gonna use drugs in this area. Without an overdose prevention site, many of them will die. And blocking overdose prevention sites doesn't solve homelessness
[02:45:18] ▶or poverty or addiction.
[02:45:20] ▶I think this motion has it completely the wrong way around. It's urgent that we establish this overdose prevention site in order to keep people alive.
[02:45:29] ▶Thank you.
[02:45:32] ▶Speaker 15: Thank you. Councilor Frey.
[02:45:37] ▶Speaker 8: Okay. Well,
[02:45:38] ▶quite the,
[02:45:39] ▶afternoon debate.
[02:45:41] ▶I mean, this is,
[02:45:42] ▶at its essence, an an ideological decision.
[02:45:46] ▶Council's operative direction is to use all the tools available to us at the city to take
[02:45:52] ▶all lawful steps to prevent the opening of the proposed overdose prevention site at 900 Helkin Street.
[02:46:00] ▶That's that's the direction we're giving.
[02:46:02] ▶Is that a practical decision? Probably not. But that's my opinion. And while my decisions are informed by my opinions, they're also grounded in facts and evidence, and we have a responsibility
[02:46:13] ▶to make informed decisions. In fact, it's our sworn duty. We we took an oath that says we will carry our duties out with integrity and that we'll be accountable for the decisions that we make.
[02:46:23] ▶And despite the chair's ruling, there's no demonstrable urgency to decide on this motion today.
[02:46:28] ▶A motion, I will add, that myself and other elected councilors saw for the first time
[02:46:33] ▶just a couple hours ago at ten to four.
[02:46:36] ▶The urgency here is a political decision.
[02:46:38] ▶We are denying thoughtful decision making.
[02:46:42] ▶I have so many questions. What is what is the permitting and change of use necessary for this site? What is the operating construct that's being proposed?
[02:46:49] ▶How is this gonna differ from other failed previous sites? And, of course, I'm gonna say that failure is relative because I'm sure if you're the family of a loved one who was, saved from an overdose, you probably didn't see it as a failure at all. You wouldn't see OPS intervention as some kind of a success.
[02:47:03] ▶What's what's the epidemiological
[02:47:05] ▶imperative for an overdose prevention site at this location? How many active users do we have in this area? How can OPS serve to divert folks into treatment and recovery, which we've heard loud and clear everybody's interested in?
[02:47:16] ▶How can OPS serve community and public safety?
[02:47:20] ▶What happens to the folks who are doing drugs in this area? Where are they gonna go? Is there an acceptable number of overdose deaths in this neighborhood? Because ninety four people died last year, and that was despite OPS interventions.
[02:47:31] ▶So what is the acceptable death number?
[02:47:35] ▶There's this magical thinking that we don't have to do anything until the province delivers treatment beds, and that ignores the reality of what's happening on the streets in our city. Of course, we need to do better. We know that. I don't think anybody's denying that. We're a wealthy world class city with visible poverty and addiction, human misery met huddled in the doorways.
[02:47:53] ▶It's a manifest failure of the system that's designed to help people, and it's failed. And we all see it. It's obvious.
[02:48:00] ▶But what is clear in denying an informed debate that involves experts
[02:48:04] ▶and lived experience,
[02:48:06] ▶we're not doing better. And when I say lived experience, I'm talking about not just people who use drugs, but people who live next door to OPS sites, people who
[02:48:14] ▶work the beat as police officers and first responders and firefighters.
[02:48:20] ▶Look. I don't wanna suggest motive in any way, but the reality is that this resolution, whether intentional or not, is setting a very political narrative that will no doubt inform the election in five months.
[02:48:31] ▶But what's really cleared,
[02:48:32] ▶despite all the politics,
[02:48:34] ▶is that we've denied informed decision making,
[02:48:37] ▶and likely the outcome of this decision today,
[02:48:42] ▶people, somebody somebody somebody loves will die, And that's a real tragedy.
[02:48:50] ▶Speaker 15: Council Glasson.
[02:48:53] ▶Speaker 0: Just go ahead. Thank you, chair, and and thank you everyone for today's debate. I've listened closely to everyone.
[02:49:00] ▶I'd like to first of all point out that this city council
[02:49:04] ▶have been uniquely good partners with Vancouver Coastal Health, and that's something to be proud of.
[02:49:09] ▶No other municipal jurisdiction in BC has allocated
[02:49:13] ▶millions
[02:49:14] ▶of dollars of tax dollars to make an investment in healthcare services
[02:49:19] ▶managed by the health authority.
[02:49:21] ▶The annual budget approved by this council is approximately $8,000,000
[02:49:26] ▶And this is something I,
[02:49:28] ▶a promise that I ran on that we would provide these services and we've delivered on that. Key programs funded include the expansion of the CAR eighty seven eighty eight program, the creation of the Mobile Crisis De Escalation Team, the first ever Indigenous
[02:49:43] ▶Crisis Response Team,
[02:49:45] ▶and increased capacity for the Operations Command Centre Liaison Nurse targeting mental health crisis response.
[02:49:52] ▶Dozens of people are working to support people in distress through this partnership.
[02:49:57] ▶But in spite of these resources and the good faith shown by these programs,
[02:50:03] ▶we are struggling to address this treat disorder resulting from substance use.
[02:50:08] ▶I can tell you that other city councilors across,
[02:50:11] ▶city councils across the province are likely seeing today's news
[02:50:16] ▶and debate and cheering us on. Cities and neighbourhoods all over BC are facing the same pressures and the significant downloading
[02:50:24] ▶of costs for first responders
[02:50:26] ▶and responding to the impacts of street disorder.
[02:50:28] ▶And much has been said today,
[02:50:31] ▶but I hope that the leadership team at Vancouver Coastal Health are listening closely
[02:50:36] ▶as the approach no longer works. They must start asking why or bring people onto their teams who are prepared to do things differently.
[02:50:44] ▶Ten years ago, a public health crisis was declared around opioid addiction, and that anniversary came and went, came and went without any pledge to change the failed approaches.
[02:50:55] ▶On the contrary, we heard from the Chief Public Health Officer that they didn't have enough chance enough of a chance to adopt decriminalization
[02:51:02] ▶or safe supply.
[02:51:04] ▶If the Premier is listening as well, he has an opportunity to trust his own gut and demand that new approaches are taken, and demand from his government that he gets those secure beds he promised
[02:51:15] ▶finally open. It's time for someone to stand up for our downtown neighbourhood. It's time for someone to stand up for the people who deserve a better chance for recovery. And it's time that Vancouver takes a new approach and stands up for all the residents, business operators, and organizations that make this one of the best cities on the planet. I'm proud to support this motion, and I'll let Vancouverites decide whether they think the status quo should continue.
[02:51:39] ▶Thanks, chair.
[02:51:40] ▶Speaker 15: Thank you, councilor Klassen.
[02:51:42] ▶Seeing no one else on the queue, we're now gonna vote, on the urgent motion.
[02:52:01] ▶Okay.
[02:52:02] ▶That passes with councilor Bly opposed, councilor Frey opposed, councilor Orr opposed, and councilor Maloney opposed. Thanks.
[02:52:10] ▶I'll
[02:52:12] ▶Speaker 1: I'll take the chair back.
[02:52:17] ▶Actually, I can't
[02:52:20] ▶take okay. So, actually, so,
[02:52:22] ▶councilor Meissner still has the chair then is what you're saying.
[02:52:26] ▶I'm still doing any business. Yeah.
[02:52:29] ▶Speaker 15: Okay.
[02:52:30] ▶So I'm, understand I'm still chairing.
[02:52:33] ▶Speaker 1: Mayor Sameer on the queue. Please go ahead. Okay. So do we have to go to,
[02:52:37] ▶a new queue here?
[02:52:39] ▶I do have another motion, that that I mentioned earlier. The second motion of urgent business requires the attention of counsel in connection to a financial matter. It was extremely exciting to see the announcement last week that Canada,
[02:52:52] ▶act as the host country for the headquarters of the future defense security and resilience bank.
[02:52:58] ▶This new multilateral
[02:53:00] ▶financial institution will bring together like minded partners to mobilize and deploy private capital and support collective
[02:53:07] ▶security.
[02:53:08] ▶The the DSRB will provide long term, low cost financing for defense, security, and resilience initiatives across supply chains, helping to address critical financing gaps with benefits for member governments and defense firms, particularly small and medium sized enterprises.
[02:53:26] ▶I stood with premier Eby and mister Calon in February and said that Vancouver is a clear choice to become the home of the DSRB.
[02:53:34] ▶Now that it has been awarded, the federal government is in the process of selecting the whole city of headquarters,
[02:53:40] ▶and there's, not a moment to lose in advocating for Vancouver.
[02:53:44] ▶That's why I'm moving the following urgent motion,
[02:53:47] ▶securing a home for this, defense security and resilience bank in Vancouver.
[02:53:54] ▶Is motion
[02:53:55] ▶Speaker 15: we pull it up? So, we'll need a seconder.
[02:53:59] ▶Seconded by councilor Young. Thank you.
[02:54:04] ▶And, mayor Sim, I understand you'd still be able to continue to speak to that. Yeah. So, basically, what it does ask for is,
[02:54:13] ▶Speaker 1: to approve an allocation of up up to a $100,000
[02:54:16] ▶from available reserves to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade to lead a coordinated
[02:54:21] ▶advocacy campaign on behalf of, Vancouver the Vancouver business community and BC as a whole,
[02:54:28] ▶to, you know, secure this incredible opportunity,
[02:54:32] ▶for the region.
[02:54:33] ▶Speaker 15: K. Thanks, mayor Sim, and that was seconded by councilor Kirby Young. Councilor Domino.
[02:54:39] ▶Please go ahead.
[02:54:41] ▶Oh, you're on the queue for new business. Okay.
[02:54:44] ▶Pardon me?
[02:54:46] ▶Oh, sure. Thank you. Councilor Klassen on, mayor Simms' second, motion.
[02:54:52] ▶Speaker 0: Thanks very much.
[02:54:53] ▶I'm going to support this, motion from the mayor.
[02:54:57] ▶I was, had the privilege of being involved in very early discussions around the DSRB,
[02:55:02] ▶through Invest Vancouver and also met with,
[02:55:06] ▶GB Bot. And I've been sort of following along with this story. I know the prime minister
[02:55:11] ▶has done a lot of advocacy,
[02:55:13] ▶globally through,
[02:55:15] ▶our partners in Europe and in Asia.
[02:55:18] ▶And, it's a real privilege for Vancouver
[02:55:21] ▶for Canada
[02:55:22] ▶to be the selected country for this bank.
[02:55:26] ▶It stands to,
[02:55:28] ▶ramp up to about 3,500
[02:55:30] ▶employees,
[02:55:31] ▶that would be providing in,
[02:55:34] ▶globally significant work and services. And so if you wanna ask why Vancouver would be chosen
[02:55:40] ▶is because of our very strong connection to the Asia Pacific,
[02:55:44] ▶in addition to,
[02:55:46] ▶our our proximity on the coast,
[02:55:49] ▶and also our relationship with Europe, which cannot be underestimated.
[02:55:54] ▶This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,
[02:55:57] ▶for our city and I know that we've had a consortium of business leaders and other advocates,
[02:56:03] ▶that have been out,
[02:56:04] ▶championing for Vancouver and we know that our competition is stiff.
[02:56:08] ▶Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, has been championing for Toronto.
[02:56:12] ▶Montreal has also put their name forward as well as the city of Ottawa. But, there are people, and in fact, there is a recent commentary
[02:56:20] ▶that Vancouver is the right destination for this for a whole host of geopolitical reasons.
[02:56:25] ▶And I, I think that we have a very great opportunity for a significant
[02:56:30] ▶economic development opportunity,
[02:56:32] ▶of global significance. And so this investment would be a very wise one and allow us to advance that, advocacy. Thanks very much. Thank you, councilor.
[02:56:41] ▶Speaker 15: Councilor Kirby Young.
[02:56:45] ▶Speaker 10: Yeah. Thanks, chair. I had the opportunity to attend the,
[02:56:48] ▶announcement,
[02:56:50] ▶in February with Maersim with, Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and other representatives, an impressive list of, groups and individuals coming together to secure this bid. It's being supported by the private sector as well as the government of BC, and the city. I think it goes without saying that the city's,
[02:57:06] ▶strategic location gives it an advantage. It offers strong connectivity and time on overlap with North America, Europe, and Indo Pacific.
[02:57:13] ▶We also have Canada's largest port,
[02:57:16] ▶the second,
[02:57:17] ▶busiest,
[02:57:19] ▶and most connected airport. We have direct routes to allied countries that would support the bank's international operations. We have the capacity in the workforce, the international presence. We're in an unprecedented time where securing not only defense but, resiliency of supply chains in this, time makes a lot of sense. There is strong competition interest, but as mentioned from total four cities, including Toronto and Montreal,
[02:57:41] ▶I think that with Vancouver,
[02:57:43] ▶very resiliently and enthusiastically showing its support,
[02:57:47] ▶we have an opportunity to win this. It doesn't automatically have to go back east. I think that we could, very,
[02:57:54] ▶likely see it here.
[02:57:57] ▶I know from my past experience working in tourism and and economic development that bids require funding,
[02:58:03] ▶an effort to put your, really best case forward, and we are at that that point, and I think that this is gonna move fairly quickly.
[02:58:11] ▶So this is the time following the conclusion of the multilateral
[02:58:14] ▶negotiations that just happened in Montreal where everybody agreed, all the participating countries agreed that Canada will get to serve as the home base for the bank.
[02:58:21] ▶Once the charter is ratified,
[02:58:23] ▶that, let's just not bring it to Canada, but let's bring it home to Vancouver. It's a fantastic economic success story.
[02:58:31] ▶It's a good one, in terms of,
[02:58:34] ▶fostering our independence and economy, and I think it would be a a real win for our city in terms of quality jobs and, really levering the incredible,
[02:58:43] ▶infrastructure and the talent that we have here. So I'm I'm happy to
[02:58:47] ▶support this. Thank you.
[02:58:49] ▶Speaker 15: Thank you. Councilor Frey.
[02:58:52] ▶Speaker 8: Great opportunity.
[02:58:53] ▶Generally supportive. I'm a little curious maybe if I could ask through you to the move of the motion.
[02:58:58] ▶Why why now? This first came to
[02:59:01] ▶our attention in February, and and it seems I mean, I'm very supportive, but why are we now having an urgent motion
[02:59:08] ▶Speaker 1: because thank you, councilor.
[02:59:12] ▶Because Canada has been awarded the host nation. Like, Canada has won it now. And that's that's Oh, listen. I'm sorry. Yeah. So that's the thing that's changed, and now we wanna advocate for Vancouver as being the city in Canada that will actually
[02:59:27] ▶be home to, the defense bank. Right. Were we not advocating back in February? Because the media seem to report that we were. Yeah. We were advocating as well, but now we have a full push on this one because it's very clear. It was unclear if it was coming to Canada in the first place. Now it's coming to Canada.
[02:59:42] ▶We wanna, you know, put that extra step into,
[02:59:46] ▶Speaker 8: whatever we need to do to secure that bid. And so just to put some color to it and, again, I am supportive of us getting this bid, and it's a fantastic opportunity. What is what is this money being earmarked for specifically? Do we it's just a general We'll we'll leave that up to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade,
[03:00:03] ▶Speaker 1: and, you know, they they've been all over this file, and we're just gonna support them. They're the experts, and, they've they've done a good job. They've done a great job advocating
[03:00:12] ▶for Canada and,
[03:00:14] ▶Vancouver. So, you know, we're gonna give them the tools they need, the support they need to bring this one home.
[03:00:21] ▶Okay.
[03:00:22] ▶Speaker 8: I will just, then just in general,
[03:00:26] ▶comment on on this. This is an exciting opportunity. It's been touted for a while. The you know, this is,
[03:00:32] ▶I think Vancouver's well positioned given that we are the gateway to the Pacific and the emergent kind of context there.
[03:00:39] ▶Ironic, of course, for NATO, but, I think it's a given the geopolitics of the time, I think this is, an opportunity for us that,
[03:00:47] ▶we are well positioned, and,
[03:00:49] ▶and,
[03:00:50] ▶I wish all the best to the negotiating team who's, working on bringing this this exciting opportunity to us.
[03:00:57] ▶Speaker 15: Okay. Thanks, councilor Frey. Seeing no one else on the queue, clerks, if you could please take us to the vote.
[03:01:14] ▶K. Passes unanimously.
[03:01:15] ▶Thank you.
[03:01:18] ▶I can now, I think, give the chair back to the mayor.
[03:01:21] ▶Speaker 1: Well, funnily enough, I do have one more item of,
[03:01:25] ▶new business that I mentioned when I first started. So my last motion in new business is, I will be traveling to Ottawa at the end of this month on an
[03:01:33] ▶trip to meet,
[03:01:34] ▶the prime minister and members of the federal government.
[03:01:37] ▶And I will be joined by councilor Domino and
[03:01:40] ▶Kirby councilors Domino and Kirby Young as well as the head of the city's IGR team. And so, I will be moving the following motion, forward
[03:01:51] ▶up there. It's basically,
[03:01:53] ▶to, cover the expenses
[03:01:56] ▶Speaker 15: of the trip, so we can advocate for Vancouver. K. Thank you, mayor Sim. I need a seconder, please.
[03:02:02] ▶Councilor Dominato seconded. Thank you. Councilors, if you'd like to speak to this, this motion, please add yourself the queue. Councilor Maloney. Please go ahead.
[03:02:12] ▶Speaker 11: Yeah. Thank you.
[03:02:14] ▶Just a question,
[03:02:15] ▶to the mover of the motion,
[03:02:18] ▶through whoever's chairing, please.
[03:02:23] ▶What so what's the purpose of this trip?
[03:02:26] ▶Speaker 1: We'll be advocating for the city of Vancouver. So there's a whole host of issues that we wanna get face time with the prime minister and the ministers that make decisions,
[03:02:34] ▶be it, on the housing file, be it on UBCX,
[03:02:37] ▶be it on public safety,
[03:02:39] ▶just to name a few. Also, you know,
[03:02:42] ▶we just discussed the, the, Defense Bank as well. So every opportunity we can get in front of the prime minister
[03:02:49] ▶and, you know,
[03:02:51] ▶the funders and the decision makers in Ottawa, we will do it.
[03:02:55] ▶Speaker 11: And,
[03:02:56] ▶why wouldn't you be taking,
[03:02:58] ▶councilor Bly with you? Because,
[03:03:01] ▶she's been the president of FCM for a long time, and I know that she's met with the prime minister,
[03:03:07] ▶quite a number of times and has an established relationship.
[03:03:11] ▶Speaker 1: Yeah. Because I wanna take councilor Domino and councilor Kirby Young.
[03:03:18] ▶Alright. Alright.
[03:03:21] ▶Speaker 15: Hey. Thanks, councilor Maloney. Councilor Bly.
[03:03:24] ▶Speaker 14: Yeah. Thanks very much. No offense. I just I just, that's okay. That answer doesn't need any comment. Yeah. I just,
[03:03:31] ▶I just wondered about,
[03:03:34] ▶so the CanSat conference is happening
[03:03:37] ▶on the twenty seventh and twenty eighth.
[03:03:40] ▶Just for clarity, that's the Canada's Defense Security And Emerging Technology Event. I'm just curious if that was on your radar.
[03:03:48] ▶Certainly will be a place for
[03:03:50] ▶Vancouver to be present if we are
[03:03:55] ▶interested
[03:03:55] ▶in in,
[03:03:57] ▶winning this bid. It's where
[03:03:59] ▶likely interested proponents will be, and not being there will definitely be noticed. So I'm just wondering if it's on your radar,
[03:04:06] ▶to attend that given that it's,
[03:04:09] ▶actually within the same week,
[03:04:11] ▶Speaker 1: the twenty fourth to the twenty sixth. You know, thanks for bringing that to my attention. Those are things we can look at. Right now, our big focus is making sure that we meet,
[03:04:21] ▶you know, with, the prime minister's office,
[03:04:24] ▶the relevant cabinet ministers, all the people that,
[03:04:27] ▶not only,
[03:04:29] ▶you know, carry the purse strings, but they can actually hear,
[03:04:32] ▶firsthand from us what the challenges and the opportunities
[03:04:36] ▶are in the city of Vancouver,
[03:04:38] ▶because, you know, while we do have some ministers that are from BC, there are a lot that aren't. And so just,
[03:04:44] ▶you know, that FaceTime and them getting a deep understanding of what the challenges that we face are, but also,
[03:04:51] ▶highlighting
[03:04:52] ▶highlighting opportunities and building those personal connections,
[03:04:55] ▶are incredibly invaluable, and that's what we're focused on with this trip.
[03:05:01] ▶Speaker 14: Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Happy to support. I appreciate
[03:05:07] ▶the
[03:05:08] ▶words of support from councilor Maloney.
[03:05:12] ▶I do think it's helpful to have Vancouver on the ground in Ottawa as much as possible, and that means all representatives.
[03:05:18] ▶It has been difficult, I think, for Vancouver to not have,
[03:05:24] ▶physical presence at the big city mayor's caucus over the last few years. That is where the relationships are established,
[03:05:31] ▶not just when we are looking for something, but where we are there to contribute as a broader caucus of the 22 largest cities. That hasn't been the case.
[03:05:40] ▶So I just I think this is important,
[03:05:43] ▶and
[03:05:44] ▶I am very happy to have broad representation from Vancouver.
[03:05:49] ▶I just think this may be,
[03:05:52] ▶unfortunately, I just think that those relationships need to be established ahead of time, and and the work hasn't been done there. So I I hope it's success successful. I'm very supportive of the bid.
[03:06:03] ▶From what I know,
[03:06:04] ▶attending CanSec is
[03:06:06] ▶the number one opportunity to really,
[03:06:10] ▶move the needle on being a serious contender for this bid. And as far as I can see, that's not part of the plan here. I'll leave it there.
[03:06:20] ▶Speaker 15: K. Thanks, councilor Bly. Seeing no one else, to speak to the motion. If we can now go to vote, please.
[03:06:35] ▶Okay. That passes unanimously.
[03:06:39] ▶And,
[03:06:40] ▶believe I'm able to hand the chair back. Thank you very much. Thank you.
[03:06:44] ▶Speaker 1: Councilor Dominato.
[03:06:46] ▶Speaker 13: Yes. Thanks,
[03:06:47] ▶mayor. As noted earlier, I just called notice on this, but if council's willing to entertain it, it's simply an administrative change that, councilor and I've circulated this. Councilor Claussen replaced myself as acting mayor for the evening of June 22
[03:07:00] ▶and, June 23 day,
[03:07:02] ▶as I have civic commitments outside the province.
[03:07:06] ▶Second.
[03:07:08] ▶Speaker 1: Any discussion?
[03:07:10] ▶All those in favor, say aye.
[03:07:12] ▶All those opposed, say nay. Great.
[03:07:16] ▶That yeah.
[03:07:17] ▶Are we good? Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Councilor Claassen.
[03:07:22] ▶Speaker 0: Thanks, mayor. I have a new business motion, and it's to,
[03:07:27] ▶get,
[03:07:28] ▶a travel expense allocation.
[03:07:31] ▶I was, as, some of you know, I have been,
[03:07:35] ▶the designate
[03:07:36] ▶for,
[03:07:37] ▶Bank City Of Vancouver for the BC Urban Mayors Caucus. They're having an advocacy day, in Victoria. They will be spending the day at the legislature in meetings, and, I would be there to,
[03:07:48] ▶participate as a representative of the City of Vancouver. And so,
[03:07:52] ▶the cost of getting there back is is what I'm looking for here.
[03:07:55] ▶Speaker 1: And do we have a seconder for the motion?
[03:07:58] ▶Alright. Councilor Joe, any, discussion?
[03:08:03] ▶Speaker 11: Where is this motion, please?
[03:08:07] ▶Speaker 0: It was, sent at
[03:08:09] ▶ten to four. It's a new business motion be resolved. I don't know if the clerk wants to put it on the screen. Yeah. If we can put that That would be helpful. Thank you.
[03:08:37] ▶Speaker 1: That all make sense?
[03:08:42] ▶Okay.
[03:08:43] ▶Is there any discussion?
[03:08:46] ▶Okay. So I'm gonna call a vote. All those in favor, say aye.
[03:08:51] ▶Speaker 4: Nay.
[03:08:53] ▶Speaker 1: All those opposed, say nay. Great. That passes. Thank you, councilor Klassen. Councilor Meisner?
[03:08:59] ▶Speaker 15: No. Not on the queue for anything. No. Councilor Plaigh? No. No. Councilor,
[03:09:04] ▶Speaker 1: sir, Carrie Young?
[03:09:06] ▶No? Okay. So there's no one in the queue.
[03:09:09] ▶I just wanna make sure that's correct. Okay.
[03:09:12] ▶So we're gonna go to change a business license hearing panel. This motion has been circulated to council by councilor Klassen and is available on the screen.
[03:09:20] ▶Would someone like to move the motion?
[03:09:25] ▶So moved.
[03:09:26] ▶Councilor Klassen moved. Is there a seconder?
[03:09:30] ▶Councilor Montague, thank you. Council, is there any discussion?
[03:09:35] ▶We can't see it.
[03:09:36] ▶It?
[03:10:00] ▶Okay. Councilor Dominato seconded it.
[03:10:03] ▶Any discussion?
[03:10:06] ▶Oh, okay. All those in favor say yay.
[03:10:09] ▶All those all those opposed say nay. Great. The motion carries unanimously.
[03:10:14] ▶Counsel, are there any other items of new business?
[03:10:18] ▶K. I don't see anyone in the queue, so I'm gonna keep going.
[03:10:21] ▶Inquiries and other matters. Counsel, are there any other, inquiries or other matters?
[03:10:28] ▶I don't see anyone in the queue. Last chance. Great. Okay. So can we please have a motion to adjourn?
[03:10:34] ▶Great. Councilor Montague, seconded by councilor Dominato. All those in favor, say yay. All those in favor, say nay. Great. This meeting is adjourned. And then
[03:10:46] ▶yep. And then so if we can start the public hearing and then take a recess,
[03:10:51] ▶that would be great.
[03:10:53] ▶And so,
[03:11:39] ▶Speaker 10: Alright. Good evening, everybody.
[03:11:41] ▶We are now gonna call the public hearing of Tuesday, 05/05/2026
[03:11:44] ▶to order.
[03:11:47] ▶I just wanna confirm that we have quorum.
[03:11:49] ▶Yes.
[03:11:51] ▶Yes.
[03:11:52] ▶Okay. Great.
[03:11:54] ▶I will note that this meeting is being held in person and by electronic means. Council members and the public may participate by either method.
[03:12:01] ▶Any council members joining electronically are reminded to please enable your video to confirm quorum. For the public, the meeting is being live streamed on the city's website and YouTube.
[03:12:09] ▶The meeting progress will be updated regularly on exit van city clerk.
[03:12:14] ▶Should there be an emergency that requires evacuation, there are two exits located beyond the glass doors and to the left. And if the glass doors are blocked, please use one of the four additional exits in the chamber.
[03:12:23] ▶Don't use the elevator. Use the stairs instead.
[03:12:26] ▶Should you need, mobility assistance, stay where you are, and security staff will help guide you to a safe location.
[03:12:33] ▶A defibrillator is available at the end of the hallway outside the chamber. I want to acknowledge we are also on the unceded
[03:12:39] ▶homelands of the Musqueam and Squamish Lambda people. We thank them for having cared for the land and look forward to continuing to work with them in partnership as we
[03:12:47] ▶evolve and grow our city.
[03:12:49] ▶I also wanna recognize the immense contributions of the city of Vancouver's team members who work hard every day to help make our city an incredible place to live, work, and play. Clerk, can we have the roll call, please?
[03:13:00] ▶Speaker 17: Mayor Sim has an LOA for civic business from 5PM onwards. Councilor Kirby Young's in the chair. Councilor Dovanado?
[03:13:07] ▶Counselor Bly?
[03:13:09] ▶Counselor Frey?
[03:13:11] ▶Counselor Montague?
[03:13:12] ▶Counselor Claassen?
[03:13:14] ▶Speaker 0: Present.
[03:13:15] ▶Speaker 17: Counselor Meissner?
[03:13:18] ▶Councilor Zhou?
[03:13:20] ▶Councilor Orr?
[03:13:22] ▶As a LOA for personal reasons from 6PM onwards. Councilor Maloney.
[03:13:28] ▶View of quorum.
[03:13:29] ▶Speaker 10: Deputy mayor Kirby Young. Okay. Thanks, Steph. Since council has been going into overtime, I'm gonna end,
[03:13:35] ▶both council and staff need a break. I'm gonna suggest that we recess until 06:45
[03:13:40] ▶to allow everybody to take a break, and then we will come back, and commence business. Okay?
[03:13:46] ▶Everybody okay with half an hour?
[03:13:49] ▶Good. Okay. We are recessed. We'll reconvene at 06:45.
[03:36:42] ▶Speaker 24: Welcome to TELUS conferencing.
[03:36:44] ▶To join the conference, enter your access code followed by the number sign.
[03:37:21] ▶Speaker 25: Hi, Tamara. Can you hear me?
[03:37:58] ▶Yeah. I can hear you. Perfect. Thank you.
[03:44:12] ▶Hi, Councilor Joe. Just wanted to check you can hear me okay?
[03:47:37] ▶Speaker 3: Hi, counselor Joe. We can hear you just fine. Thank you so much.
[03:47:41] ▶Hi, counselor Frey. It's the clerk in the chamber. Can you hear us okay?
[03:47:56] ▶Speaker 12: Yes.
[03:47:57] ▶Hey, Leslie. I'm not sure if I'm able to hear you. Oh, can you hear me now?
[03:48:05] ▶Speaker 3: Okay.
[03:48:07] ▶We're at four. Yeah. Yep.
[03:48:41] ▶Hi, counselor Klassen. It's the clerk in the chamber. Can you hear us okay?
[03:48:48] ▶Counselor Frey, can you hear us?
[03:49:12] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. If the counselors online,
[03:49:15] ▶can indicate
[03:49:16] ▶either come off mute or check their settings and indicate they can hear us in the chamber. We're just trying to verify quorum so we can get started, please.
[03:49:36] ▶Okay. We're gonna we're just gonna do a check here on our end and see if there's an issue. Oh, hang tight, everybody.
[03:50:00] ▶Speaker 25: Hi, counselor Joe. Can you hear can you hear me?
[03:50:04] ▶Yes. Wait. I can. Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. Come
[03:50:09] ▶Speaker 3: on. I know. Counselor Frey, counselor Klassen, counselor Dominato, counselor Bly, can you hear us in the chamber now?
[03:50:17] ▶Speaker 0: Yep. Okay. Are you okay? I can hear you, Leslie. Okay.
[03:50:21] ▶Speaker 3: And once cameras are on, we'll have quorum, and we can start the meeting.
[03:50:39] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. Good evening, everybody. We are going to try to get this public hearing started. We are,
[03:50:45] ▶having counselors pop in and out in a little tight for quorum, so I'm gonna ask all counselors to please turn on your cameras if you can. Helps the clerks to verify that we have quorum to get started.
[03:50:56] ▶I do,
[03:50:57] ▶want to deal with one item right off the bat, and we have a suggestion from our planning team. This is not something that councilors entertain often,
[03:51:06] ▶but, to vary the agenda tonight to deal with item two first before item one due to its the kind of interrelatedness
[03:51:14] ▶between different pieces of work that the planning department is doing in sequencing. And we have a high interest in both pieces, but it would be helpful to the efforts of staff if council is open to varying the agenda and hearing item two before item one. So I'd be looking to see if, this will of counsel, if somebody would like to move a motion to that effect.
[03:51:31] ▶Speaker 20: I'm,
[03:51:32] ▶I'm happy to move that motion, chair, to to,
[03:51:37] ▶I guess, amend the agenda to hear item two before item one, I guess, would be the motion.
[03:51:43] ▶Speaker 10: Do we have a seconder for that?
[03:51:46] ▶Councilor Maloney. Second. Okay. Seconded by councilor Maloney. Thank you.
[03:51:50] ▶Any discussion?
[03:51:52] ▶I'm not seeing any.
[03:51:54] ▶So I'll just we'll try a a recorded vote if the clerks have visual on everybody.
[03:51:58] ▶All in favor?
[03:52:00] ▶And am I hearing any opposed?
[03:52:03] ▶None. Okay. I also just wanna note before I get into the other, housekeeping logistics for the night that we do have a very significant number of speakers for each of the two items tonight.
[03:52:13] ▶So we're gonna see how we are pacing, and then we'll make a determination
[03:52:17] ▶partway through so that we can provide some notice to other folks as to whether or not we're gonna get to item one tonight or not. But we're gonna get started now.
[03:52:25] ▶So a few announcements. A reminder to the public, they may speak by in person or by phone or may submit written comments to the mayor and council. Speakers may only speak once, and we'll have up to five minutes to comment on the merits of the application.
[03:52:38] ▶Please remember to state whether you support or oppose the application.
[03:52:41] ▶And if you are a Vancouver resident,
[03:52:44] ▶those who are representing four or more individuals or groups, including themselves, may speak for up to eight minutes. Each person being represented must confirm their name and presence in person or by phone and not speak separately.
[03:52:55] ▶If you want to follow along, you can do that on the live stream at Vancity Clerk or on x to track meeting progress
[03:53:01] ▶so you know when your turn to speak is coming up.
[03:53:03] ▶Please note everybody that the live stream 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.
[03:53:12] ▶If you preregister with the presentation,
[03:53:15] ▶the clerk, could advance your slides for you. You simply need to say next.
[03:53:19] ▶A reminder to everybody that at public hearings, council acts as a quasi judicial
[03:53:23] ▶body and must focus solely on the merits, of the rezoning or heritage application. Members may ask clarifying questions of staff or speakers,
[03:53:31] ▶including the applicant, but should reserve debate until after the speaker's list has closed.
[03:53:35] ▶After hearing from speakers, council has, the option to either approve the application in principle, approve the application in principle with amendments, to refuse it, or to refer the application to staff for further consideration.
[03:53:48] ▶Okay.
[03:53:49] ▶We're going to start now with item number
[03:53:52] ▶two.
[03:53:53] ▶Alright. Just looking my script here.
[03:54:04] ▶Okay. Item two is entitled fast tracking rental housing and small hotels, new mixed use commercial district.
[03:54:10] ▶Before we begin the agenda item, if anyone believes they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it. Does anyone have a conflict?
[03:54:18] ▶I am not seeing anybody on the queue or hearing anybody in chambers.
[03:54:22] ▶I will now ask the clerk to read the application and the summary of correspondence received, please.
[03:54:26] ▶Speaker 25: This is an application by the general manager of planning, urban design, and sustainability
[03:54:31] ▶to amend the zoning and development by law to introduce a new c dash two a commercial mixed use district schedule
[03:54:38] ▶and to rezone
[03:54:39] ▶2,348
[03:54:41] ▶properties to c dash two a that are currently zoned c dash two, c dash two b, c dash two c, and c dash two c one to enable up to six stories for rental housing and hotels.
[03:54:54] ▶The new c dash two eight enables up to eight stories in transit oriented areas for rental housing and hotels.
[03:55:00] ▶To amend section two of the zoning and development by law to add a new definition of transit oriented area and amend the two r three district schedule, r four district schedule, and r five district schedule of the zoning and development by law to remove the replicated transit oriented
[03:55:18] ▶area definition.
[03:55:19] ▶Amend the rental housing stock official development plan to extend rental housing replacement requirements to the new c dash two a district.
[03:55:27] ▶Properties proposed for rezoning to the new c dash two a district are already subject to the rental housing stock official development plan based on their existing zoning in c dash two, c dash two b, c dash two c, and c dash two c one. Amend the Downtown Eastside Oppenheimer official development plan to remove the replicated definition of transit oriented
[03:55:48] ▶area that is proposed to be added to section two of the zoning and development by law. The following correspondence has been received since referral to public hearing. 57 pieces of correspondence in support, 73 pieces of correspondence in opposition.
[03:56:02] ▶This represents all correspondence received up to 5PM today. Correspondence is presented as submitted and may include multiple or duplicate entries.
[03:56:14] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thank you very much.
[03:56:16] ▶I will now make my first call for speakers. Should you wish to speak to counsel about the item, please call toll free +1 (833)
[03:56:23] ▶353-8610
[03:56:24] ▶followed by the participant code 1061445
[03:56:29] ▶before the speaker's list closes. The number is available on x and will be displayed during recess.
[03:56:34] ▶There will be an opportunity for new speakers and for missed speakers to be heard at the end of the registered speakers list.
[03:56:40] ▶And now we have, staff from planning, urban design, and sustainability here to present the application. Please go ahead when you're ready.
[03:56:48] ▶Speaker 6: Hey.
[03:56:49] ▶Good, good evening, mayor and council. I'm Edna Cho, senior planner in housing policy and planning urban design and sustainability,
[03:56:56] ▶and I will be taking you through a short presentation
[03:56:59] ▶on the proposed zoning changes to fast track rental housing and small hotels.
[03:57:04] ▶I'm joined by my colleagues in PDS and legal services who are available to answer any follow-up questions from counsel.
[03:57:14] ▶This presentation will go through an overview of the current state,
[03:57:18] ▶recommendations in the report,
[03:57:20] ▶and what we heard in engagement.
[03:57:25] ▶The core recommendation of this report is to establish a new streamlined mixed use commercial c two a zone, which is intended to eventually replace the current array of repetitive and very similar c two, c two b, c two c, and c two c one zoning, thereby reducing complexity and redundancy.
[03:57:44] ▶As part of these changes, this report also includes necessary
[03:57:48] ▶consequential updates to the rental housing stock ODP, the secured rental policy, and other related bylaws.
[03:57:57] ▶A little bit of background on existing c two zones. So C 2 is one of the oldest zoning districts originally created in 1956.
[03:58:06] ▶Over time, the rules have become increasingly complex
[03:58:09] ▶with minor differences in frontages and height across different areas.
[03:58:13] ▶As mentioned in the previous slide, there are four c two type zones, c two, c two b, c two c, and c two c one. We refer to these colloquially in planning as the clone zones.
[03:58:24] ▶Most sites in these c two zones can achieve six stories for rental and four stories for strata, but some sites in older community plans still need to go through a rezoning process to achieve six stories for rental.
[03:58:37] ▶As for hotels, they are committed in c two only and limited to four stories.
[03:58:47] ▶In terms of the policy context, the secured rental policy approved in 2019
[03:58:52] ▶promotes rental housing that is essential for economic stability, social diversity, and encourages low rise missing middle housing forms that are six stories and under.
[03:59:02] ▶The three three three one permitting targets and 2025
[03:59:05] ▶development viability report aim to modernize and expedite approvals with measures to enhance project feasibility
[03:59:13] ▶amidst challenging economic conditions.
[03:59:16] ▶These challenges include softening market trends and high construction costs, which greatly impact the viability of housing projects.
[03:59:25] ▶Additionally, the new 2025
[03:59:26] ▶hotel development policy
[03:59:28] ▶encourages increased density for hotels up to six stories on commercial streets outside the downtown core to alleviate the city's hotel accommodation shortage.
[03:59:41] ▶The main proposal today is to rezone approximately 2,400
[03:59:45] ▶properties
[03:59:46] ▶representing the vast majority, 88%
[03:59:49] ▶of c two, c two b, c two c, and c two c one commercial district sites into a new streamlined
[03:59:56] ▶c two a district.
[03:59:58] ▶So why 88%? Why not all the sites? So sites in transit oriented areas tiers one, two, and four are excluded because provincial legislation
[04:00:07] ▶requires minimum densities up to 20 stories and five FSR in tier one, which far exceeds the height and densities proposed as part of today's c two changes, so out of scope.
[04:00:19] ▶Select sites within community plans,
[04:00:22] ▶such as the commercial drive area, are also excluded based on local priorities that were identified during the community planning process.
[04:00:30] ▶So the map shown here are the existing c two and clone zone sites in yellow, orange, and red.
[04:00:40] ▶K. The the next map here, shown in green, are the sites that are proposed to be consolidated
[04:00:46] ▶into the new c two a district schedule, which will become the primary low rise mixed use commercial schedule for the city moving forward.
[04:00:54] ▶So let's move, let's go into some details about the specific changes.
[04:00:59] ▶So starting with rental housing, while most c two sites already allow for six story market rental projects, certain areas within community plans still require more time consuming rezoning process.
[04:01:12] ▶The proposed changes will include 232
[04:01:14] ▶previously excluded parcels,
[04:01:16] ▶though those are shown in the dark green,
[04:01:20] ▶on the map to permit six story, a 100% rental buildings through a faster
[04:01:25] ▶development permit process.
[04:01:27] ▶This update aligns these previously excluded sites with the majority of c 2 zone sites. Those are the parcels that are shown in the light green on the map, creating a more consistent,
[04:01:38] ▶understandable,
[04:01:39] ▶fair,
[04:01:40] ▶and streamlined regulatory framework.
[04:01:45] ▶Moving on to small hotels, the proposal recommends increasing the hotel height limit in the new C 2 A District from four to six stories.
[04:01:53] ▶Six story hotels are currently allowed through a lengthier rezoning process through the 2025 hotel development policy.
[04:02:00] ▶By removing the rezoning requirement, this update encourages new small hotels outside the downtown core on commercial high streets. In terms of uptake, since market rental housing generally performs better financially,
[04:02:14] ▶staff expect these sites to attract specialized hotel operators
[04:02:18] ▶rather than directly competing with rental housing development.
[04:02:25] ▶The proposed updates also modernize and simplify existing districts while ensuring compliance with provincial t transit oriented area, TOA legislation.
[04:02:35] ▶To achieve this, staff clarify district schedule rules by removing duplicate,
[04:02:41] ▶regularly relaxed, or am ambiguous regulations.
[04:02:45] ▶These updates follow the model of newer residential district schedules, particularly the R 3 and R 5 districts that were recently approved by this council fall of last year.
[04:02:56] ▶Finally, the new C 2 A District includes provisions for building heights up to eight stories,
[04:03:01] ▶but at the same densities as the six story rental form in tier three and five transit oriented areas, which are necessary to comply with provincial requirements.
[04:03:12] ▶So that covers about 625
[04:03:15] ▶parcels, about 25%
[04:03:17] ▶of the new C 2 A District.
[04:03:21] ▶Under the Vancouver ODP, sites proposed,
[04:03:25] ▶in the C 2 A District are designated as mixed use low rise.
[04:03:29] ▶That means that all new developments must include nonresidential
[04:03:33] ▶uses
[04:03:33] ▶intended to encourage commercial and office vitality.
[04:03:37] ▶To align with the ODP, mixed use buildings in the new C 2 A must provide at least point three five FSR,
[04:03:44] ▶ground on ground floor retail, office space, or other nonresidential
[04:03:49] ▶uses. Consequently,
[04:03:51] ▶new residential only projects will no longer be permitted, though legacy uses existing at the time of enactment will continue to be permitted.
[04:04:03] ▶Let's move on to engagement. So staff engaged residents and stakeholders through online sessions and comment forms, generating approximately 2,900
[04:04:12] ▶touch points.
[04:04:13] ▶This included a shape your city page, a virtual open house, and targeted sessions with the development industry and business improvement associations,
[04:04:21] ▶as well as letters to over 7,200
[04:04:24] ▶property owners.
[04:04:26] ▶Feedback revealed public support for low rise six story buildings and simpler approval processes for housing and small hotels.
[04:04:34] ▶Additionally, the development community were highly supportive of the updates, urging the city to streamline the regulations
[04:04:41] ▶and implement the changes as quickly as possible.
[04:04:46] ▶There were some concerns raised by the public, which I'll go through here, as well as staff's response.
[04:04:51] ▶While some residents expressed concern regarding the impact of six story buildings,
[04:04:56] ▶these heights have been permitted on most parcels in c two in c two zones since 2021.
[04:05:03] ▶This proposal primarily streamlines the approval process and is not changing heights on the majority of sites, though eight story heights are now included in tier three and five
[04:05:13] ▶transit oriented areas to comply with provincial legislation.
[04:05:18] ▶It should be noted that take up of the eight story option is
[04:05:22] ▶projected to be very low as no increases in density is provided with the eight story option.
[04:05:27] ▶So there's no incentive for developers to choose to build in a higher, more complicated, and more expensive form without an offset.
[04:05:35] ▶We heard,
[04:05:36] ▶we heard concerns around the impact of infrastructure and amenities.
[04:05:41] ▶The proposed changes are largely administrative and do not grant significant new development rights beyond what current zoning already allows.
[04:05:49] ▶To support growth, new amenities and infrastructure will be delivered through future city capital plans and funded through development cost levy spending.
[04:05:58] ▶And finally, we heard concerns around displacement of existing renters.
[04:06:02] ▶To protect existing renters, all projects involving current tenants remain subject to the city's tenant relocation and protection policy.
[04:06:10] ▶As well, the rental housing stock ODP continues to mandate
[04:06:13] ▶one for one replacement of rent of existing rental units so that new residential developments do not result in a net loss of rental housing.
[04:06:26] ▶So in conclusion, the proposed changes are to consolidate
[04:06:30] ▶four older commercial zones into a new simplified c two a district
[04:06:35] ▶by rezoning approximately 2,400
[04:06:37] ▶parcels today. This this report achieves the vast majority of this transition in my move.
[04:06:44] ▶The shift accelerates the delivery of six story rental housing and low rise hotels while ensuring compliance with recent provincial transit oriented legislation.
[04:06:54] ▶If approved, by law enactment is scheduled for May 19, allowing staff to immediately process new applications
[04:07:01] ▶and transition existing projects.
[04:07:04] ▶Looking ahead, the new district will serve as a template for future initiatives,
[04:07:08] ▶including the village's planning program to support low rise mixed use growth.
[04:07:13] ▶So thank you. That concludes the presentation, and council, please note there's a yellow memo attached to the report,
[04:07:20] ▶and staff are available to answer any follow-up questions you may have.
[04:07:26] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thank you very much. We'll know that the applicant for this item is the general manager planning, urban design, and sustainability.
[04:07:33] ▶So we'll ask at this point if the applicant or designate has any additional comments.
[04:07:40] ▶Speaker 6: No. No comments.
[04:07:41] ▶Speaker 10: K. Thank you very much. Council, this is the opportunity to ask questions,
[04:07:46] ▶to either,
[04:07:48] ▶them being similarly one and the same.
[04:07:51] ▶Councilor Maloney, I'm gonna advance to you. You have the floor.
[04:07:54] ▶Speaker 11: Thanks.
[04:07:55] ▶So this
[04:07:56] ▶this recommendation,
[04:07:58] ▶just deals with existing zoning along arterials. Is that right?
[04:08:05] ▶So,
[04:08:07] ▶it doesn't it's not that,
[04:08:10] ▶we're trying to restrict,
[04:08:12] ▶six story,
[04:08:14] ▶buildings to arterials. It's just that this is the
[04:08:18] ▶that's,
[04:08:19] ▶narrow aspect of,
[04:08:21] ▶planning our zoning that we're dealing with right now. That's correct. Great.
[04:08:26] ▶And,
[04:08:27] ▶tell me,
[04:08:29] ▶we know that we're in,
[04:08:31] ▶difficult economic circumstances
[04:08:33] ▶for construction.
[04:08:35] ▶Does,
[04:08:37] ▶are we confident that,
[04:08:39] ▶six story,
[04:08:41] ▶hotels along these zones are
[04:08:44] ▶are likely to,
[04:08:46] ▶pencil for
[04:08:49] ▶developers and operators?
[04:08:50] ▶Speaker 6: I'm gonna ask my colleague, Sean Martinez, to take that question.
[04:08:59] ▶Speaker 19: Good evening, council. Sean Martinez, employment lands team in the,
[04:09:03] ▶planning department.
[04:09:05] ▶Thank you, councilor. So we do believe that, it is feasible.
[04:09:09] ▶They won't be very widespread
[04:09:11] ▶as,
[04:09:12] ▶hotels at this size will probably require a very specialized developers who have experience doing this type of hotel. The six story built form does provide some advantages in that it can be built,
[04:09:25] ▶the with the, mass timber,
[04:09:28] ▶and other, you know, essentially less material in that, it is a lower lower rise form.
[04:09:33] ▶Speaker 11: So we're not expecting that,
[04:09:36] ▶that this change will suddenly,
[04:09:39] ▶result in an influx of,
[04:09:42] ▶a lot of hotels. It's likely to be a gradual take up.
[04:09:46] ▶Speaker 19: Exactly. We do not expect this to be a large,
[04:09:49] ▶influx of of of new hotels.
[04:09:52] ▶Currently, there's only about six hotels outside of downtown in Vancouver,
[04:09:56] ▶that even and they're usually around three or four stories. So this is not a very spec this is not a very,
[04:10:02] ▶high volume type of,
[04:10:04] ▶type of, deployment of the hotels. They are essentially very specialized in certain only certain operators can operate within this size.
[04:10:12] ▶Speaker 11: And I know that there has been some public concern about,
[04:10:16] ▶the,
[04:10:18] ▶the change,
[04:10:19] ▶the increase of allowance for hotels,
[04:10:22] ▶in in this recommendation,
[04:10:25] ▶displacing affordable housing or,
[04:10:28] ▶making it more difficult to build affordable housing?
[04:10:32] ▶Speaker 19: We do not expect that to be the case.
[04:10:35] ▶Currently, with our economic testing,
[04:10:37] ▶the highest and best use is still to do, residential
[04:10:41] ▶development.
[04:10:42] ▶As I said, there,
[04:10:44] ▶the hotel take up will probably be very limited to some developers who are able to actually,
[04:10:49] ▶specialize and likely have already operations of this size that can actually do this type of hotel.
[04:10:55] ▶Speaker 11: And,
[04:10:56] ▶perhaps a question for
[04:10:59] ▶planners.
[04:11:01] ▶Are we
[04:11:03] ▶expecting that the single stair egress top typology will be
[04:11:09] ▶a feature of the buildings
[04:11:12] ▶built under
[04:11:13] ▶this change, or is that are we still expecting that there'll be land consolidation?
[04:11:19] ▶Speaker 19: I'll pass it over to Josh.
[04:11:24] ▶Speaker 26: Yes.
[04:11:24] ▶Councilor Josh White, general manager of planning.
[04:11:27] ▶Yes. We expect,
[04:11:30] ▶the combination of,
[04:11:32] ▶more areas of Vancouver, including,
[04:11:36] ▶the some of the regulatory changes we're making here around the six stories,
[04:11:40] ▶but especially the villages initiative, which, as you alluded to,
[04:11:44] ▶brings a lot more offer to opportunities
[04:11:46] ▶through that program
[04:11:48] ▶in combination with a single egress stair regulatory change, we think will be an important advantage both
[04:11:55] ▶on commercial main streets as well as the residential side streets,
[04:11:59] ▶for unlocking this type of low rise product,
[04:12:03] ▶in a variety of forms that we've, not yet experienced, including smaller lot,
[04:12:09] ▶products as opposed to large consolidations and land assemblies.
[04:12:13] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. Thanks. That's it for me for now. Great. Thanks, councilor Maloney. I'm gonna advance myself for a couple questions.
[04:12:20] ▶When you say small specialized hotels, how many rooms would we roughly be talking about in an in a in an illustrative
[04:12:27] ▶six story form for a hotel?
[04:12:29] ▶Speaker 19: Thank you, councilor. We're expecting between 80 and a 150 rooms depending on the size of the assembly.
[04:12:36] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. And have we done any,
[04:12:38] ▶what's the engagement or economic testing been like? I know you mentioned mass timber that,
[04:12:43] ▶some folks might actually proceed
[04:12:46] ▶with some hotels. Like, what are the economics and
[04:12:49] ▶the interest actually look like?
[04:12:52] ▶Speaker 19: So we do know that,
[04:12:54] ▶at this built form, we it can be completed within mass timber.
[04:12:59] ▶And,
[04:13:00] ▶Speaker 10: that Have have have we had engagement with the hotel sector that said they would or individuals
[04:13:05] ▶that would actually build these? Yes. There is interest.
[04:13:08] ▶Speaker 19: As I said, very specialized interest with regards to
[04:13:17] ▶Speaker 26: I was just gonna clarify, like, at six stories, the building coating would would still allow you to use conventional stick built,
[04:13:23] ▶Speaker 10: products under the building code today. So I just wanted to clarify that. It's not just mass timber products. I I appreciate that, but I guess my my question is a pragmatic one is we can zone it, but will they build it? Yes. We building it, and is it economically feasible? It is economically feasible. It is just it is not going to be very,
[04:13:42] ▶Speaker 19: it is not so feasible that it would outstrip,
[04:13:45] ▶a a comparable housing,
[04:13:49] ▶housing project. There are these specialized,
[04:13:52] ▶developers who will be able to take it up, and we do have interest, from some limit those limited,
[04:13:59] ▶Speaker 10: limited parties who are looking, at that size of hotel. Okay. And when you you've used the word specialized a few times, what do you mean by that? These would be developers that have operated,
[04:14:10] ▶Speaker 19: hotels of modest size, usually at limited,
[04:14:13] ▶of, limited service. So these are the ones who will not be providing,
[04:14:18] ▶you know, large, convention spaces or things like that. They are specialized in essentially families or,
[04:14:24] ▶tourists who,
[04:14:25] ▶you know, want a simple room. Maybe there'd be, like, a breakfast room, something like that, but that's usually the focus of it. It's usually just tourist accommodation.
[04:14:34] ▶Speaker 10: K.
[04:14:35] ▶And is it fair to say overall with respects to this proposal that it's streamlining of regulations and consolidation?
[04:14:42] ▶There's opening up of some of the hotel opportunity, but it doesn't really fundamentally change zoning entitlements per se. It just really
[04:14:50] ▶Speaker 19: Currently,
[04:14:51] ▶in the c two,
[04:14:53] ▶Speaker 10: hotels are allowed up to four stories. And I meant for both just clarify the question. I meant in for the report as a whole, including for rental housing and
[04:15:02] ▶Speaker 6: Yeah. That that's correct. The main thrust of this is really
[04:15:06] ▶simplification
[04:15:07] ▶and alignment of of the zones. Yep. So it doesn't
[04:15:11] ▶it doesn't change the heights and densities,
[04:15:14] ▶that that's that's proposed. Yep. So it's more streamlining our processes, but the pub for the public's clarification, it's not really changing heights and densities other than what's allowed on what's enabled right now. Other than what's enabled right now except for those 232 zones that, sites that were previously excluded from going up to six stories but were allowed through a rezoning for rental.
[04:15:35] ▶And then, you know, because of the TOA legislation, we had to allow the eight story height for the the sites that are within the tier tier three the tier three. Yeah. Okay. Appreciate that. Thanks for the clarification.
[04:15:48] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. If there's no other questions from council at this point, I'm gonna make my I'm not seeing any last chance.
[04:15:54] ▶I'm gonna make my second call for speakers. For those wishing to speak to council, you can call +1 (833) 353-8610,
[04:16:01] ▶followed by close of the speakers list. The number is on x and will be displayed during the recess. We will now hear from the public.
[04:16:07] ▶Any speakers in the council chamber can please come forward to the podium on the left side of the chamber when it's your turn.
[04:16:15] ▶It can be adjusted to suit you.
[04:16:17] ▶Controls are on the right side, and phone and speakers will be unmuted when it is your turn. All speakers will have up to five minutes to make your comments and should focus your comments on this specific application.
[04:16:27] ▶Our first registered speaker tonight on this item is Jordan Hsu,
[04:16:33] ▶and Jordan is here. Great. Please go ahead when you're ready.
[04:16:37] ▶Speaker 27: Good evening,
[04:16:38] ▶chair of council and council members. I do have a USB and a really quick PowerPoint if I can display this on
[04:16:45] ▶onto the projection.
[04:16:48] ▶Speaker 10: There is a deadline to submit presentations, unfortunately, ahead of council.
[04:16:51] ▶Are you able to proceed with just making your comments verbally? I did also submit it online. I'm not sure if you guys You submitted it to the clerk's office? As well. Yes. Okay. When did and when did you send it in? Well, it was last week when I signed up for it for the speaking and also the Okay. Alright. We'll just pause for a moment and see if that can be identified.
[04:17:32] ▶Oh, I'm being advised that, they they have your email for sign up, but the,
[04:17:37] ▶Speaker 27: presentation was not attached. Oh, it's not part of it?
[04:17:40] ▶Can I upload
[04:17:42] ▶Speaker 10: it now to present? Yeah. Unfortunately, I don't think we have the ability to do that,
[04:17:46] ▶because they need to sync them up ahead of time.
[04:17:49] ▶Speaker 27: Okay.
[04:17:51] ▶Speaker 10: That's that's fine. I do have a paper copy of it if that helps. But you what you can also do is you can email it into the comments to council, and that can go on the public record, and council can have it after. If you feel Okay. Comfortable, you can go ahead and speak to your presentation.
[04:18:03] ▶Speaker 27: Sure. Yeah. I can go ahead with it first then. Thank you.
[04:18:09] ▶So
[04:18:10] ▶my name is Jordan Hsu. I'm part of the, Cape Group, local developer.
[04:18:15] ▶So,
[04:18:18] ▶so we have a we have a site on Charles And Nanaimo,
[04:18:24] ▶right on the corner there.
[04:18:26] ▶This it's located within the Grandview Woodland community.
[04:18:30] ▶The address is 2336
[04:18:32] ▶To 2366
[04:18:34] ▶Charles Street,
[04:18:35] ▶currently zone primarily C 1 with a small portion
[04:18:40] ▶r T 5.
[04:18:45] ▶So as per
[04:18:48] ▶as per the, design policy,
[04:18:50] ▶under the Grandview Woodland plan policy
[04:18:53] ▶support
[04:18:53] ▶supports our proposals to strengthen the area as a local shopping node with retail at grade and housing
[04:19:00] ▶housing above.
[04:19:02] ▶There is an image that shows, but,
[04:19:05] ▶I can submit that afterwards.
[04:19:08] ▶And also within their urban design policy, the Grand View Woodland Plan identifies key urban
[04:19:13] ▶design priorities, including
[04:19:15] ▶a mixed use building of up to six stories as, noted presented previously with by the staff.
[04:19:24] ▶So our our site, falls within the Grandview Woodland shopping node,
[04:19:29] ▶including the balance of our block and the blocks to the north and south. The intent is to emphasize this as an emerging commercial street
[04:19:37] ▶and local shopping node.
[04:19:43] ▶The Granblue Windland Plan identifies
[04:19:45] ▶housing policy intended to increase housing options,
[04:19:49] ▶supply,
[04:19:50] ▶including ownership and market rental on our site.
[04:19:54] ▶We're hoping to proceed with
[04:19:56] ▶market rental as part of the proposed development and retail at grade.
[04:20:04] ▶For us, we would like to move ahead with a mixed use building that aligns with the Grandview Woodland Community Plan
[04:20:12] ▶and propose
[04:20:13] ▶and the and the proposed c two a zoning.
[04:20:16] ▶We think this can greatly improve the opportunity for enhancing the local shopping street
[04:20:22] ▶and provide secured market rental housing above.
[04:20:26] ▶The pre zone allows approach allows us to move forward in an efficient manner and work to secure the necessary development and building permits to begin construction,
[04:20:37] ▶and deliver the product to the public as soon as we can.
[04:20:42] ▶Because
[04:20:44] ▶oh,
[04:20:44] ▶sorry.
[04:20:45] ▶Without the picture, it's a little bit hard to visualize this, but,
[04:20:49] ▶specifically,
[04:20:50] ▶if we're referring to,
[04:20:53] ▶the staff reports,
[04:20:55] ▶Map 58 of 60
[04:20:57] ▶in appendix a, schedule b,
[04:21:01] ▶of the staff report, we're asking it to be amended to include the remaining portion of the block face on the West Side Of Nanaimo
[04:21:10] ▶between Charles Street and Kitchener.
[04:21:13] ▶The municipal address is 2336
[04:21:16] ▶To 2366
[04:21:18] ▶Charles Street. So that's four lots,
[04:21:21] ▶four standard lots
[04:21:22] ▶as c two a to ensure a consistent retail frontage.
[04:21:27] ▶To kind of give council members and everybody else an
[04:21:31] ▶quick snapshot of what we're talking about without without visuals here.
[04:21:37] ▶There is currently
[04:21:38] ▶the catchment on right on Nanaimo where
[04:21:41] ▶the there are catchments where the properties are being included in the c two a proposal.
[04:21:48] ▶And we are
[04:21:49] ▶four lots adjacent to,
[04:21:52] ▶sharing one lane just on the north side of a site that is
[04:21:57] ▶already included in the C two a zoning,
[04:22:01] ▶that's being proposed.
[04:22:03] ▶And we're just asking to have our site also to be included
[04:22:07] ▶included
[04:22:08] ▶and finish that block off and to keep it consistent,
[04:22:12] ▶or else,
[04:22:14] ▶the zoning just south of that lane
[04:22:17] ▶would be different and inconsistent with ours. And for us to move forward quickly and be able to deliver and,
[04:22:23] ▶deliver a product for the public,
[04:22:26] ▶public use for retail and
[04:22:29] ▶rental housing as well.
[04:22:32] ▶That kind of provides a better context and idea of
[04:22:37] ▶what we're what we're asking for,
[04:22:39] ▶if that makes sense.
[04:22:41] ▶And in closing,
[04:22:43] ▶Cape Group supports the proposed c two a zoning and appreciates your time and consideration,
[04:22:50] ▶also
[04:22:51] ▶to in to include our site in this exciting new zone. Thank you, and happy to take any questions.
[04:22:59] ▶Speaker 10: Thanks very much, Jordan, for speeding council. I'm not seeing any questions, but thank you. And and you can email it again in your information. Okay. Thank you.
[04:23:06] ▶Okay. Speaker number two is Michelle Travis.
[04:23:11] ▶I see her coming to the podium.
[04:23:17] ▶Speaker 22: Good evening. Good evening,
[04:23:20] ▶council.
[04:23:22] ▶My name is Michelle Travis. I'm a resident of Vancouver and a representative of Unite here local forty. I also live near one of the affected corridors that will be targeted by this proposal.
[04:23:32] ▶This is perhaps one of the largest mass rezonings that many residents probably haven't heard about. It calls for rezoning nearly 2,400 parcels along some 20 plus neighborhood corridors, which is sweeping.
[04:23:43] ▶We're opposed to this proposal. This is not a housing affordability plan. It's a developer
[04:23:48] ▶fast pass. It prioritizes speed and developers bottom lines over people and does so on a on a large scale.
[04:23:55] ▶It's unusual to see market rentals and hotels coupled together in this way, and it's concerning.
[04:24:01] ▶Council is being asked to approve this without a clear stand alone analysis of impacts on neighborhoods, tenants, or affordability.
[04:24:08] ▶That's not careful planning. It's reckless.
[04:24:11] ▶These corridors include renters living above shops, mom and pop stores, and workers.
[04:24:16] ▶Upzoning like this can drive land speculation,
[04:24:19] ▶raise land raise land values, and lead directly to displacement.
[04:24:23] ▶Existing relatively affordable rental units could be demolished and replaced with significantly more expensive ones. This could push out people faster than it houses them.
[04:24:31] ▶There are no requirements for below market rentals and no guarantees for lower moderate income households.
[04:24:37] ▶Worse, a related proposal coming to council on May 19 threatens to weaken below market rental requirements further.
[04:24:43] ▶What this is likely to bring are expensive market rate units that many residents cannot afford.
[04:24:48] ▶Even more troubling, the proposal fast tracks hotels alongside housing is if hotel rooms are so sacrosanct, they deserve special treatment.
[04:24:56] ▶Council has already approved thousands of hotel rooms, and thousands more are already in the pipeline.
[04:25:03] ▶The question really we have here is why are we fast tracking hotels instead of affordable housing?
[04:25:09] ▶You can downplay the impact, but it is significant.
[04:25:11] ▶If we don't anticipate many hotels coming through the pipeline, then why do they need incentives? And why should they be allowed to bypass public hearings?
[04:25:19] ▶If developers or investors wanna build hotels, they should be treated like any other investor in a risky asset class. The city doesn't need to provide a safety net for hotel developers.
[04:25:29] ▶This proposal further erodes what little public input remains in the rezoning process. Public hearings have already been limited for many residential projects. This would also allow hotel developments to bypass public hearings entirely regardless of community impact.
[04:25:42] ▶At the same time, consultation on this proposal has been targeted to property owners in the corridors,
[04:25:48] ▶but local area residents have not been meaningfully engaged.
[04:25:52] ▶It's stunning that city staff has held a special presentation for developers,
[04:25:56] ▶that city hall provided no direct notice to residents who live in the surrounding neighborhoods. It's not inclusive planning.
[04:26:02] ▶We're being asked to take this on faith while the city doubles down on policies that have so far not delivered the affordability that working people need.
[04:26:09] ▶If you're serious about afford affordability, then we want you to show us. Don't fast track market rentals without any affordability
[04:26:16] ▶requirements.
[04:26:17] ▶Don't prioritize hotels over affordable homes. Don't strip away public oversight so that we can reduce costs for developers.
[04:26:24] ▶This is not a housing solution. It's another developer giveaway, and we ask that you reject the proposal or send it back to staff.
[04:26:30] ▶Speaker 1: Thank you.
[04:26:33] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thank you, Michelle. Speaker, there are no oh, so I'm sorry. There's a there is a question, please. Michelle?
[04:26:40] ▶It's not a question? Okay. Sorry. My apologies. Sorry. Councilor Maloney, something else? I just I appreciate
[04:26:46] ▶Speaker 11: the the the people in the gallery are very enthusiastically
[04:26:49] ▶supporting the speaker,
[04:26:51] ▶but it's really the end of a a long day for us and,
[04:26:56] ▶really trying to focus on what the speaker has to say. And it's it's difficult for me
[04:27:01] ▶to really hear when there's,
[04:27:04] ▶other noise in the background. So
[04:27:07] ▶if you could indulge me by just trying
[04:27:09] ▶Speaker 10: to be quiet, that would be very helpful. Thank you. Thank you, councilor Malone. You beat me to it. I was just about to remind
[04:27:16] ▶the public of that. Thank you.
[04:27:19] ▶Speaker number three is Azahara Martinez.
[04:27:24] ▶Speaker 3: Speaker three is not on the line.
[04:27:26] ▶Speaker 10: K.
[04:27:28] ▶Speaker four speaker number four is Steven Von
[04:27:33] ▶Speaker 28: Shaijowski. Yes. Hi. Mayor and council, thanks for, the opportunity to speak on this today. I'm Stefan Von Zuchowski. I'm the, president of Vancouver and District Labour Council.
[04:27:43] ▶We are a local,
[04:27:46] ▶union federation representing approximately,
[04:27:49] ▶90 local unions and about 60,000 union members,
[04:27:53] ▶Speaker 10: here in the city and neighboring municipalities. Sorry, speaker. I'm gonna ask you to pause, and I'll pause your time. We are Okay. Very tight for a quorum, and I'm just gonna ask counselors online if you can possibly have your video on. It's great. Because if someone steps out of the chamber, we are losing quorum.
[04:28:10] ▶Just confirming the clerks. Do we have quorum back?
[04:28:14] ▶Okay. Thank you. Sorry, Steven. I'm gonna reset your time, and please go ahead and and start again. Thanks.
[04:28:22] ▶Speaker 28: Okay. Sure. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for the time this evening. So I'm Stefan Von Suchosky. I'm the president of the Vancouver and District Labour Council. We,
[04:28:30] ▶we bring together over 90 local affiliated unions, approximately 60,000
[04:28:34] ▶union members in City Of Vancouver and neighboring municipalities.
[04:28:39] ▶I'm, here today to speak, in opposition to this proposal.
[04:28:43] ▶And, the the reason really is is that it doesn't truly address our affordability crisis.
[04:28:49] ▶We,
[04:28:50] ▶you know, supported I remember,
[04:28:52] ▶being at council to support
[04:28:55] ▶the,
[04:28:56] ▶increase in the requirement,
[04:28:58] ▶for 20%
[04:28:59] ▶affordable housing in in developments in the city, and that's a threshold which, you know, on its own would never lead, even that threshold to the number of affordable units we need to fix the housing crisis in the city, but it was a step in the right direction. And, you know, this proposal really seems to toss that out.
[04:29:17] ▶Doesn't align with our city's most urgent need, which we hear every day from our members, is housing affordability, the availability of housing they can actually afford
[04:29:26] ▶to live in the city in which they work.
[04:29:30] ▶There's, you know, proposed 165
[04:29:33] ▶rental units, here that are to be market rate, and they don't meaningfully address the dire need for affordable housing. And there's no below market or non market housing
[04:29:43] ▶in this and, you know, waving that 20% threshold just, you know, the housing crisis hasn't lessened or or gone away. It doesn't make any sense to step back from from that commitment.
[04:29:55] ▶You know, I I think as we heard from the previous speaker, this is a case of incentivizing developers to build more of what we don't need. Right? We really need to be incentivizing
[04:30:05] ▶to build, affordable housing,
[04:30:07] ▶you know, below market housing,
[04:30:10] ▶social housing,
[04:30:12] ▶all the types of housing for lower and middle income folks across the city who are struggling,
[04:30:18] ▶not for more unaffordable units,
[04:30:21] ▶expensive market rentals,
[04:30:23] ▶or hotel rooms.
[04:30:25] ▶Also concerned about the the waiving of community amenity contributions.
[04:30:30] ▶You know, this is,
[04:30:33] ▶we see that those don't match the value that's going to be increased by these developments and and that needs to be addressed. We think, you know,
[04:30:41] ▶those who can afford to contribute to the city need to need to do that,
[04:30:45] ▶and, we don't agree with way waiving,
[04:30:49] ▶contributions that normally should be required.
[04:30:54] ▶You know, at the end of the day,
[04:30:56] ▶I think workers know today that trickle down is a myth. Right?
[04:31:00] ▶It doesn't work on our paychecks,
[04:31:02] ▶and it doesn't work in housing either.
[04:31:04] ▶We've seen decades of a theory that if we just build more, prices will drop.
[04:31:10] ▶And as we've seen that theory put into practice year over year over year,
[04:31:14] ▶we've seen the prices only rise.
[04:31:17] ▶And we do need to build more. We need to build a lot,
[04:31:21] ▶but we need to build the right stuff,
[04:31:23] ▶if we're gonna make the impact that we wanna make and,
[04:31:26] ▶you know, make this place affordable for everybody.
[04:31:30] ▶So I really urge council to vote no on this proposal and to really return and reorient
[04:31:35] ▶the city's focus to strategies to build what we need and to increase affordability
[04:31:40] ▶for,
[04:31:41] ▶working people and for everyone in the city of Vancouver.
[04:31:44] ▶Speaker 30: Thank you.
[04:31:46] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you very much for speaking to council.
[04:31:48] ▶No questions.
[04:31:49] ▶Speaker of five is Royce Chwin.
[04:31:53] ▶Phone.
[04:31:54] ▶Speaker 31: Good evening, council.
[04:31:56] ▶Good evening, mayor,
[04:31:58] ▶deputy mayor Carrie Young. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. Royce Chuan, president and CEO of Destination Vancouver,
[04:32:04] ▶resident of Vancouver, and, yes, in support of item two, fast tracking of rental housing
[04:32:11] ▶and small hotels.
[04:32:13] ▶We had commissioned a study, and it was released back in April 2025 with Cascadia Partners, a third party
[04:32:20] ▶organization.
[04:32:21] ▶And what we wanted to try to understand was and we knew that one size fits all hotel everywhere is simply not going to work. And we recognize there's certain needs, there's a lot of tension between affordable housing.
[04:32:34] ▶We also have a $9,000,000,000
[04:32:36] ▶visitor economy that employs 70,000 plus people in the city.
[04:32:41] ▶Part of the economic engine of the city is the visitor economy.
[04:32:44] ▶We know that there is a hotel shortage. We have gone in the opposite direction, 2,000 less rooms. We have the same amount of rooms today as we did in 2002.
[04:32:54] ▶Meanwhile, the competition that we deal with has been building hotels.
[04:32:58] ▶And so when we look at things like this or we look at hotel development, it's not to suggest that anybody wants a version of Las Vegas for Vancouver,
[04:33:06] ▶but there is an economic engine here that has going in reverse, and we need to reverse that. And we know with this,
[04:33:12] ▶proposal and the study that we did, which is the hotel community impact assessment, we wanted to understand
[04:33:19] ▶what types of hotel
[04:33:20] ▶hotel typologies
[04:33:22] ▶fit in different kinds of neighborhoods, including smaller format hotels
[04:33:27] ▶that were integrated in neighborhood commercial areas.
[04:33:30] ▶We know that,
[04:33:31] ▶that they are not only economically viable under current zoning,
[04:33:34] ▶regulations and marketing conditions or market conditions,
[04:33:37] ▶but they can also function as local economic anchor anchors. They can support jobs, activating streets, strengthen the community vitality. We've seen this. These are actual things that happen with some of these, hotels.
[04:33:49] ▶There's a lot of practical evidence in this particular space, and it does do something to address the structural shortage of hotel,
[04:33:56] ▶supplies. So different formats
[04:33:58] ▶are are critical.
[04:34:00] ▶Downtown whole site, hotel sites alone will not deliver the scale of affordability that we need in a range of different kinds of properties, and so there is some policy alignment here allowing small hotels and mixed use districts. It's very practical to walk the supply.
[04:34:15] ▶And, I think the city staff noted earlier, we don't expect a thousand developers to show up and overrun the city with these small hotels. That's not the case. They are specialized developers.
[04:34:25] ▶I think what we see from what is item two here is that it's simply creating the conditions for the option to be able to do this if there are some del developers
[04:34:36] ▶that are offering to build this type of typology of, a hotel.
[04:34:41] ▶One of the other things that we noticed something like this is that it perhaps could help displace
[04:34:46] ▶some of the short term rental demand on STRs where those are being used up, where perhaps those could be turned into
[04:34:52] ▶necessary housing.
[04:34:54] ▶And these, types of hotels also, they're next to high quality transit. So less cars in the street, more people using transit,
[04:35:03] ▶to move around the city. And so,
[04:35:05] ▶lastly on this,
[04:35:07] ▶small hotels, we like them. There's daily foot track traffic.
[04:35:10] ▶They animate,
[04:35:12] ▶local streets. They support local retail, food and beverage, the small mom and pop operators who require that foot traffic,
[04:35:18] ▶in their areas. And we also, contribute to street activation and safety in our neighborhoods
[04:35:24] ▶by allowing the movement of people and some engagement in there. So we do see some alignment,
[04:35:29] ▶also in mixed use commercial districts that are explicitly designed for the vibrancy and economic activity.
[04:35:36] ▶These types of small hotels, where applicable and where they make sense,
[04:35:41] ▶is a good idea. So, again, we support,
[04:35:44] ▶item two here,
[04:35:45] ▶fast tracking rental housing and small hotels, new mixed use commercial district.
[04:35:50] ▶Thank you for listening. Thank you for your time.
[04:35:52] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thanks for speaking to council.
[04:35:55] ▶Speaker number six, Stanley Lee.
[04:36:00] ▶Can you hear me? Yes. We can. Please go ahead.
[04:36:03] ▶Speaker 18: Thank you.
[04:36:05] ▶Good evening.
[04:36:06] ▶I'm
[04:36:07] ▶actually surprised
[04:36:09] ▶that you're even holding a public hearing on this tonight given ODP.
[04:36:13] ▶Since I have the rare chance, I am speaking today to strongly oppose item two even though I suspect that you'll just rubber stamp this in the dead of the night.
[04:36:24] ▶While I agree that the city needs more hotel capacity,
[04:36:28] ▶the process has been downright awful,
[04:36:31] ▶providing another massive cynical bailout to the developers who own the city.
[04:36:36] ▶Maybe they should be the government instead of you guys sitting in the chamber.
[04:36:40] ▶I mean, grifter's got a grist. Right?
[04:36:43] ▶The up zoning and the hotel designation
[04:36:46] ▶well, the specifically, the hotel designation
[04:36:50] ▶will cause further land lift
[04:36:53] ▶as if you haven't hiked the property taxes for the surrounding small businesses
[04:36:58] ▶enough with the highest and best used valuation through BC assessment.
[04:37:03] ▶Do you expect us to act like desperate peasants grateful for whatever bread crumbs that the tourism industry may provide, or
[04:37:11] ▶are you trying to evict all the remaining small businesses to the to the Tri Cities or to the Fraser Valley?
[04:37:18] ▶I urge you to vote no on item two unless you've been ignoring what I've been seeing while you guys are doom scrolling on your phones. Thank you.
[04:37:28] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. I'm just gonna remind speakers if they can just focus on the merits of the application and refrain from casting aspersions at council, that would be appreciated.
[04:37:37] ▶Speaker number seven is Matthew DeCorbi.
[04:37:40] ▶Speaker 30: Hello? Can you hear me? Yes. We can. Please go ahead when you're ready. Oh, okay. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Thanks for, taking my questions here. Good evening. My name is Matthew DeCorbi,
[04:37:49] ▶and I do strongly oppose this project. I have worked in the Vancouver hotel industry for many years, and I am a very proud resident of the West End in Vancouver.
[04:37:59] ▶I felt compelled to speak before you all today and hope that you will understand how difficult life has become for the working class people here in Vancouver.
[04:38:07] ▶I would like you all to prioritize
[04:38:09] ▶people over profits and developers.
[04:38:12] ▶I work every shift I can, and I keep my costs as low as I can just so that I can simply continue living here. I am being fully pushed out by this affordability crisis as we speak.
[04:38:22] ▶Not only me, but my neighbors, my best friends,
[04:38:25] ▶and all the very elderly people that are in the West End,
[04:38:30] ▶who have lived in Vancouver for decades are all being pushed out.
[04:38:34] ▶It is not fair. There is a serious lack of investment for working class people in this city, yet developers
[04:38:40] ▶have the ear of our mayor and council.
[04:38:42] ▶There are new luxury projects getting approved regularly. However, decent paying jobs are disappearing in the city. Did our mayor and council even know that? Are good paying jobs ever
[04:38:53] ▶in the discussion when the developers get approvals for their luxury project?
[04:38:57] ▶I do not hear anything,
[04:38:58] ▶if anything, from the city hall about affordable housing.
[04:39:02] ▶My question is why?
[04:39:04] ▶Why is this not on your agenda? I will have to move out of the city along with thousands of others because we just simply cannot
[04:39:11] ▶afford to live here, and simply your priorities
[04:39:14] ▶are not
[04:39:16] ▶affordable housing. I sincerely hope you consider putting working people and their concerns above profit and developers. Thank you.
[04:39:25] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. Speaker number eight, Rahul Sansoya.
[04:39:30] ▶Speaker 3: Speaker eight is not on the line.
[04:39:32] ▶Speaker 10: K. Speaker number nine, Kirsten Le Brun.
[04:39:42] ▶Speaker nine is not on the line. Okay. Thank you. Speaker 10, Jason Lebron.
[04:39:58] ▶Hello, Jason?
[04:39:59] ▶Speaker 3: We're checking in the back. One moment.
[04:40:08] ▶Speaker 10 is not on the line. Okay. Speaker 12,
[04:40:12] ▶Speaker 10: Botchman Jomo.
[04:40:26] ▶Hi there. Is that Botchman?
[04:40:33] ▶Staff, it doesn't sound like we have
[04:40:35] ▶connection to that person.
[04:40:39] ▶Speaker 3: We'll we'll see if there's a technical issue. Just one moment. Okay.
[04:40:47] ▶Speaker 10: Speaker 12 is not on the line. Okay. Thanks very much. Speaker 13, Fabiola Salguero.
[04:40:58] ▶Speaker 23: Hello?
[04:40:59] ▶Speaker 33: Hi. It's My name is Fabiola.
[04:41:01] ▶Speaker 34: My my name is Fabiola. I live in Vancouver,
[04:41:04] ▶and I do not support this whole thing because I'm a working person. I work so hard in outdoor,
[04:41:11] ▶and I show up every day. I do my job, and I struggle to keep,
[04:41:17] ▶my family together to get the roof. This is not a friendly,
[04:41:23] ▶this is not a friendly city,
[04:41:27] ▶friend family friendly city.
[04:41:29] ▶And when I see the council proposing
[04:41:31] ▶to fast track market rentals and small hotels across our neighborhood,
[04:41:36] ▶I have to ask who is this for.
[04:41:39] ▶Actually, it's not for me,
[04:41:41] ▶for my family.
[04:41:43] ▶It's not for my neighbors,
[04:41:45] ▶but they have family too.
[04:41:48] ▶Then,
[04:41:50] ▶what what gets built at the end of the pipeline is market rate units that working people cannot afford,
[04:41:57] ▶and hotel does not house anyone at all. This is mass rezoning of our neighborhood, and the public will have less and less
[04:42:07] ▶stage time.
[04:42:08] ▶If ConCare was to fast track anything, fast track below market home, fast track housing for lower income workers,
[04:42:16] ▶And don't
[04:42:17] ▶don't use a streamlined process to give developers
[04:42:21] ▶and hotel operators
[04:42:23] ▶an easy path project that do nothing for the people
[04:42:28] ▶at all and for family.
[04:42:30] ▶We are in a house is house increases,
[04:42:33] ▶every crisis.
[04:42:35] ▶The answer is not more incentives for hotel developers.
[04:42:45] ▶Speaker 10: That's the end of your comments?
[04:42:50] ▶Okay.
[04:42:50] ▶Sounds like that's that's the end for Fabiola.
[04:42:53] ▶Speaker 14, Rekha Sharma.
[04:43:02] ▶Speaker 35: In Vancouver,
[04:43:03] ▶but, I don't support this plan
[04:43:05] ▶because I want to be honest with concern.
[04:43:09] ▶I work in this city,
[04:43:11] ▶but I cannot afford to live in it.
[04:43:13] ▶I get up, early because I live in Delta, and I commute in I put in a full day. And at the end of it,
[04:43:23] ▶I go home somewhere else
[04:43:25] ▶because Zenko has no place for worker like me
[04:43:30] ▶anymore.
[04:43:31] ▶That is not because I haven't worked hard enough.
[04:43:34] ▶It's because every year, the season get made in this room that prioritize
[04:43:39] ▶worker over
[04:43:40] ▶the people
[04:43:41] ▶doing the work.
[04:43:44] ▶We should be investing
[04:43:45] ▶in affordable housing in real homes for working families
[04:43:50] ▶in a Vancouver that the people who keep it running can actually live in.
[04:43:55] ▶I urge you to vote no on this proposal.
[04:43:59] ▶That's what I will say right.
[04:44:02] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thank you for speaking to council. Speaker 15, Felicima Belenio.
[04:44:13] ▶Speaker 33: Hello?
[04:44:14] ▶Speaker 10: Hi. Is that Felicima?
[04:44:17] ▶Speaker 33: Yes. I'm Felicima
[04:44:18] ▶Belenion.
[04:44:19] ▶Speaker 10: Yep. Please go ahead and make your comments.
[04:44:22] ▶Speaker 33: Okay. My name is Felicity Sima, and I live in Vancouver.
[04:44:26] ▶I do not support this policy
[04:44:29] ▶because me, my friends, and families work hard, and we are all struggling.
[04:44:34] ▶Everything like groceries, hydro,
[04:44:37] ▶gas, and rent go up, but our paycheck are stagnant.
[04:44:41] ▶Now council is proposing to fast track rentals and small hotels across the city.
[04:44:47] ▶None of that helps
[04:44:49] ▶people like us. The market price in Vancouver is already out of reach, and a hotel is not a housing.
[04:44:58] ▶This policy
[04:44:59] ▶in mass rezoning by another name, it changes neighborhood policy quickly, and those people living in those
[04:45:06] ▶neighborhood get less
[04:45:08] ▶of a say each time.
[04:45:11] ▶If council wants to fast track process, use it for the housing
[04:45:16] ▶the city actually needs, like housing for the lower income workers.
[04:45:21] ▶That is what
[04:45:22] ▶would help my neighborhood.
[04:45:25] ▶We need affordable housing, not hotels.
[04:45:28] ▶I urge you to vote no on this policy.
[04:45:31] ▶I. Thank you.
[04:45:34] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you very much. Speaker 17, Sashi Singh.
[04:45:41] ▶Speaker 3: Speaker 17 is not on the line. Okay. We'll move to speaker 18,
[04:45:45] ▶Speaker 10: Angel or Angel Batin.
[04:45:50] ▶Speaker 36: Hi. Good evening, councils. This is Angel.
[04:45:54] ▶So I work in one of the,
[04:45:56] ▶hotel in Vancouver,
[04:45:58] ▶and I do not support this policy.
[04:46:01] ▶This is a matter of zoning.
[04:46:03] ▶It will reshape neighborhoods quickly
[04:46:06] ▶with less public input.
[04:46:08] ▶The buildings that produce will continue the same trend.
[04:46:12] ▶Units
[04:46:13] ▶rise beyond working people and hotels that produce no housing at all.
[04:46:19] ▶I commute into the city every day because I cannot afford to let in, but
[04:46:24] ▶by the time I get all my shift, I'm already tired.
[04:46:27] ▶But if I'm a get home, my day is gone.
[04:46:30] ▶And Council's plan is to fast track more market rentals and more hotels
[04:46:34] ▶or small hotels.
[04:46:36] ▶That does nothing for me. It does nothing for the worker I commute alongside.
[04:46:41] ▶If you are going to fast track anything,
[04:46:44] ▶fast track below
[04:46:45] ▶market housing,
[04:46:47] ▶fast track homes for lower income workers,
[04:46:50] ▶and stop giving incentives to tell developers who do not build what we need.
[04:46:56] ▶Bottom line is we need affordable homes, not luxury hotels.
[04:47:01] ▶urge
[04:47:03] ▶currently
[04:47:04] ▶to vote no on this policy.
[04:47:06] ▶Thank you, and have a good evening.
[04:47:08] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you very much. Speaker 19, Bobby Singh.
[04:47:13] ▶Speaker 3: Not on the line. Not on the line. Speaker 20, Kath
[04:47:17] ▶Catherine Dela Cruz? No. Not on the line.
[04:47:20] ▶Speaker 10: Speaker 21,
[04:47:21] ▶Rajwinder
[04:47:22] ▶Parmar.
[04:47:24] ▶Hello? Hi. We can hear you. Please go ahead and make your call. Okay.
[04:47:29] ▶Speaker 34: My name is Rajvinder Parmar, and,
[04:47:33] ▶Speaker 38: I do not,
[04:47:35] ▶I work in Vancouver.
[04:47:36] ▶I do not spot this policy.
[04:47:39] ▶I do not have I do not live in Vancouver because
[04:47:45] ▶I cannot afford
[04:47:46] ▶to. Every year, my commute gets longer because the cities around Vancouver are now expensive too,
[04:47:54] ▶full of workers like men who got pushed out. And
[04:47:59] ▶council's response to our regional housing crisis is to fast track market rentals and small hotels.
[04:48:07] ▶This policy is mass,
[04:48:09] ▶rezoning.
[04:48:10] ▶It will
[04:48:11] ▶reshape
[04:48:13] ▶Vancouver's neighborhood quickly,
[04:48:15] ▶and the building
[04:48:17] ▶it produce will continue the same pattern that pushed me out. Market
[04:48:22] ▶units,
[04:48:24] ▶I cannot afford.
[04:48:26] ▶And hotel
[04:48:28] ▶incentives
[04:48:29] ▶that produce no homes at all.
[04:48:33] ▶If council is going to fast track anything,
[04:48:36] ▶fast track below market housing,
[04:48:39] ▶fast track home for the lower income workers. This region depends on
[04:48:44] ▶that is the only fast track that address the actual crisis.
[04:48:48] ▶So I urge you to both
[04:48:51] ▶know on this policy.
[04:48:53] ▶Thank you very much, and have a good evening.
[04:49:00] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thank you very much.
[04:49:02] ▶Thank you, Regmin Durr. There are no questions. Speaker 22, Connie Chan.
[04:49:10] ▶Speaker 39: My name is Connie, and I live in, Vancouver. I do not support, you know, this policy
[04:49:17] ▶because, you know, I think, you know, the government should provide citizens with a basic living lift,
[04:49:23] ▶and housing is the first priority.
[04:49:29] ▶The government can provide affordable housing not for the, you know, the for the,
[04:49:35] ▶the the hotel.
[04:49:37] ▶Because right now, the rent, the food, you know, the oil price, you know, all, you know, the living, you know, expenses are very high. You know, you know, within, you know, the
[04:49:48] ▶the past year and,
[04:49:49] ▶or two, the living expenses
[04:49:52] ▶is increased
[04:49:53] ▶more than 30% to 50%.
[04:49:56] ▶Living expenses causes so many family
[04:50:00] ▶to facing a lot of financial
[04:50:02] ▶pleasure.
[04:50:03] ▶If, you know, the government
[04:50:06] ▶should be, you know,
[04:50:09] ▶facing, you know, the have to face the people that really need it.
[04:50:13] ▶There are
[04:50:15] ▶affordable, you know, housing is very important to to our people.
[04:50:26] ▶Can the government learn
[04:50:28] ▶about, you know, housing
[04:50:30] ▶policy from the Singapore government?
[04:50:39] ▶Take Singapore, you know, as a reference. You can live and work in peaceful
[04:50:44] ▶and going out
[04:50:48] ▶Speaker 34: in much safety.
[04:50:54] ▶Speaker 39: And, nowadays,
[04:50:55] ▶even the elder, you know, old people, you know, have to continue working to
[04:51:00] ▶to make
[04:51:01] ▶make a living
[04:51:06] ▶Click a living.
[04:51:10] ▶Is that right now, it's not easy to afford living in Vancouver. The cost too high.
[04:51:16] ▶And I hope, you know, the government,
[04:51:19] ▶can support, you know, the people, not just a favor to, you know, the to rich people.
[04:51:31] ▶Thank you. So I hope you Okay. That's it. I want to say thank you. Thank you very much, Connie.
[04:51:38] ▶Speaker 10: Speaker 23, Akbel Bisla.
[04:51:41] ▶Not on the line. Okay. Thank you. Speak.
[04:51:47] ▶Sorry. Did we
[04:51:49] ▶no?
[04:51:50] ▶Speaker 24, Katia Moreno?
[04:51:54] ▶Speaker 3: Not on the line.
[04:51:56] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. Speaker 25, Ravi Kumar?
[04:52:03] ▶Speaker 3: No. Not on the line.
[04:52:04] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. Speaker 26, Salida Chan.
[04:52:11] ▶Speaker 23: My name is Salida Chan. I'm the president of, United Local forty.
[04:52:15] ▶I'm representing members throughout BC,
[04:52:18] ▶mostly are in the Lower Mainland,
[04:52:20] ▶and I'm against this proposal.
[04:52:23] ▶Our members are commuting four hours.
[04:52:26] ▶Some of them live in Maple Ridge. Some of them live in Surrey.
[04:52:30] ▶Some of them live in Richmond.
[04:52:32] ▶They wake up at all hours
[04:52:35] ▶of the day to go to work. Some of them have to leave home at 4AM.
[04:52:39] ▶There's no transit.
[04:52:41] ▶Some of them have to you know, they work graveyard shift,
[04:52:45] ▶and, they live in Surrey.
[04:52:48] ▶And so many of our members we know afford to live in the city.
[04:52:55] ▶Actually, have for people who work in Vancouver
[04:52:58] ▶and who would very, very much rather live in Vancouver than commute three to four hours a day.
[04:53:04] ▶They they end up spending twelve hours away from home,
[04:53:08] ▶and they they work backbreaking jobs in the hotels.
[04:53:11] ▶They're dishwashers. They're housekeepers.
[04:53:14] ▶They you know? And they are the best paid
[04:53:18] ▶hospitality workers in the country,
[04:53:21] ▶because they really, really got involved,
[04:53:23] ▶and they went on strike a few years ago.
[04:53:26] ▶But still, they're struggling to live.
[04:53:29] ▶So there's something there's a crisis that we're facing here in the city,
[04:53:34] ▶and the crisis is an affordability
[04:53:36] ▶affordability
[04:53:37] ▶crisis,
[04:53:38] ▶but it's mainly a housing crisis.
[04:53:42] ▶Many of our members cannot
[04:53:44] ▶afford to rent or to buy homes, and the ones that do scrape up enough money to buy homes, they're living very far away.
[04:53:51] ▶So what we need is for you to put proposals that are gonna help
[04:53:55] ▶have them have, hotel workers
[04:53:58] ▶and working people in the city have a have a life where they can thrive, not just survive.
[04:54:03] ▶Many of our members can't save
[04:54:06] ▶everything. They're just living paycheck to paycheck.
[04:54:08] ▶Many of them work three jobs.
[04:54:11] ▶Some of them work one job, but many work two to three jobs.
[04:54:14] ▶Some of them are single moms.
[04:54:16] ▶So you really need to be thinking about how do we actually
[04:54:20] ▶make sure that Vancouver is not just the city that is welcoming tourists,
[04:54:25] ▶from all around the world, but, really, how is it a city that can take care of people who live and work here and people who are committed in making the city one of the best cities to visit.
[04:54:38] ▶But the tourism workers in the city need you to stand for them. And so we're you know, I'm I'm against this proposal, and I'm urging you to really stand by working people's lives in the city and to make sure that you vote against it and really have a plan towards affordable housing,
[04:54:57] ▶towards the cost of living.
[04:54:59] ▶Thank you very much. Thank you.
[04:55:02] ▶Speaker 10: Speaker 28, Mike Bizgar.
[04:55:06] ▶Not on the line. Okay. Speaker 29, Diego Reyes Meneses.
[04:55:14] ▶Speaker 4: Council, and
[04:55:15] ▶thank you for the opportunity to speak.
[04:55:18] ▶David Reyes,
[04:55:19] ▶Vancouver resident, and I'm opposed to this proposal.
[04:55:23] ▶I work in hospitality,
[04:55:24] ▶and I'm concerned about this plan.
[04:55:27] ▶First, fast tracking often leads to bad designs.
[04:55:30] ▶For workers, a fast building usually means tiny service areas, crowded hallways, and no space to do our jobs properly.
[04:55:38] ▶We need functional buildings, no rush is one.
[04:55:42] ▶And second, more small hotel and rentals built quickly
[04:55:46] ▶will put too much pressure in our local services. It's make the neighborhood crowded and harder to live in for those of us who actually work here.
[04:55:56] ▶Please, let's prioritize quality and workers, not just speed. We need a district that works for everyone, not just a construction.
[04:56:05] ▶Thank you for your time, and have a good evening.
[04:56:08] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you.
[04:56:09] ▶Speaker 30, Natasa
[04:56:11] ▶Curek?
[04:56:14] ▶Speaker 3: No. Not on the line.
[04:56:15] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. Speaker 31, Brian Kika Obegina?
[04:56:25] ▶No. Not on the line. Thank you. Speaker 32, Nasca Spasic.
[04:56:31] ▶Speaker 3: Not on the line.
[04:56:32] ▶Speaker 10: 33, Jean Philippe
[04:56:36] ▶Savago Savago Savago?
[04:56:37] ▶Speaker 3: 33 is not on the line.
[04:56:40] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. 34, Joshua Young.
[04:56:44] ▶Speaker 3: No. Not on the line.
[04:56:46] ▶Speaker 10: 35, Kim Hyun Joo.
[04:56:50] ▶Speaker 3: Not on the line. Speaker 36,
[04:56:53] ▶Speaker 10: Dominador
[04:56:53] ▶Ganduya?
[04:56:56] ▶Speaker 3: No. Not on the line. 37,
[04:56:58] ▶Speaker 10: Zhao Li Tang.
[04:57:00] ▶Speaker 3: Oh, oh, one moment.
[04:57:05] ▶Speaker 36
[04:57:06] ▶has joined.
[04:57:07] ▶Speaker 10: Okay.
[04:57:08] ▶Dominador,
[04:57:09] ▶you can go ahead and speak when you're ready.
[04:57:13] ▶Speaker 40: Good evening, mayor of city council.
[04:57:16] ▶My name is Dominador Rintuya,
[04:57:19] ▶and I work in Vancouver hospitality industry.
[04:57:22] ▶I'm here to post this rezoning proposal in its current form.
[04:57:27] ▶I want to be clear, I support new housing.
[04:57:31] ▶But this proposal is not delivering
[04:57:33] ▶the kind of housing that Vancouver workers actually need.
[04:57:37] ▶Fast tracking market prices
[04:57:39] ▶and small hotel development without firm affordability
[04:57:42] ▶requirement
[04:57:43] ▶is not the solution to the housing
[04:57:46] ▶crisis. If we're making it worse,
[04:57:49] ▶market rental in Vancouver is simply not affordable
[04:57:52] ▶for most workers.
[04:57:55] ▶Both programs like
[04:57:57] ▶MR,
[04:57:58] ▶RHTV,
[04:57:59] ▶and similar policies may often see only small portions
[04:58:03] ▶of units offered to below market rates,
[04:58:05] ▶and even those are still out of reach for many people earning average wages
[04:58:11] ▶in hospitality,
[04:58:12] ▶health care, and
[04:58:14] ▶service sector.
[04:58:15] ▶Meanwhile, workers are being displaced
[04:58:18] ▶in my industry.
[04:58:20] ▶It is now normal for employees to commute from Surrey,
[04:58:23] ▶Burnaby, or Langley
[04:58:25] ▶because they cannot afford to live in the city they serve.
[04:58:30] ▶This has real impacts on workforce stability,
[04:58:33] ▶service quality, and people's quality of life.
[04:58:37] ▶Even my 25 year old daughter,
[04:58:39] ▶a full time licensed practical nurse
[04:58:42] ▶who deliver and serve 20 to 25 patients every day
[04:58:47] ▶all over Vancouver
[04:58:49] ▶cannot afford to live independently
[04:58:51] ▶in Vancouver.
[04:58:54] ▶If essential workers
[04:58:56] ▶cannot afford to live here, then our housing policies are clearly not aligned
[04:59:01] ▶with reality.
[04:59:03] ▶This proposal also prioritized additional hotel and commercial uses without
[04:59:08] ▶securing housing
[04:59:10] ▶for the workforce
[04:59:11] ▶that those industries depend on,
[04:59:14] ▶that imbalance should concern conflict.
[04:59:17] ▶So I ask,
[04:59:19] ▶where are the guarantees?
[04:59:21] ▶Where are the binding requirements for deeply affordable housing
[04:59:25] ▶tied to local income, not market rates?
[04:59:29] ▶A meaningful percentage of units secured for social or non profit housing.
[04:59:36] ▶Without this, this is not a housing solution.
[04:59:39] ▶It is development strategy that leaves working people behind
[04:59:44] ▶and urge the city council
[04:59:47] ▶to either reject this proposal
[04:59:49] ▶or amend and include higher
[04:59:51] ▶mandatory affordability targets,
[04:59:54] ▶partnerships with non profit housing providers,
[04:59:57] ▶clear enforceable affordability
[04:59:59] ▶definition,
[05:00:00] ▶tied to real wages in Vancouver.
[05:00:03] ▶Vancouver cannot function if its workforce
[05:00:06] ▶is closed up
[05:00:09] ▶without
[05:00:10] ▶housing policy
[05:00:11] ▶not reflect that.
[05:00:13] ▶Thank you for your time, city council.
[05:00:16] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. Thank you very much. Speaker 37, Zhao Li Tang.
[05:00:24] ▶No. Not on the line. Okay. We'll move to speaker 38, Mary Scar. Sorry.
[05:00:31] ▶Speaker 3: No. Not on the line.
[05:00:32] ▶Speaker 10: Okay.
[05:00:33] ▶Speaker 39, one h o McNeal?
[05:00:38] ▶Speaker 3: Not on the line.
[05:00:40] ▶Speaker 10: Speaker 40, Sean Lergold?
[05:00:43] ▶Not on the line. Speaker 41 is Robert Bader.
[05:00:48] ▶Not on the line. Speaker 42, Vesna Peronovic.
[05:00:52] ▶Speaker 3: Yes. Oh,
[05:00:54] ▶Speaker 10: pardon me. 41 has just joined. Okay. 40 we have 41 Robert. Is that if you're on the line, please go ahead and you can speak to counsel.
[05:01:02] ▶Speaker 41: Hi. Hi. My name is, Robert Bader. I'm a Vancouver resident, and I, strongly oppose item, two.
[05:01:09] ▶I've worked in the hotel, industry for twenty seven years, and I'm a proud member of, UnitedHealthcare Local forty. We fought hard for our wages, protections, and working conditions. These proposals threaten these hard won rights as union and hotel workers would be without proper representation.
[05:01:25] ▶I also oppose it because it gives more free freebies
[05:01:28] ▶from billionaires
[05:01:29] ▶and developers.
[05:01:31] ▶These so called hotels are just a kinky loophole
[05:01:34] ▶they can use to push hardworking people out of their communities.
[05:01:37] ▶Some of them are hotels is laughable.
[05:01:39] ▶This is just a plan to build more expensive, unaffordable housing and push working people out of the neighborhood.
[05:01:46] ▶These people don't care about the neighborhood. They only care about the money.
[05:01:50] ▶Thank you.
[05:01:52] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. Okay. So speaker 42, Vesna Parenovic?
[05:02:03] ▶Vesna, if you could hear us, you can go ahead and speak.
[05:02:17] ▶Staff, we don't doesn't sound like we have best enough.
[05:02:21] ▶Speaker 3: One moment. Staff are just trying to help speaker number 42. Thank
[05:02:30] ▶Speaker 1: you.
[05:02:41] ▶Speaker 3: 42 is not on the line. Okay. Thanks for confirming.
[05:02:45] ▶Speaker 10: 43 Kabir Madan?
[05:02:53] ▶Hello? Can you hear me? Yes. We can. Please go ahead.
[05:02:56] ▶Speaker 42: Great. Thank you. Good evening, councilors and folks in the chamber.
[05:03:00] ▶My name is Kabir. I'm a resident of East Vancouver, and I work at the Downtown Eastside. I oppose this motion.
[05:03:06] ▶The motion to turn the various, zones to zone c dash two a raise a few concerns in my view.
[05:03:12] ▶We are giving developers a valuable public asset, namely increased density
[05:03:17] ▶and asking for nothing in return except that they rent the units instead of selling them.
[05:03:22] ▶Market rents in Vancouver are already unaffordable to most working people as you've heard already today.
[05:03:28] ▶This is not a housing policy. It is a landlord subsidy.
[05:03:31] ▶This motion proposes to rezone 2,348
[05:03:34] ▶parcels, many of which contain
[05:03:37] ▶older, more affordable rental stock.
[05:03:39] ▶Fast tracking development
[05:03:41] ▶means fast tracking displacement unless we build replacement affordable housing now. And this is something that many organizations, including the Carnegie Housing Project and the SLO Collaborative,
[05:03:51] ▶have been calling for for decades.
[05:03:54] ▶Build affordable housing first and then display displace people to build your market rentals.
[05:03:59] ▶I don't need to be an open geographer to know that absorbing
[05:04:03] ▶increases land value.
[05:04:05] ▶This proposal writes a check to property owners, many of whom are
[05:04:09] ▶large corporate landlords with no clawback, no community benefit agreements, and no requirement to sell it to the city at a fair price later.
[05:04:19] ▶We are making future social housing more expensive
[05:04:22] ▶by doing it now.
[05:04:24] ▶I support building more rental housing I really do, but this motion is not a housing policy. It is a market stimulation policy.
[05:04:32] ▶It gives developers and land owners everything that they asked for. That's faster approvals, less public input, more height, and more density.
[05:04:40] ▶In return, it asks for nothing except that units be rental and not strata.
[05:04:46] ▶I'd suggest, if I may,
[05:04:48] ▶that recommendation a, the staff report be amended to require that any mixed use residential buildings,
[05:04:54] ▶developed under the new c dash two a district scheduled with the flow space ratio exceeding
[05:05:00] ▶2.5
[05:05:01] ▶include at least 20%
[05:05:03] ▶of dwelling units at below market rental housing with rent set at or below
[05:05:08] ▶the BC housing, housing income limits or HILs for moderate income households
[05:05:13] ▶secured in perpetuity through a housing agreement.
[05:05:16] ▶If 20% inclusionary makes the project unviable,
[05:05:19] ▶then the density bonus you're giving them from 2.5 to 3.5 FSR is insufficient anyway.
[05:05:25] ▶Raise the density further or accept that market developers must contribute
[05:05:30] ▶to the public good in exchange for public density.
[05:05:33] ▶We have a vacancy crisis. We have, an affordable affordability crisis and a displacement crisis. This motion solves
[05:05:40] ▶exactly one of those problems, vacancy.
[05:05:43] ▶And it does so by kind of flooding the market with units at market rates that most Vancouverites
[05:05:49] ▶still cannot in in the near future will not be afford able to afford.
[05:05:53] ▶So please, thought we would vote in favor of this portion. Thank you for your time.
[05:05:58] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. Speaker 44, Nathan Landry.
[05:06:02] ▶Speaker 3: Not on the line.
[05:06:03] ▶Speaker 10: Speaker 45, Matt Demarche.
[05:06:08] ▶Hello. Hello. Please go ahead. Can you hear me? Yes. We can hear you great. Just go ahead.
[05:06:14] ▶Speaker 44: Awesome. Excellent. Okay.
[05:06:18] ▶Speaker 45: Hello. I'm,
[05:06:19] ▶calling in today,
[05:06:21] ▶against this proposal for a few reasons.
[05:06:24] ▶Firstly, every dollar a hotel developer spends on a hotel
[05:06:28] ▶is money that won't be spent on rental housing, especially
[05:06:32] ▶affordable rental housing.
[05:06:34] ▶They're competing for construction crews and supplies.
[05:06:39] ▶And most of all, I'm against bundling the rental home
[05:06:43] ▶and hotel vote together.
[05:06:45] ▶This is undemocratic
[05:06:47] ▶and not transparent.
[05:06:48] ▶These two issues are not the same.
[05:06:52] ▶Lack of affordable rental housing is an incredibly serious problem.
[05:06:57] ▶It affects everyone that lives in the city,
[05:07:00] ▶but also anyone who wants to live in the city but can't afford to.
[05:07:04] ▶To put these two issues side by side
[05:07:07] ▶does not do justice to all the people who can't afford to live here.
[05:07:12] ▶It does not respect the struggles of the people working to survive in this city.
[05:07:18] ▶It shows that the city itself does not have the solutions
[05:07:23] ▶to the affordability
[05:07:24] ▶crisis.
[05:07:27] ▶Aside from that,
[05:07:29] ▶up to a hundred hundred and fifty rooms to me is a sizable hotel,
[05:07:34] ▶and the communities affected should be notified.
[05:07:37] ▶That's really a money making machine, especially in the summer.
[05:07:43] ▶Residents in nearby communities should know that a couple 100 guests a night
[05:07:48] ▶and, really, now that more and more people are staying in hotel rooms,
[05:07:53] ▶maybe three or 400 guests a night could be staying on their block.
[05:07:58] ▶That's a lot of people.
[05:08:00] ▶The community deserves a proper understanding of what that means and the safety and security concerns and policing concerns that can come along with that.
[05:08:11] ▶But at a 150
[05:08:12] ▶rooms, I don't even understand how that won't suck money away from rentals.
[05:08:18] ▶That's a very profitable hotel.
[05:08:21] ▶I urge council to vote against this and focus on the affordability
[05:08:25] ▶crisis at hand.
[05:08:28] ▶Separate these two issues
[05:08:30] ▶and show affordable housing the respect it deserves.
[05:08:34] ▶Thank you for your time. Have a great night.
[05:08:38] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you very much. You too.
[05:08:40] ▶Speaker 46, Faye Kasas.
[05:08:47] ▶Speaker 39: Hello?
[05:08:48] ▶Speaker 10: Hi. Is that Faye?
[05:08:51] ▶Yes. Speaking. Okay. Please go ahead. You when you're ready.
[05:08:55] ▶Speaker 33: My name is Faye Castas.
[05:08:57] ▶I live in Vancouver and a taxpayer.
[05:09:00] ▶I strongly oppose the proposal of the project.
[05:09:04] ▶Vancouver is very expensive city to live.
[05:09:07] ▶The rich gets richer. The poor gets poorer.
[05:09:10] ▶The city should focus how to improve
[05:09:13] ▶housing availability
[05:09:14] ▶and affordability.
[05:09:16] ▶We need affordable housing,
[05:09:18] ▶not a hotel room for tourists.
[05:09:22] ▶I urge you to vote no for this proposal. Thank you.
[05:09:27] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you very much.
[05:09:29] ▶Speaker 47, Linda Ong.
[05:09:35] ▶Linda?
[05:09:38] ▶K. Speaker 48, Preet Sanga.
[05:09:43] ▶Speaker 3: Speaker 47 should be on the line.
[05:09:46] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. Do we have Linda?
[05:09:48] ▶Speaker 33: Can you hear me?
[05:09:50] ▶Speaker 10: Is that Linda?
[05:09:51] ▶Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. We can. Please go ahead.
[05:09:55] ▶Speaker 33: K. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Linda, and I proposed this proposal.
[05:10:00] ▶I have worked in the hotel industry in Vancouver for many years.
[05:10:05] ▶I would like the mayor and the council to start giving handouts to developers
[05:10:10] ▶and focus of making
[05:10:12] ▶Vancouver affordable city where people who work here can also live here.
[05:10:18] ▶Wages have not capped
[05:10:20] ▶with living costs. That means paychecks do not go far for us.
[05:10:25] ▶This has been happening for many years.
[05:10:28] ▶People who make this city what it should not have to worry about moving out to another city
[05:10:35] ▶so they can continue to buy grocery.
[05:10:39] ▶Please making working class people
[05:10:42] ▶a priority
[05:10:43] ▶instead of developers.
[05:10:45] ▶Thank you.
[05:10:46] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. Thanks for calling in. Speaker 48, Preet Sangha.
[05:10:53] ▶Speaker 34: Hi. Yes. Preet Preet Sangha?
[05:10:56] ▶Speaker 10: Yep. Please go ahead.
[05:11:00] ▶You can go ahead and make your comments to cancel now.
[05:11:05] ▶Speaker 46: Hi. Yes. My name is Preet. I strongly oppose this project. I grew up in Vancouver, and I work in Vancouver.
[05:11:11] ▶I drive three hours a day to and back from work because I can't find affordable,
[05:11:17] ▶affordable housing in Vancouver.
[05:11:24] ▶I've been trying to find affordable housing for the past many years, but like my friends and many other people my age, it's nearly impossible. So my friends pay upwards of 60% of their monthly wages in rent.
[05:11:37] ▶Not much is left for groceries and gas for for their cars,
[05:11:41] ▶and that's if they have one. Many of us are pushed out of Vancouver to the suburbs, with living in Vancouver increasingly becoming a far fetched dream.
[05:11:49] ▶We are who are we prioritizing when we are fast tracking proposals like this? The housing crisis impacts thousands of people in the city and, quite frankly, the future of the young people in the city. More hotels are not going to help them. I urge the mayor and council to prioritize working class people,
[05:12:07] ▶give us affordable housing,
[05:12:09] ▶stop developer handouts. Thank you.
[05:12:11] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you very much. Speaker 49, Mikaela Smith.
[05:12:19] ▶In person.
[05:12:20] ▶Hello?
[05:12:22] ▶Speaker 11: Hi.
[05:12:23] ▶Speaker 10: Hi. Please go ahead.
[05:12:26] ▶Speaker 47: First of all, thank you for letting me speak.
[05:12:29] ▶I wanna remind,
[05:12:30] ▶not that everyone's here, but I hope you're online.
[05:12:33] ▶I do wanna remind this entire council and the mayor
[05:12:38] ▶that this is an election year.
[05:12:40] ▶And I want you to ask yourselves,
[05:12:42] ▶what does fast tracking hotel zoning in the largest density
[05:12:47] ▶of local
[05:12:48] ▶independent business businesses
[05:12:50] ▶do within Vancouver
[05:12:52] ▶to help affordability?
[05:12:54] ▶Who does it benefit?
[05:12:56] ▶I also wanna remind this entire council is that if you pass this map of rezoning,
[05:13:01] ▶you are literally signing the death warrant of thousands of independent local businesses
[05:13:07] ▶that employ,
[05:13:08] ▶pay taxes, and more importantly, vote in Vancouver.
[05:13:12] ▶Commercial real estate is not zoned like residential.
[05:13:16] ▶If you zone these streets for hotel rooms,
[05:13:19] ▶thousands of small family businesses will be unable to sustain the rising cost of property taxes,
[05:13:24] ▶which then allows millionaire and billionaire developers, like some that are spoken in this room, to swoop in, buy buildings,
[05:13:32] ▶pick out tenants
[05:13:35] ▶with affordable rentals,
[05:13:36] ▶small businesses,
[05:13:38] ▶all just to build luxury hotels? Like, who does this actually benefit?
[05:13:43] ▶Not the city.
[05:13:45] ▶Local business owners invest in the local economy at 300 times the rate of foreign owned chain stores and hotel conglomerates.
[05:13:54] ▶Lucy, you asked
[05:13:55] ▶if there are any developers interested in building hotels, and immediately the presenter said there was actually quite a bit of interest.
[05:14:03] ▶So if there is if there is interest or if there's significant interest, why are we blanket rezoning?
[05:14:09] ▶If there was meaningful engagement with the public, why does the rezoning move to remove remove
[05:14:14] ▶the ability for public input?
[05:14:17] ▶Why not let a developer with a solid development plan request a small hotel
[05:14:21] ▶if it's not meant to be a new gold rush
[05:14:24] ▶for developers.
[05:14:26] ▶People in this galley
[05:14:28] ▶and from all over the Lower Mainland come to enjoy the unique independent small businesses and owners
[05:14:35] ▶in these effective corridors of little India on Fraser. Like, tell me you haven't been to some of those restaurants.
[05:14:41] ▶Or the countless small businesses on Main Street, Fraser, Commercial, and Kingsway, like An and Chi, or the gluten free bakery in Fraser, or the independent grocery stores like Famous Foods, Stadium Market, East is West, Organic Acres,
[05:14:56] ▶or the Neptune
[05:14:57] ▶record store owner that found an original Beatles recording
[05:15:01] ▶and personally gave it back to Paul McCartney.
[05:15:05] ▶Bean Sprouts is a secondhand kids clothing store that has been in the neighborhood for over twenty years,
[05:15:10] ▶upcycling kids clothing that would normally end up in the landfill.
[05:15:15] ▶She has already had to move from 27th On Main to 33rd On Main due to the rising cost of rent.
[05:15:22] ▶On Fraser And Kingsway, there is an empty brand new commercial space that has been like that for two years.
[05:15:30] ▶The only people on Maine, Fraser, Kingsway, and Commercial that rent in these new builds are dentists,
[05:15:36] ▶physio, which I went today,
[05:15:38] ▶or fast food chains.
[05:15:40] ▶Even today, in any new builds on Fraser And Maine, you will find only chain grocers or chain pharmacies and banks.
[05:15:47] ▶The new rental builds struggle to find renters for their market rate new builds, and there are empty new builds all over Maine and Vancouver as we speak.
[05:15:56] ▶So now that market rate rentals are not financially viable for these developers, we suddenly have a new manufactured crisis of hotel rooms
[05:16:04] ▶in areas where families have moved
[05:16:06] ▶and opened local businesses which are
[05:16:09] ▶overwhelmingly supported by the community.
[05:16:13] ▶Main Street landed among the top 15 coolest streets in North America and only one of two in all of Canada.
[05:16:20] ▶Main Street with its in it's sited with its independent
[05:16:23] ▶stores and independent
[05:16:25] ▶eateries was assigned the up and coming destination
[05:16:28] ▶on the Hippo meter, whatever that means, which measures an area's developmental stage, livability,
[05:16:33] ▶and retail flavor.
[05:16:35] ▶Our demographics include
[05:16:37] ▶56 percentage of renters.
[05:16:41] ▶These are people you will displace
[05:16:43] ▶if you do blanket hotel rezoning.
[05:16:47] ▶People come to these neighborhoods not because it's filled with indigo books
[05:16:51] ▶and Starbucks,
[05:16:53] ▶but because we have unique,
[05:16:55] ▶independent
[05:16:55] ▶local businesses.
[05:16:57] ▶We have an affordability crisis, not
[05:17:00] ▶a hotel crisis.
[05:17:02] ▶We are not gonna build our way out of this crisis.
[05:17:06] ▶If you approve this rezoning,
[05:17:08] ▶you will be responsible for making the affordability crisis worse
[05:17:12] ▶by making costs unaffordable
[05:17:14] ▶for local businesses.
[05:17:16] ▶If you approve this rezoning in its current form, I will personally go to every local business along the corridor and let them know that your decision to rezone their residential and commercial spaces for hotels is the reason the property taxes are rising and ensure all vote accordingly.
[05:17:32] ▶Speaker 10: The developers have lobbyists. The developers have AI lots that can be found. Are you are over to our voters. I'm sorry. You're well over time, but thank you for speaking.
[05:17:42] ▶Speaker number 50 is Tori Cooper.
[05:17:46] ▶Speaker 33: Hi.
[05:17:47] ▶Speaker 10: Can you hear me? Yes. We can, Tori. Please go ahead.
[05:17:51] ▶Speaker 46: Alright. Thank you. So my name is Tori Cooper, and I'm a Vancouver resident, and I oppose this proposal.
[05:17:57] ▶I am very concerned about the mass displacement that this rezoning will promote, and we cannot simply ignore the residents of this community and the independent shops in the area that will be negatively affected.
[05:18:08] ▶And this proposal will worsen the housing and affordability crisises that affect all of us. So please reject this proposal. Thank you, and have a good night. Thank you very much. Speaker 51, Lian Shen Ling.
[05:18:21] ▶Speaker 10: Shen Lin.
[05:18:25] ▶Speaker 1: Sorry.
[05:18:28] ▶Speaker 48: There's two proposals. One is faster tracking
[05:18:31] ▶rental housing, and one is resolving
[05:18:34] ▶a a a nine six chemistry.
[05:18:38] ▶As someone who works for a living, it is honestly getting harder and harder to get by in Vancouver.
[05:18:46] ▶With inflation and the gas prices so high, I have to watch every dollar I spend.
[05:18:52] ▶To buy a house, I have to put together
[05:18:55] ▶my entire family's savings from decades of hard work. Right now, I'm just barely staying afloat,
[05:19:03] ▶and I know it's it is going to get tougher being at retire.
[05:19:08] ▶A lot of my coworkers
[05:19:10] ▶are still working while part of 65
[05:19:14] ▶because they have no choice.
[05:19:16] ▶That's the reality of many of us.
[05:19:19] ▶The police is basically a major rejoin
[05:19:22] ▶of our city.
[05:19:23] ▶It's fast tracking,
[05:19:25] ▶it subtracts
[05:19:26] ▶approvals, reduces public input,
[05:19:29] ▶and pushes more development
[05:19:31] ▶to all the kind of building,
[05:19:33] ▶buildings
[05:19:34] ▶that haven't
[05:19:35] ▶worked
[05:19:37] ▶for working people,
[05:19:38] ▶market rentals
[05:19:40] ▶that low income workers can't afford, and hotels
[05:19:44] ▶that don't
[05:19:46] ▶add any real housing at all. The council is going to move this fast. It should be for something that actually help us, like,
[05:19:56] ▶building below
[05:19:58] ▶market housing that let working families
[05:20:01] ▶stay in the city. That's what we should be prioritizing.
[05:20:05] ▶I urge you to vote against this proposal. Thank you.
[05:20:10] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you very much.
[05:20:11] ▶Speaker 52, Rachel Bridolph Horwitz.
[05:20:17] ▶Speaker 3: Not on the line. Okay.
[05:20:19] ▶Speaker 10: Speaker 53,
[05:20:20] ▶Shaylyn
[05:20:21] ▶Arnold.
[05:20:22] ▶Speaker 39: Calling?
[05:20:23] ▶Hello?
[05:20:24] ▶Speaker 10: Shaylyn? Yeah. We can hear you. Please go ahead. Hi.
[05:20:27] ▶Speaker 35: Okay. Perfect.
[05:20:29] ▶Speaker 37: Hi. My name is Shaylyn.
[05:20:31] ▶I've worked in Vancouver, and I strongly oppose this fast tracking of these rentals and hotels because
[05:20:38] ▶I, quite frankly,
[05:20:40] ▶am tired of seeing the news every day and being let down by the city of Vancouver.
[05:20:44] ▶I am 27 years old and can barely scrape by to live here. And every day for for people my age, the future is looking bleaker and bleaker.
[05:20:53] ▶And I see all these wonderful things done by the mayors and counselors of other cities across North America,
[05:20:58] ▶and I'm left wondering
[05:21:00] ▶what is going on. The mayor of Chicago,
[05:21:03] ▶his top priority is making communities safer, like building a brand new hospital in the South Side. That's awesome.
[05:21:10] ▶In New York City, the most famous city in the world,
[05:21:14] ▶well,
[05:21:15] ▶it's somehow,
[05:21:16] ▶it's more affordable than here.
[05:21:19] ▶Thanks to the mayor of New York, the city has gone after bad landlords and won 30,000,000
[05:21:24] ▶in settlements and has repaired over 6,000 units for low income households.
[05:21:28] ▶He just announced free Wi Fi for thousands of households in The Bronx, and we're too worried about FIFA in June to take care of our own people?
[05:21:37] ▶How about some of how about some affordable housing instead of more hotels?
[05:21:42] ▶We don't need more hotels.
[05:21:44] ▶I guess that everyone's freaking out about FIFA, and they should because, like, look at what Vancouver was like in 2010 when we hosted the Olympics in comparison until now. The homelessness problem is astronomically
[05:21:56] ▶worse.
[05:21:57] ▶The price of everything is way too high. Smaller cell phone businesses are struggling
[05:22:02] ▶more and more. This fast tracking of the rentals and hotels will do nothing but put more money into the pockets of the richest of the rich in the city, and we've all had it with these handouts to the people that already have all the wealth they could possibly need. It is destroying our city, and we need to start helping the people that actually need it first.
[05:22:22] ▶Then you guys can go mess with building whatever you need, but don't build more business opportunities while people are sleeping on the streets outside of these establishments.
[05:22:31] ▶Vancouver,
[05:22:32] ▶the city I was born in, my family has been here for over a hundred and twenty years, is becoming a city that I can't even recognize from ten years ago. And I don't mean this by landmarks and new developments.
[05:22:44] ▶I mean in character,
[05:22:46] ▶in dignity,
[05:22:47] ▶and morality.
[05:22:48] ▶Please, for the younger generations of the city, don't leave us a bigger mess than we already have. I urge you all to oppose this. Thank you.
[05:22:58] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you.
[05:22:59] ▶Speaker 55, Christina Figueroa.
[05:23:11] ▶Great. Looks like, they're here in person. Please go ahead.
[05:23:16] ▶Speaker 49: Hi.
[05:23:17] ▶Good evening, counselors.
[05:23:19] ▶I'm Christina Figueroa. I'm a resident of Vancouver, and I oppose this proposal.
[05:23:24] ▶I'm concerned about, this proposal's impact on public hearings specifically.
[05:23:28] ▶I'd like to begin by saying that I am a firm advocate for democracy,
[05:23:32] ▶and it is truly disheartening
[05:23:34] ▶that the council that represents me is considering taking away my democratic right to speak either for or against projects that directly impact my community.
[05:23:43] ▶Public hearings should not be optional.
[05:23:46] ▶They are a necessity for our city to remain democratic.
[05:23:49] ▶A vote to fast track hotel developments and bypass public hearings is absurd
[05:23:54] ▶and and sends a clear message.
[05:23:56] ▶The opinions of your voters do not matter.
[05:23:59] ▶I urge you to vote against this tonight.
[05:24:02] ▶This is especially worrisome because this proposal
[05:24:04] ▶sites rezoning on Main Street and East Hastings.
[05:24:08] ▶Considering the vulnerable populations in the area, having public input will be crucial.
[05:24:13] ▶There are dozens of social justice organizations
[05:24:16] ▶that work in the Downtown East Side. Surely,
[05:24:19] ▶they should be consulted and allowed to participate in a public hearing about these developments.
[05:24:25] ▶Mass rezonings will completely change these neighborhoods
[05:24:28] ▶and do not allow
[05:24:30] ▶and not allowing impacted folks to share their concerns is truly, truly disappointing.
[05:24:36] ▶Please reject this proposal. Thank you.
[05:24:39] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. Thanks for coming.
[05:24:41] ▶Speaker 56, Jay Sanchez.
[05:24:46] ▶Hello? Hi, Jay. Can you hear me? Yes. We can hear you great. Please go ahead.
[05:24:51] ▶Speaker 32: Thank you. Good afternoon, again, mayor and, council.
[05:24:55] ▶Thank you for your time and for the, all this hard work that you do for the, for the city.
[05:25:01] ▶My name is, Jay. I'm a Vancouver resident,
[05:25:03] ▶and I I oppose,
[05:25:06] ▶this proposal.
[05:25:07] ▶If I go to your to the city website,
[05:25:10] ▶to this item,
[05:25:12] ▶it says that this decision or these changes,
[05:25:16] ▶are designed to help more people find housing and offer a wider variety of places to to live and stay.
[05:25:23] ▶So
[05:25:24] ▶my point is that this fast fast tracking is presented as a way to prioritize rental housing, but it does so by reducing public participation.
[05:25:32] ▶So I don't understand that equation
[05:25:34] ▶of less public participation
[05:25:36] ▶equals helping people find housing,
[05:25:41] ▶in particular, in this case, where you're mixing hotels in the same bag.
[05:25:46] ▶So,
[05:25:47] ▶beyond the obvious affordability
[05:25:49] ▶crisis,
[05:25:50] ▶I guess one of my main concerns is, is public participation and accountability.
[05:25:54] ▶So public hearings are one of the few formal mechanisms
[05:25:58] ▶that we have to respond to specific developments
[05:26:01] ▶in our neighborhoods.
[05:26:02] ▶Producing or removing them, it does not in itself delivered secure or affordable rental housing.
[05:26:08] ▶It might,
[05:26:10] ▶speed up approvals, but it does not ensure that the right kind of housing is built at the right price in the right places.
[05:26:16] ▶Again, that equation doesn't make sense.
[05:26:19] ▶So I know that it might be an assumption that less public participation will lead to more investment
[05:26:23] ▶and that more investment will result in better housing outcomes.
[05:26:27] ▶But it's clear from our experience in Vancouver that such relation is just not true. In practice, increased investment without clear requirements
[05:26:34] ▶has consistently delivered,
[05:26:37] ▶has not consistently delivered affordability
[05:26:39] ▶or housing security.
[05:26:41] ▶Public confidence is also very important when participation is reduced. It risk undermining trust in both the process and in public institutions, and I think we are, seeing that. So that that trust,
[05:26:54] ▶is,
[05:26:55] ▶essential.
[05:26:57] ▶Even trusting the small things like, you know, changing items last minute,
[05:27:01] ▶you know, it erodes confidence on on on the public.
[05:27:04] ▶So,
[05:27:05] ▶beyond the process, there's also the question of priorities. Again, like, you're you're putting hotels here. So, this proposal combines hotel housing with hotels to very different uses.
[05:27:14] ▶So, again, that doesn't make sense to me,
[05:27:18] ▶if if you're actually looking at, you know, helping people find houses.
[05:27:23] ▶So, yeah, same same issues applies here. Right?
[05:27:27] ▶You have also,
[05:27:29] ▶I think, thousands thousands now of rooms approved and more on the pipeline
[05:27:33] ▶after adopting the new hotel development policy calling for 10,000 rooms by 2050. So you're actually, you know, very ahead with that. So I don't know what is the need to mix those two things and and reduce,
[05:27:45] ▶public
[05:27:46] ▶participation.
[05:27:47] ▶So public participation should not be seen as a barrier to housing, and it should be seen as a tool to deliver
[05:27:53] ▶better housing.
[05:27:55] ▶So, also,
[05:27:56] ▶I I heard that there might have been already
[05:27:59] ▶some type of bot sending messages to the city's comment web page.
[05:28:04] ▶So, you know, with this old AI craziness where we don't know what's true, what's not true, I think, like, again, public participation is so fundamental
[05:28:14] ▶to our democracy
[05:28:16] ▶and our
[05:28:17] ▶trust in, in institutions.
[05:28:20] ▶So,
[05:28:21] ▶I think just finally,
[05:28:23] ▶I will say this respectfully decisions
[05:28:25] ▶about process,
[05:28:26] ▶they do save public trust, and process is important.
[05:28:31] ▶So as council approaches the upcoming municipal elections,
[05:28:35] ▶this will become part of your record.
[05:28:37] ▶So I would really urge you to consider whether reducing public participation like that in decisions of this scale is the direction you want to set and the record you want to, you know, give give people when they go voting. So please please do not move ahead with this decision. Thank you very much for your time and the opportunity to speak.
[05:28:58] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you.
[05:29:00] ▶Speaker 57, Naya Hollers.
[05:29:06] ▶Speaker 44: I am also here to oppose this proposal,
[05:29:09] ▶primarily because it does nothing to address the affordability
[05:29:14] ▶crisis.
[05:29:16] ▶And
[05:29:17] ▶Speaker 42: a supply side push doesn't,
[05:29:20] ▶Speaker 44: help if there's no
[05:29:22] ▶requirements for below market rentals.
[05:29:25] ▶And I just really don't understand why there's so much,
[05:29:30] ▶you know, push for for market rate rentals when, like, no one can afford them. And,
[05:29:36] ▶we're even gonna lose the relatively affordable units that already exist on the above the street level retail.
[05:29:43] ▶And,
[05:29:44] ▶there's no effort
[05:29:46] ▶to dedicate affordable housing or just below market.
[05:29:51] ▶And many of these units will be out of reach for modest to low income people.
[05:29:56] ▶And not only that, but hotel developers
[05:29:59] ▶don't need incentives
[05:30:00] ▶and should not be automatically
[05:30:03] ▶fast tracked to to get
[05:30:05] ▶approvals without democratic
[05:30:07] ▶participation
[05:30:08] ▶from from the people of the city.
[05:30:11] ▶Council has approved hotel projects
[05:30:13] ▶totaling 3,000 rooms with over 3,800
[05:30:17] ▶more in the pipeline
[05:30:19] ▶and new projects announced by the day.
[05:30:22] ▶In 2025,
[05:30:23] ▶council adopted a new hotel policy calling for 10,000 rooms by 2025,
[05:30:28] ▶and we're likely to approach that number of approved rooms this year already
[05:30:32] ▶at the rate council is going.
[05:30:35] ▶So why is the city prioritizing tourists and hotel developers
[05:30:39] ▶over residents?
[05:30:41] ▶Yeah. I I really strongly encourage
[05:30:44] ▶you to oppose this proposal.
[05:30:46] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thank you for your comments.
[05:30:48] ▶Speaker 58, Benjamin Middleton.
[05:30:51] ▶Speaker 3: Not on the line.
[05:30:52] ▶Speaker 10: Okay.
[05:30:54] ▶Speaker 59, Gulzar Grewell.
[05:30:58] ▶Speaker 33: I'm online.
[05:31:00] ▶Speaker 10: Is that Gulzar?
[05:31:02] ▶Yes. Okay. Yeah. We can hear you. Please go ahead.
[05:31:05] ▶Speaker 35: Okay.
[05:31:06] ▶I'm,
[05:31:07] ▶this is.
[05:31:09] ▶I'll be good evening, everybody, Juan. And, I am licensed of three,
[05:31:14] ▶and, I'm working in Vancouver long time. And every day, I travel, like, three to four hours
[05:31:21] ▶to go to work and come home.
[05:31:24] ▶I like to be,
[05:31:26] ▶really close to my work, but I cannot afford it.
[05:31:31] ▶So I strongly oppose this proposal
[05:31:35] ▶for the project.
[05:31:36] ▶Bank of Greece already facing the serious housing affordability
[05:31:40] ▶crisis.
[05:31:41] ▶Many residents,
[05:31:43] ▶including myself, are struggling to
[05:31:47] ▶find stable and affordable housing.
[05:31:49] ▶Bailing more voters does not address this
[05:31:53] ▶urgent need. Instead,
[05:31:55] ▶the city should
[05:31:57] ▶prioritize,
[05:31:58] ▶developing affordable housing for the people who live and work here.
[05:32:03] ▶While tourism
[05:32:04] ▶is important,
[05:32:06] ▶it should not become at the expense of residents'
[05:32:09] ▶ability to live in their own city.
[05:32:13] ▶I urge that city to
[05:32:15] ▶re
[05:32:16] ▶consider that this project and focus on the solution
[05:32:19] ▶that improve housing,
[05:32:23] ▶real reality and, whole ability.
[05:32:27] ▶And I strongly oppose this report, the hotel proposal. Thank you.
[05:32:33] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you.
[05:32:35] ▶Speaker number 60, Pardeep Tandy.
[05:32:42] ▶Oh, Pardeep?
[05:32:45] ▶Are you hear me? Oh, yes. Pardeep, we can. Please go ahead.
[05:32:50] ▶Speaker 50: Yeah. I am Pardeep Tandy. I am a resident of Surrey.
[05:32:55] ▶I am working in Richmond.
[05:32:57] ▶I like to live close to my work, but I can't.
[05:33:01] ▶You know, every day back and forth about four hours,
[05:33:06] ▶we can,
[05:33:08] ▶on the road,
[05:33:09] ▶but, too hard too
[05:33:12] ▶hard for us.
[05:33:13] ▶So we want to live close to my work. It's very, very tough
[05:33:18] ▶because I can't afford everything.
[05:33:21] ▶So we don't want any more hotels,
[05:33:25] ▶so we need
[05:33:26] ▶affordable housing.
[05:33:28] ▶So, you know, them, they're
[05:33:31] ▶very hard to buy anything.
[05:33:34] ▶So my daughter, she
[05:33:36] ▶working in Vancouver, but,
[05:33:38] ▶she live in city too.
[05:33:40] ▶It's very hard to
[05:33:42] ▶afford everything in Vancouver.
[05:33:45] ▶So I am
[05:33:47] ▶I am engaged
[05:33:49] ▶the project.
[05:33:51] ▶I oppose this project.
[05:33:54] ▶We can't afford anything in Vancouver.
[05:33:57] ▶Please look,
[05:33:59] ▶look
[05:34:00] ▶something for everyone.
[05:34:02] ▶So
[05:34:03] ▶we are working full time six days, but I can't
[05:34:07] ▶hold it.
[05:34:09] ▶So how can how can afford the junk generation?
[05:34:14] ▶Please look something.
[05:34:17] ▶Thank you.
[05:34:19] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you very much, Pardeep.
[05:34:20] ▶61 Karanjit Dillon.
[05:34:30] ▶Speaker 1: No?
[05:34:33] ▶Speaker 10: Karanjit, can you hear us?
[05:34:35] ▶Are you on the line?
[05:34:40] ▶Speaker 35: Hello?
[05:34:41] ▶Speaker 10: Yes. We can hear you. We can hear you. Please go ahead with your comments.
[05:34:45] ▶Speaker 35: Okay. My name is Karanjit, and I am working in the Richmond at Addison Blue Hotel.
[05:34:51] ▶And,
[05:34:52] ▶I live in Surrey.
[05:34:54] ▶I take a go to Richmond more than one hour.
[05:34:58] ▶So I wanted to
[05:35:01] ▶still live in, Vancouver,
[05:35:03] ▶but I can't because I cannot afford it. It's very expensive. In back of back days, we were in we were there. I was living in Vancouver,
[05:35:12] ▶but now I am in.
[05:35:14] ▶So Vancouver should be forever for everyone.
[05:35:17] ▶So
[05:35:18] ▶please, we are strongly against this project.
[05:35:22] ▶Thank you.
[05:35:26] ▶Speaker 10: Sorry. Thank you. Okay. Speaker 62, Catherine
[05:35:29] ▶De La Cruz.
[05:35:33] ▶Speaker 3: Not on the line.
[05:35:34] ▶Speaker 10: And speaker 63, Richard Campbell.
[05:35:42] ▶Speaker 4: Hello?
[05:35:43] ▶Speaker 10: Hi. Richard?
[05:35:44] ▶Speaker 51: Hi. Yes. Mhmm. Please go ahead. Yeah. Okay. Great.
[05:35:49] ▶Speaker 43: Good good evening,
[05:35:51] ▶good counsel. Thank you,
[05:35:53] ▶for letting me speak on this issue.
[05:35:55] ▶So first of all, like the other speakers have talked about, you know, we really need to focus
[05:36:01] ▶on affordability.
[05:36:03] ▶So I think
[05:36:05] ▶with this,
[05:36:06] ▶proposal, there's certainly
[05:36:08] ▶some
[05:36:10] ▶some homes that can Apartment 10 can go ahead
[05:36:13] ▶without these recommendations.
[05:36:14] ▶So I would say,
[05:36:17] ▶let's let those go ahead. The the developers who are creative or have great locations that other people want to live in that can support the non market housing,
[05:36:27] ▶let those go ahead. And then for the ones that can't, that could be lots of sites, and those will be likely in good places in the city that aren't too hot, that have parks nearby or or near the ocean. Places like Westport Avenue,
[05:36:41] ▶can probably support,
[05:36:43] ▶the,
[05:36:44] ▶the 20%,
[05:36:46] ▶bull market housing. So let's, let's stick with that. And then for the other areas, let's figure out, okay, how many floors do we need to get up to the, at least the 20%,
[05:36:59] ▶affordable housing. So I think that's a much better, more equitable solution that will enable people with lower incomes to live in every part of the city unlike this, if it's at market rents. The
[05:37:12] ▶the people asking for it to live in a nice area of the city will pay the market rent, leaving everyone who can't, you know, for forcing them to commute from, wherever. The other thing I think we need as part of this or in general is to fix up the streetscapes of the city. We need two rows of trees. We need
[05:37:31] ▶we need rain gardens. We need protected bike lanes so the streets are safe and usable
[05:37:36] ▶and comfortable to live on in all types of weather, especially
[05:37:41] ▶especially in the summer. It's only happening in a few streets like Canby,
[05:37:45] ▶and it's not happening anywhere else in the city. And it's really inequitable,
[05:37:49] ▶and it's really unfair. When you really need to take,
[05:37:52] ▶extreme heat seriously, it kills people. It makes them more irritable. It causes,
[05:37:57] ▶it causes violence, I I just learned.
[05:38:00] ▶So let's, focus on making
[05:38:03] ▶the arterials nicer places
[05:38:05] ▶to live and and more people who want to live on them, people that can't afford to subsidize
[05:38:12] ▶the, the rents of,
[05:38:14] ▶of of the of people with lower incomes who can't afford to pay. So let's let's work on that. Let's come come forward with a great proposal
[05:38:22] ▶that's inclusive and figures out how to make the city more affordable,
[05:38:26] ▶and the, you know, the proposal before you right now certainly does it. So I I think,
[05:38:31] ▶you you gotta need to
[05:38:33] ▶everybody needs to sharpen their pencils and figure out something that actually works for, everyone. Thank thank you very much.
[05:38:39] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you very much.
[05:38:41] ▶Speaker 64,
[05:38:42] ▶Deirdre Whelan.
[05:38:47] ▶Oh, you're here in person. Hello?
[05:38:49] ▶And
[05:38:52] ▶and, Deirdre, are you a representative
[05:38:54] ▶speaker, or are you speaking for yourself?
[05:38:56] ▶Speaker 52: I'm speaking on behalf of Costco.
[05:39:01] ▶Speaker 10: Of
[05:39:02] ▶okay. How do we put this down? So you'd okay. But you you just you have five minutes because you have to have the other folks with you if you have if you're a representative. So you have five minutes, so please go ahead when you're ready.
[05:39:15] ▶Speaker 52: Thank you for allowing me to speak this evening.
[05:39:18] ▶I'm here to speak in opposition of the the this proposal.
[05:39:23] ▶I'm here on behalf of Costco, BC, and that's not the ones that sell the hot dogs. This is, the Council of Senior Citizens Organizations of BC.
[05:39:32] ▶We are an umbrella
[05:39:34] ▶organization that brings together older adults
[05:39:37] ▶to work on common issues. And this includes 65 affiliate groups representing over 85,000
[05:39:43] ▶members,
[05:39:44] ▶and we're all seniors.
[05:39:45] ▶Costco is affiliated with, a million member National Pensioners Federation,
[05:39:51] ▶and we promote all of these issues that are important to us on national level as well. One of our main goals is to advocate for safe, adequate, and affordable housing for seniors.
[05:40:03] ▶It is unacceptable to Costco members
[05:40:05] ▶that this development proposal ignores affordable housing altogether.
[05:40:10] ▶Vancouver's most urgent need is affordable rental housing.
[05:40:13] ▶The City of Vancouver should not be removing the requirement for 20%
[05:40:17] ▶below market rentals.
[05:40:19] ▶We have a housing crisis
[05:40:21] ▶and an adequate and affordable rental stock
[05:40:24] ▶can help to alleviate this.
[05:40:26] ▶Expensive housing affects everyone, but especially seniors who rent.
[05:40:31] ▶Seniors are the fastest growing demographic in BC and the numbers will continue to grow.
[05:40:37] ▶This should not be a surprise
[05:40:39] ▶that baby boomers in the fifties
[05:40:41] ▶are now seniors in the twenties.
[05:40:43] ▶The BC Seniors Advocate Research Report shows that half of all BC Seniors live on less than 35,000
[05:40:51] ▶a year.
[05:40:52] ▶And a quarter of these seniors live on annual incomes of less than $23,000
[05:40:59] ▶Affordable housing is defined as no more than 30% of income.
[05:41:03] ▶For a senior on this income of $35,000
[05:41:07] ▶work it out. Affordable means a little over $10,000 a year and less than $1,000 a month.
[05:41:13] ▶This development
[05:41:14] ▶would rent a market studio rental for about $2,300
[05:41:19] ▶and that's well out of the question
[05:41:21] ▶for a Vancouver senior.
[05:41:24] ▶Also, the four eleven Senior Centre
[05:41:26] ▶in Vancouver reports that seniors who are renters have predominantly
[05:41:30] ▶been renters all their lives.
[05:41:32] ▶They are disproportionately
[05:41:35] ▶lower income,
[05:41:36] ▶they're more likely to be women,
[05:41:38] ▶and more likely to have been divorced or have been single all of their lives.
[05:41:43] ▶Providing safe,
[05:41:45] ▶adequate, and affordable housing is a task that cannot be entrusted to private industry.
[05:41:51] ▶The voting public needs the City of Vancouver to restore their policy
[05:41:55] ▶that reserves 20% of new units and below market rentals.
[05:42:00] ▶This city council has been a leader in setting aside a percentage of units that are below market. And I can say I'm from Richmond,
[05:42:08] ▶and I speak to Richmond City Council, and we look to you as being leaders in this regard.
[05:42:14] ▶So for these reasons, Costco members urge city,
[05:42:18] ▶councilors to vote no on this proposal.
[05:42:21] ▶Thank you.
[05:42:23] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you very much for coming in person to speak.
[05:42:26] ▶Speaker 65,
[05:42:28] ▶is joined as Laurel Stranahan. Hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.
[05:42:40] ▶Laurel? Not hearing Laurel.
[05:42:42] ▶Speaker 3: Yes.
[05:42:44] ▶65 is, not on the line. Okay.
[05:42:48] ▶Speaker 10: Alright. At this point, that is the end of our registered speakers list. I'm gonna ask if there's any additional speakers in the chamber to please come forward to the podium now.
[05:42:57] ▶And I'm also gonna ask the clerk if we have any additional speakers on the line at this point.
[05:43:10] ▶Not at this point. Not for this item. Okay. I'm not gonna make my third and final call for speakers. If you wish to speak council about the item, you can call toll free +1 (833) 353-8610
[05:43:20] ▶followed by the participant code, which is 1061445Pound
[05:43:23] ▶before close of the list.
[05:43:25] ▶The phone number is on x and will be displayed during the recess. Council will now take a two minute recess. We will come back at 08:45
[05:43:32] ▶for any additional speakers that call in,
[05:43:35] ▶and, we'll see you back here shortly. Thanks.
[05:46:42] ▶Okay, everybody.
[05:46:43] ▶Welcome back.
[05:46:45] ▶I'll just check-in with the clerk if we have any,
[05:46:47] ▶additional speakers at this point.
[05:47:25] ▶Okay, counsel. We're just trying to,
[05:47:27] ▶give our our telephone operator a chance to identify the speakers,
[05:47:32] ▶that are on the line, if they're on the line for this item, the next one. So we're gonna take an additional two minutes, and we'll come back at 08:49.
[05:50:47] ▶Alright, counsel. We're gonna reconvene. It looks like we have one individual wanting to speak at the podium, I assume. Can I ask you to identify your name, and if you're resident of Vancouver, then you can go ahead?
[05:50:58] ▶Speaker 53: Thank you so much. My name is Jack Bernard. I am a resident of North Vancouver. I work with the Cape Group. My colleague Jordan Sue had spoken earlier about a proposal that we have in, and we're in full support
[05:51:09] ▶of the extended c two a zoning.
[05:51:12] ▶And I'll be brief,
[05:51:14] ▶and not to be too redundant. All counselors have now received
[05:51:18] ▶the previous mentioned
[05:51:21] ▶slide deck that wasn't able to be shown. So
[05:51:24] ▶just for clarity's sake, on page seven of that slide deck,
[05:51:28] ▶there's a clear
[05:51:30] ▶understanding of what it is that we are requesting, which would be a motion to include us
[05:51:35] ▶within the c two a zoning and extend
[05:51:38] ▶the zoning on the block of, 2336
[05:51:41] ▶to 2366
[05:51:43] ▶Charles Street. All of the lots to our south, directly adjacent to us are part of the proposed zoning,
[05:51:50] ▶and we are just looking to be included in the new proposed zoning. So I just wanted to bring clarity as to where they would seek,
[05:51:57] ▶the information
[05:51:58] ▶mister Jordan had requested earlier and then reiterate that we are in,
[05:52:02] ▶full support of this proposal. And we appreciate everyone's long night, so sorry if I'm being redundant.
[05:52:07] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. Thank you for your comments.
[05:52:09] ▶Okay. I'm not seeing anybody else in person, so we're gonna go to the phone.
[05:52:17] ▶Speaker 3: A speaker with the last four digits, 9163.
[05:52:22] ▶Please unmute, and you can go ahead.
[05:52:25] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. Can you hear me? You can. If I can just get you to state your name,
[05:52:29] ▶with your support supporter oppose the application and if you're a resident of Vancouver, and then you can go ahead.
[05:52:35] ▶Speaker 54: Alright. Thank you, deputy mayor. Good evening, counselors. My name is Rolfan Wang. I'm a Vancouver resident, and I support this proposal.
[05:52:42] ▶I've been sitting here listening to quite a few of the preceding speakers, and, frankly, I'm just a little confused.
[05:52:49] ▶There were a lot of fears about how this proposal isn't creating enough affordable housing and just generally a lot of doom and gloom about the
[05:52:58] ▶extent of it. It makes it sound like this is some gigantic
[05:53:01] ▶zoning change that's gonna ruin our city or whatever, and I honestly just don't get it.
[05:53:06] ▶At its heart, what this proposal really just does is simplify some existing zoning where mid rise apartments
[05:53:13] ▶are already generally allowed to create more consistent rules, simplify some red tape, and enable the kind of gentle density that we all want in our cities.
[05:53:22] ▶Dear counselors, you know better than anyone else in this city that towers are divisive.
[05:53:27] ▶You sat here at dozens of public hearings where speaker after speaker
[05:53:31] ▶does the same thing.
[05:53:32] ▶We don't want towers. We want more gentle density.
[05:53:36] ▶Well, here is your gentle density.
[05:53:39] ▶Here are your six story apartment,
[05:53:42] ▶that are, you know, generally in these locations replacing
[05:53:46] ▶single family homes or, you know, legacy
[05:53:49] ▶commercial lots with, you know,
[05:53:52] ▶that are reaching end of life.
[05:53:54] ▶So this is, you know, not going to create
[05:53:58] ▶much displacement,
[05:54:00] ▶far less than some previous proposals as an advance would. It would enable housing to be built faster and more consistently in more areas.
[05:54:10] ▶I will admit, this is not my favorite school in the world because it does,
[05:54:15] ▶still limit us to the grand bargain where a lot of housing is mostly
[05:54:19] ▶concentrated on our curio.
[05:54:22] ▶But it is the bare minimum. Like, if we can't even get some housing,
[05:54:26] ▶permitted on our our curios without a gigantic public hearing where everyone says no. No. No. No. No. Then I don't know how we're gonna get anywhere in solving our housing crisis.
[05:54:35] ▶And, yes, this proposal does also allow some hotels,
[05:54:40] ▶but I don't see the issue. The idea that hotels and housing
[05:54:44] ▶compete
[05:54:45] ▶against each other,
[05:54:46] ▶implies that we have a small and finite and scarce amount of land to build housing and to build hotels, which is not true.
[05:54:55] ▶The vast, vast majority of the city is single family homes. In fact,
[05:55:00] ▶three weeks ago, this council unanimously voted to replace a single Shaughnessy mansion on Granville with 31 apartments.
[05:55:07] ▶We have so much land in the city that is being utilized for, you know, very unproductive uses that could be new housing, new hotels, and we can and should have both. Because if we don't build hotels, we encourage the proliferation of illegal Airbnbs all over the place. Tourism is not gonna vanish overnight just because we managed the Nimby Way new hotels.
[05:55:31] ▶Far from it.
[05:55:33] ▶I think I said all I needed to say. So,
[05:55:36] ▶I strongly support this proposal again, and thank you for listening.
[05:55:40] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thank you for calling in. Next one.
[05:55:48] ▶Speaker 3: Speaker with the last four digits, 3181.
[05:55:51] ▶Please unmute and go ahead.
[05:55:55] ▶Speaker 21: I think can you hear me?
[05:55:58] ▶Speaker 10: Yes. We can. Can you state your name and if you're a resident of Vancouver? And then you can go ahead. Thank you.
[05:56:03] ▶Speaker 21: Yeah. My name is Joan Jacquard. I am a resident of Vancouver.
[05:56:06] ▶Once again and I oppose. I'm speaking opposition to this proposal.
[05:56:11] ▶Once again, I am appalled appalled but not surprised by this council's determination to shut out the citizens that you were elected to represent
[05:56:19] ▶through under the public radar, fast tracking this targeted rezoning,
[05:56:23] ▶which will fundamentally erase Vancouver's landmark neighborhood commercial high street.
[05:56:28] ▶Unfathomably,
[05:56:29] ▶council and the planning department have already disregarded Vancouver's foundational,
[05:56:33] ▶economic, and social structure
[05:56:35] ▶by erasing any acknowledgment
[05:56:37] ▶or reference to our neighborhoods
[05:56:39] ▶in your recently approved ODP.
[05:56:41] ▶Vancouverites closely identify with geographically defined areas they live in the city by reference to, for example, Mount Pleasant, Carrisdale, Marpole, Granby Woodland, Cedar Cottage, etcetera.
[05:56:52] ▶These are not arbitrary names that reflect the developmental history of this place. Great cities are not made by obliterating their foundational beginnings.
[05:57:01] ▶Take a look around the world and imagine if all historical references, buildings, and place makings were urban renewed.
[05:57:08] ▶That now maligned mid century North American model of urban renewal
[05:57:12] ▶was proven to be untenable and destructive to healthy urban life and was largely resisted in Vancouver through public protests against inner city freeway projects in the nineteen sixties and seventies.
[05:57:23] ▶A more civic minded and enlightened council at the time listened and responded to public outcry.
[05:57:30] ▶Consequently, historical neighborhoods like Strathcona,
[05:57:33] ▶Chinatown, and Kitsilano remain
[05:57:35] ▶and have evolved over time.
[05:57:37] ▶Urbanist Jane Jacobs' seminal book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, should be required reading for all politicians and urban professionals.
[05:57:47] ▶Coincidentally, council members may have taken the opportunity this past weekend to be sensitized to urban activist Jane Jacobs' work who fought urban renewal and its destruction of vibrant on the street commercial spaces
[05:57:59] ▶and social connectivity
[05:58:00] ▶in New York City and later Toronto.
[05:58:03] ▶I decry council's lack of respect for citizen input into our own neighborhood
[05:58:07] ▶with their now normalized
[05:58:09] ▶lip service to public engagement through scant and short public notice of this unprecedented rezoning.
[05:58:15] ▶The economic fallout of this uplifting
[05:58:18] ▶of land values will have immediate impact through raised taxes and the resultant decimation
[05:58:23] ▶of our vibrant
[05:58:24] ▶small scale storefront shops.
[05:58:26] ▶This is a direct assault
[05:58:28] ▶on Vancouver's historically evolved and beloved commercial streets
[05:58:32] ▶and for what reason.
[05:58:33] ▶These are the heart of Vancouver's 22 neighborhoods,
[05:58:36] ▶which reflect the evolving cultural identities and distinctiveness
[05:58:39] ▶of the places we call home. The hodgepodge of our public living room spaces and shops are where we engage in the public realm with shopkeepers we know. These low rise streetscapes are pleasant places to be, with sun penetrating the sidewalk and street trees creating canopy.
[05:58:56] ▶Six to eight story buildings will kill that street market ambiance creating shade in our Northern latitude city.
[05:59:04] ▶The character of our commercial streets with their abundance of small scale independently owned leased shops provide the essential needs of a walkable neighborhood.
[05:59:12] ▶Many are thriving, the drive, East Hastings, Fraser And Main Street, Denman Street, because of their diversity and character.
[05:59:19] ▶And some need urban planning support to reinvigorate
[05:59:24] ▶what makes
[05:59:25] ▶these existing commercial streets the desirable social communities they have and can be.
[05:59:31] ▶The solution is not in unaffordable new builds where larger retail space destroys small independent business opportunities
[05:59:38] ▶promoting chain character less retail.
[05:59:41] ▶The passing of this ill conceived rezoning proposal
[05:59:44] ▶generated, I assume, by a manager planning who is a recent immigrant to the city and clearly has no grasp of nor taken the time to appreciate and respect what is good about and working in the urban fabric of Vancouver.
[05:59:57] ▶This mandate to fast track all recent zoning regulations, which are clearly intended to support developer needs without any priority of providing affordable housing,
[06:00:06] ▶is a disgrace of this civic regime. The only housing that is needed in the city is affordable housing in its multitude of built forms.
[06:00:14] ▶I implore you to withdraw this community destroying
[06:00:17] ▶rezoning initiative. Thank you.
[06:00:20] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thank you very much. I'm gonna go to the in person speaker. It looks like we have one more, individual that would like to speak in person. Can I get you to state your name? And if you're a resident, then you can go ahead. Sure. My name is Gudrun Lankov. I am
[06:00:32] ▶Speaker 55: a resident of Vancouver. I live in Marple, and I'm lucky enough to live in a housing co op.
[06:00:38] ▶My cohorts,
[06:00:40] ▶are boomers just like I am.
[06:00:43] ▶And,
[06:00:45] ▶we find that affordable
[06:00:47] ▶housing
[06:00:48] ▶is
[06:00:49] ▶almost nonexistent
[06:00:50] ▶unless you go to a substandard
[06:00:53] ▶basements or whatever. And it's really important to
[06:00:56] ▶to,
[06:00:58] ▶I mean, I'm trying not to fall into the baffle gaffe of of planning speak
[06:01:04] ▶because I don't do that very well.
[06:01:07] ▶We simply need
[06:01:08] ▶affordable,
[06:01:09] ▶accessible
[06:01:10] ▶housing. And,
[06:01:12] ▶and I don't understand
[06:01:14] ▶how,
[06:01:16] ▶building or making it possible for,
[06:01:20] ▶more hotels to be built without any public input
[06:01:24] ▶is is going to be useful for us.
[06:01:27] ▶I really urge you to vote against this not to use
[06:01:31] ▶this particular proposal as a as a good one.
[06:01:35] ▶You've heard from a lot of people who've sort of said what I've said.
[06:01:40] ▶We need more affordable housing, not more hotels.
[06:01:44] ▶I don't know
[06:01:46] ▶who lives on hotels.
[06:01:49] ▶Why are we talking about, you know, world class cities, which is just
[06:01:54] ▶when you don't have enough housing for people? That's ridiculous.
[06:01:57] ▶In any event, I wish everyone had the opportunity to live in affordable
[06:02:03] ▶housing like I do.
[06:02:04] ▶Our community is a really nice one, and it's really important because we are community building when we are in in social housing like that. And,
[06:02:15] ▶and, anyway,
[06:02:16] ▶I just want to reiterate what many of the speakers before me have said, and I wanted to leave that with you rather than, you know, let's have more B and Bs because I don't think that's gonna be worthwhile either.
[06:02:29] ▶Speaker 10: Good night, and thank you. Thank you very much, and good night. Okay. We'll go back to the phone for the last couple of speakers.
[06:02:36] ▶The next one.
[06:02:38] ▶Speaker 3: We have approximately
[06:02:39] ▶six speakers on the line.
[06:02:41] ▶The
[06:02:42] ▶speaker with the last four digits, 4078.
[06:02:46] ▶Please unmute and go ahead.
[06:02:50] ▶Speaker 56: Thank you. Hi. My name is Russell Wong. I'm a resident of Vancouver. I don't work in real estate or development.
[06:02:56] ▶A number of speakers have mentioned the need for affordable housing. There is a close connection between housing scarcity
[06:03:02] ▶and housing unaffordability.
[06:03:04] ▶Because we make it pretty difficult
[06:03:07] ▶to build new housing,
[06:03:09] ▶prices and rents have to rise to unbearable levels
[06:03:13] ▶to push people out.
[06:03:15] ▶I support this policy change. As I understand it, the proposed c two a zone basically covers the same area as the existing c two zones,
[06:03:23] ▶which allows six story rental buildings in local shopping areas. This was passed back in 2021.
[06:03:29] ▶The main effect of this change is to have a simpler and more uniform set of rules.
[06:03:34] ▶More generally, it's better for a council to focus on passing citywide policies
[06:03:39] ▶even if there is a lot of discussion as we're seeing now
[06:03:43] ▶rather than repeating the same battle over and over again on every individual site by site rezoning.
[06:03:50] ▶In terms of public opinion in general, there was a poll of City Of Vancouver residents in December by Leger
[06:03:56] ▶asking people how they wanted the city to grow.
[06:03:59] ▶14%
[06:04:00] ▶wanted to limit growth and keep the city low density.
[06:04:03] ▶26%
[06:04:04] ▶wanted to continue with concentrating density and high rises near transit nodes.
[06:04:09] ▶The most popular option, I think about 46%,
[06:04:13] ▶was four to six story buildings across the city.
[06:04:17] ▶In terms of
[06:04:18] ▶requiring
[06:04:19] ▶below market housing,
[06:04:21] ▶my understanding based on analysis by Coriolis is that six story rental buildings typically do not include enough land lift to support below market housing.
[06:04:30] ▶I don't have strong opinions on the change to allow a hotel with the same size and floor space,
[06:04:36] ▶but the city does need hotel space. Thank you.
[06:04:44] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thank you. We'll go to the next, next one.
[06:04:48] ▶Speaker 3: The speaker with the last four digits 0726.
[06:04:51] ▶Please unmute and go ahead.
[06:04:55] ▶Speaker 57: Can you hear me?
[06:04:58] ▶Speaker 48: Hello?
[06:04:59] ▶Speaker 10: Yes. We can. Please go ahead.
[06:05:01] ▶Speaker 57: Okay. Hi, Manny. Just state your name and if you're ready to go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. My name is Sal Robinson. I am a resident of Kitsilano for the last forty five years or so,
[06:05:11] ▶and I operated a licensed bed and breakfast in Kitsilano for about seventeen years until COVID put an end to that.
[06:05:18] ▶So I do recognize
[06:05:19] ▶the need for,
[06:05:21] ▶hotel options outside of the downtown core and the the regular places that we find them.
[06:05:27] ▶However, I oppose this application because it is one more nail in the coffin of resident input into how our neighborhoods develop.
[06:05:35] ▶I can think of appropriate
[06:05:37] ▶places for small scale hotels outside of the areas where you're accustomed to finding them,
[06:05:42] ▶but I truly believe residents should have a voice
[06:05:45] ▶in welcome welcoming them or not.
[06:05:50] ▶And I am just so
[06:05:52] ▶sick and tired of everything being done
[06:05:56] ▶top down,
[06:05:57] ▶mass, everything.
[06:05:59] ▶And as a resident for my whole life here, I feel like I have never had less
[06:06:06] ▶voice in what happens to the city that
[06:06:09] ▶I and my parents and my grandparents
[06:06:12] ▶have all lived in through our lives.
[06:06:15] ▶And it's terribly sad, so I really hope that you will vote against this
[06:06:20] ▶and let the neighborhoods decide how they will develop.
[06:06:24] ▶Thank you.
[06:06:25] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you.
[06:06:27] ▶K. Next.
[06:06:28] ▶Speaker 3: Speaker with the last four digits, 7304.
[06:06:32] ▶Please unmute and go ahead.
[06:06:38] ▶Speaker 51: Hello?
[06:06:39] ▶Speaker 10: Hi. We can hear you. If you can just state your name if you I mean, if you're a resident of Vancouver or not, you can make your comments. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. Good evening. My name is Raul.
[06:06:47] ▶Speaker 51: I am a resident of Vancouver
[06:06:50] ▶here in West End.
[06:06:53] ▶I strongly oppose this proposal. I have lived in Vancouver for many years, and I feel that my city, representatives
[06:07:00] ▶are not,
[06:07:02] ▶addressing the affordability crisis,
[06:07:05] ▶well,
[06:07:06] ▶at all. So I believe that every other day, I hear about, like, frank, flashy luxury development that's coming over,
[06:07:12] ▶but we don't make an effort to have,
[06:07:16] ▶the say about affordability that people that are,
[06:07:20] ▶like, you know, that addresses affordability.
[06:07:23] ▶I've had heard a couple of speakers
[06:07:25] ▶previously, and I was hearing there's one that was saying
[06:07:28] ▶that, no. We need more. I work in a hotel, and I work for a developer. I can tell you for sure they do not care about affordability at all. So let alone our city should be very much alert on these,
[06:07:40] ▶more,
[06:07:41] ▶you know, the rezoning developments.
[06:07:44] ▶I would ask them to, you know, to focus on affordability
[06:07:48] ▶crisis.
[06:07:49] ▶I would I would ask them there was a,
[06:07:53] ▶the speaker from Costco
[06:07:55] ▶that does not sell hot dogs that actually represents the senior citizens to hear that person,
[06:08:00] ▶properly that we need to address
[06:08:03] ▶the, affordability crisis also for senior citizens.
[06:08:07] ▶Number three, we should also address
[06:08:10] ▶mayor Kansing should address the safety issues that we have in Vancouver. I can't walk in East Rand at night.
[06:08:17] ▶Also, I can't walk on Granville. I don't feel safe at all, so that's fear of concern as well. They should be focused on that.
[06:08:24] ▶2300,
[06:08:25] ▶I heard one of the speakers saying 2300 Forest Studio. That's I live in downtown. 2304
[06:08:30] ▶Studio
[06:08:31] ▶is actual price that we're looking at right now. So I'm actually shocked that they are more concerned about flashy luxury hotels, and I worked in one for last,
[06:08:40] ▶fifteen years. They should be more focused on affordability
[06:08:43] ▶house housing that people are not taking two to hours in and out transit
[06:08:47] ▶to get to their home. This is pushing people more and more outside the city than,
[06:08:53] ▶being in in core. I live in West End, and West End has a culture.
[06:08:57] ▶It's a very nice neighborhood,
[06:08:59] ▶but I'm afraid it might not be the same the way it was earlier. Like, the lady before me was saying about Kitsilano, that's changing as well. So I really, really hope that this,
[06:09:09] ▶gets dealt with. Affordability
[06:09:11] ▶crisis has to be dealt with first. And,
[06:09:15] ▶yeah. Yeah. So I oppose this, and I don't think so it's the right one to look for pumping in more and more hotels
[06:09:22] ▶than addressing the affordability
[06:09:24] ▶crisis. Mayor Ken has to say that. He has to address that, and we are the people in the city that are saying it. And we want him to hear that affordability is a top agenda that he should be having, not the luxury hotels. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you, Raul. Next number.
[06:09:45] ▶Speaker 3: Speaker with the last four digits zero 011,
[06:09:49] ▶please unmute, and may you can start your comments.
[06:09:57] ▶Speaker 24: Hello. My name is,
[06:09:59] ▶Laurel Stranahan,
[06:10:01] ▶and I'm calling
[06:10:03] ▶to oppose to register
[06:10:06] ▶that I am opposed to this fast tracking
[06:10:09] ▶fast tracked and zoning.
[06:10:12] ▶Two reasons. One,
[06:10:14] ▶mostly for the same reasons that all the other people are opposed opposed
[06:10:19] ▶is,
[06:10:20] ▶we have a lack of affordable
[06:10:24] ▶dignified housing
[06:10:26] ▶situation
[06:10:27] ▶crisis in the city,
[06:10:30] ▶and
[06:10:32] ▶that needs to be addressed.
[06:10:34] ▶There was a caller that identified,
[06:10:37] ▶Singapore
[06:10:38] ▶and said that,
[06:10:40] ▶perhaps people
[06:10:42] ▶should look at Singapore.
[06:10:45] ▶Another caller
[06:10:47] ▶referenced
[06:10:48] ▶European cities, and,
[06:10:51] ▶there there are
[06:10:53] ▶solutions,
[06:10:54] ▶but there
[06:10:56] ▶this is a problem that needs to be solved. It
[06:10:59] ▶it it's no good having people have to commute for hours
[06:11:04] ▶and
[06:11:05] ▶have two jobs
[06:11:07] ▶to put a roof over their house
[06:11:09] ▶ahead and I and food on the table. And I mean dignified housing,
[06:11:14] ▶not a 325
[06:11:18] ▶if it hasn't been well, I'm living in a repurposed 325
[06:11:22] ▶square foot, place. And,
[06:11:25] ▶it's,
[06:11:26] ▶because it's been repurposed, it is perhaps not laid out as efficiently as it could be, but it's not enough space for a real life for an adult,
[06:11:37] ▶sports equipment,
[06:11:38] ▶hobbies, whatever.
[06:11:40] ▶It's it's and family relationships
[06:11:42] ▶and and,
[06:11:44] ▶social
[06:11:45] ▶life. It is just not. So I think that needs to be considered
[06:11:50] ▶as well, and I see the older housing has much more accommodations
[06:11:54] ▶for a real life.
[06:11:56] ▶And,
[06:11:57] ▶I'll make that point.
[06:11:59] ▶The hotels,
[06:12:03] ▶I think those should be left to the individual
[06:12:07] ▶communities and having this fast tracked
[06:12:10] ▶rezoning
[06:12:11] ▶thing with no further inputs after tonight's meeting period.
[06:12:15] ▶That's that's just
[06:12:17] ▶asking for,
[06:12:21] ▶the destruction
[06:12:22] ▶of each individual
[06:12:24] ▶neighborhood
[06:12:25] ▶has its own individual
[06:12:27] ▶characteristics,
[06:12:29] ▶those need to be enhanced,
[06:12:31] ▶not changed and and,
[06:12:34] ▶you know, cookie stamped
[06:12:36] ▶with
[06:12:37] ▶the market housing and
[06:12:40] ▶the big
[06:12:41] ▶chain
[06:12:42] ▶the the moms and pops and so on. The the private business is being
[06:12:47] ▶overtaken.
[06:12:49] ▶So
[06:12:50] ▶I think maybe the city could appoint somebody.
[06:12:54] ▶There there there's a book that was referenced.
[06:12:58] ▶There are I have not heard talk of,
[06:13:03] ▶in the last ten years or last fifteen years, really, of of really
[06:13:08] ▶a solution
[06:13:09] ▶offered for affordability,
[06:13:11] ▶and it just needs to be addressed. And
[06:13:14] ▶I'm sure that it can be. It's just not dignified to have people
[06:13:20] ▶working and getting up at four in the morning to get to work at eight
[06:13:24] ▶so that they can work in a hotel.
[06:13:27] ▶It's
[06:13:30] ▶there's there's something wrong with that picture.
[06:13:32] ▶So, nurses can't afford housing either.
[06:13:36] ▶It's
[06:13:38] ▶that's what I that's what I called in to say, and I really oppose,
[06:13:42] ▶with limiting,
[06:13:44] ▶public input. There was very little public input
[06:13:48] ▶for this this particular
[06:13:53] ▶payment you wanna put through, the rezoning thing. You did with how homeowners, but there's a lot of people that live there that are not owners. So I would hardly call that public input.
[06:14:05] ▶Although I do appreciate
[06:14:07] ▶being able to speak tonight. Thank you very much.
[06:14:11] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. We'll move to the next one.
[06:14:14] ▶Speaker 3: With the speaker with the last four digits 7330,
[06:14:18] ▶please unmute and go ahead to start your comments.
[06:14:31] ▶Speaker 42: Hello?
[06:14:32] ▶Speaker 10: Yes. Please go ahead. State your name. And if you're a resident of Vancouver, make your you can start your comments.
[06:14:38] ▶Speaker 41: My name is Bachman Jomo.
[06:14:41] ▶I go by Beau.
[06:14:42] ▶I am not a resident of Vancouver.
[06:14:45] ▶I oppose the proposal.
[06:14:48] ▶It's very bothersome to me that the table proposal
[06:14:53] ▶is fast checking rental housing
[06:14:55] ▶and small hotels.
[06:14:58] ▶The small hotel being the alarming peace in this.
[06:15:03] ▶Vancouver has a housing crisis.
[06:15:05] ▶Hotels are not the way to address this crisis.
[06:15:09] ▶The influx of interprovincial
[06:15:11] ▶migration
[06:15:12] ▶away from Vancouver to Calgary
[06:15:15] ▶is testament to this crisis.
[06:15:18] ▶So I implore you, please pump the brakes on the fast checking rental housing
[06:15:24] ▶and seek a humane solution to this crisis.
[06:15:28] ▶Speaker 42: That is it.
[06:15:36] ▶Speaker 10: Okay.
[06:15:37] ▶Is that thank you very much. Is that your those are your comments?
[06:15:41] ▶Speaker 41: Yeah. Those are my comments. Thank you.
[06:15:44] ▶I have I have to come commute from Richmond to Vancouver. I work in Vancouver, and it's it's painful on my pocket.
[06:15:56] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. K. Thank you very much.
[06:15:59] ▶Next one.
[06:16:01] ▶Speaker 3: Caller with the last four digits,
[06:16:04] ▶289
[06:16:05] ▶5.
[06:16:06] ▶Please unmute and go ahead to start your comments.
[06:16:21] ▶Speaker 10: K. Not hearing them. Let's move to the next one, please.
[06:16:26] ▶Speaker 3: Speaker with the last four digits, 1325.
[06:16:30] ▶Please unmute and go ahead to make your comments.
[06:16:36] ▶Speaker 1: Hello?
[06:16:37] ▶Speaker 10: Hi there. We can hear you. Please state your name and if you're a resident of Vancouver, and you can go ahead.
[06:16:42] ▶Speaker 29: Hey. This is Taylor Curran. I am a resident of Vancouver, and I'm calling in to support this.
[06:16:48] ▶I listened into a fair bit of these public hearings,
[06:16:51] ▶and whenever a proposal for a tower or some other dense former housing comes up, we hear the same people
[06:16:58] ▶speak in opposition to those projects and say that they would be supportive
[06:17:03] ▶of
[06:17:04] ▶low and mid rise density,
[06:17:06] ▶six stories along commercial streets.
[06:17:09] ▶This is exactly what is in front of you. I think this would be great for the city,
[06:17:13] ▶and we absolutely need more rentals.
[06:17:15] ▶I just wanna speak a little bit about the hotel component.
[06:17:19] ▶I've heard a lot of speakers
[06:17:21] ▶essentially say we don't need any more hotels. Hotels don't benefit us.
[06:17:27] ▶You know, it's just a giveaway to a big hotel or something like that.
[06:17:31] ▶And I don't I don't agree. I think just like a lot of the small businesses that are already along these streets, I think hotels are
[06:17:38] ▶also amenities that provide services and jobs to resident. Of course, lots of people work in hotels,
[06:17:44] ▶but
[06:17:46] ▶I'm getting married in two weeks. We have friends coming from all over the world,
[06:17:50] ▶and they are looking at $3.04, $500
[06:17:53] ▶a night to stay in hotels in the central parts of the city along these same nice commercial streets or downtown.
[06:18:01] ▶When housing is so expensive,
[06:18:04] ▶people don't have spare bedrooms when their friends and family come to visit. I don't we I live in a one bedroom with my partner. All of my friends, they don't have spare bedrooms. They don't have extra places for their friends and family to visit. So the there being
[06:18:17] ▶hotels and places for these people to stay are incredibly important to people living here and enjoying their time here. And, of course, it's a huge part of our tourism,
[06:18:26] ▶industry too. It will bring people
[06:18:28] ▶that would normally stay in hotel downtown and only
[06:18:32] ▶patronize the businesses downtown. It would bring them over to commercial or over to Main Street or over to East Hastings or all these different business areas and spending their money at all these small local businesses in these great communities that they would never
[06:18:44] ▶probably venture out to otherwise. So, I just
[06:18:47] ▶wanted to support the hotel component
[06:18:49] ▶specifically as well. I think it's great to have more hotels,
[06:18:53] ▶small hotels,
[06:18:55] ▶integrated into communities,
[06:18:57] ▶spread out across the city, not just concentrate all of that downtown.
[06:19:01] ▶Yeah. So I urge you to, support this. I think it's a
[06:19:05] ▶small step forward,
[06:19:08] ▶but,
[06:19:09] ▶a worthwhile one nonetheless. Thanks.
[06:19:12] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thank you. And now we'll move on to the last speaker, I believe.
[06:19:26] ▶Okay. Do we have
[06:19:27] ▶no.
[06:19:54] ▶Do we do we have someone on the line, or or or we're not sure? We do. We're just,
[06:19:59] ▶Speaker 3: getting more information to see if they're speaking on the correct item. One moment, please. Okay. Thank you.
[06:20:18] ▶We have one speaker on the line,
[06:20:22] ▶with the la with the speaker with the last four digits, seven.
[06:20:29] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. Speaker, do you wanna unmute? You can identify yourself if you're resident of Vancouver, and please go ahead.
[06:20:37] ▶Speaker 3: One moment.
[06:21:11] ▶Speaker 10: No further speakers are on the line. Okay. Seeing no further speakers, the list is now closed.
[06:21:17] ▶Clerk, can I ask if there's been a large volume of public comments received on this item since 5PM?
[06:21:25] ▶Speaker 3: There have been comments,
[06:21:26] ▶that have been,
[06:21:28] ▶sent to council.
[06:21:32] ▶It would be up to council to decide whether they need time to review the ones that have been submitted.
[06:21:37] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. Thanks very much. I'll look to council. Has council been able to keep up in the comments, or do you feel you need a short recess to review those?
[06:21:49] ▶Just throughout the evening, councilor Frey.
[06:21:53] ▶So I'm not seeing any request to do that. Councilor, comfortable they've received them?
[06:21:58] ▶Okay. Alright. I'm now closing receipt of public comments.
[06:22:02] ▶Seeing there are fewer none received,
[06:22:04] ▶that those are closed. And at this point, does the applicant,
[06:22:08] ▶as the applicant, does the general manager of planning, urban design, sustainability, or the designate have any closing comments?
[06:22:22] ▶Speaker 6: Thank you. So tonight, we are recommending the rezoning of 2,400
[06:22:27] ▶parcels
[06:22:28] ▶into a new
[06:22:29] ▶consolidated c two a district.
[06:22:31] ▶By allowing six story rental homes and small hotels on major arterial streets without site by site rezonings,
[06:22:38] ▶we can streamline the process to deliver housing options and small hotels faster.
[06:22:45] ▶I wanna thank all the speakers for joining us and sharing their feedback.
[06:22:49] ▶Your perspectives are important to the process.
[06:22:51] ▶We heard several key concerns that I'd like to address. On affordability,
[06:22:56] ▶we heard concerns around the difficulties
[06:22:59] ▶working class residents face in affording to live in our city.
[06:23:03] ▶While today's proposal focuses on streamlining the c two district schedule and allowing small scale hotels,
[06:23:10] ▶we remain committed to increasing affordable housing, which are separate ongoing initiatives that are not part of tonight's changes,
[06:23:18] ▶but that specifically increased below market and social housing in different areas of the city.
[06:23:24] ▶We also heard some concerns that this proposal is removing affordability
[06:23:29] ▶requirements.
[06:23:30] ▶We just wanna clarify that no affordability
[06:23:32] ▶requirements are being removed through these changes.
[06:23:36] ▶On the rezoning process, we heard concerns around the loss of individual rezonings for these projects.
[06:23:42] ▶We wanna note that the vast majority of c two projects already proceed without this step. This proposal extends that same allowance to 232
[06:23:52] ▶previously excluded sites, representing about 10% of sites in the new proposed c two a.
[06:23:59] ▶Regarding hotels,
[06:24:01] ▶four story hotels are already allowed to proceed under existing c two zoning without a rezoning.
[06:24:07] ▶For new six story hotel applications,
[06:24:10] ▶staff note that the building form regulation proposed are identical to that of the current rental projects
[06:24:17] ▶already allowed under the existing zoning.
[06:24:20] ▶And through the DP process, the city still engages the public through public notification.
[06:24:26] ▶On the issue of hotels versus,
[06:24:29] ▶housing,
[06:24:30] ▶we heard concerns that hotels might outperform or replace rental housing.
[06:24:35] ▶Our financial testing confirms that hotels do not outperform rentals.
[06:24:39] ▶This update today ensures a viable path for small hotel small scale hotels
[06:24:45] ▶to operate outside the downtown core.
[06:24:48] ▶So in con in closing, the proposal today consolidates
[06:24:52] ▶four nearly identical
[06:24:53] ▶c two zones into a new c two a district,
[06:24:57] ▶and it accelerates and streamlines the delivery of six story rental housing and low and small scale hotels.
[06:25:04] ▶Thank you.
[06:25:07] ▶Speaker 10: Great. Thank you very much for the closing comments. Do staff have any closing comments to add to that? No?
[06:25:13] ▶Okay. And, councilor, any final questions to staff at this point?
[06:25:19] ▶Okay. Councilor Frey, please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. So,
[06:25:23] ▶Speaker 8: just right off the top, and also
[06:25:26] ▶definitely heard a lot of the concerns around affordability and recognize that this isn't necessarily
[06:25:31] ▶that, like an affordable housing delivery vehicle.
[06:25:34] ▶TRPPs
[06:25:35] ▶still apply to any tenants in any of this
[06:25:39] ▶citywide? Yes. They do. Okay. So we okay. Wanted to establish that.
[06:25:46] ▶So given that this program is not designed to necessarily create affordable housing but more market supplies, is that generally how we interpret this?
[06:25:55] ▶That's correct. Yeah. And and I think I caught, like, what what is the imperative here? Because, I mean, obviously, we've we've we've added a bunch of significant ODP
[06:26:04] ▶changes,
[06:26:05] ▶bypassing public hearings, mass rezonings already.
[06:26:09] ▶And I think I heard that there's stuff waiting in the wings to happen. Is that
[06:26:13] ▶an interpretation? There's there's there's
[06:26:16] ▶projects ready to go that are interested in this. Is that
[06:26:19] ▶Speaker 6: fair? Yeah. There's there's projects that are,
[06:26:23] ▶in stream currently,
[06:26:24] ▶that we would have to transition.
[06:26:26] ▶I think are you talking about hotel projects?
[06:26:29] ▶Speaker 8: Well, just generally, this entire
[06:26:32] ▶this this package, what is the the the sort of driving imperative given that we've made so many significant changes already,
[06:26:38] ▶and and we're hearing concerns from the public, and I just wanna get that articulated.
[06:26:43] ▶Speaker 6: Right. Of course. So it's primarily to consolidate, you know, four
[06:26:48] ▶kind of
[06:26:49] ▶nearly identical repetitive zones into one to establish a new c two zone that's updated and modernized,
[06:26:56] ▶and it is to bring those 232
[06:26:58] ▶previously excluded sites that, still required a rezoning process to to,
[06:27:04] ▶no longer require that process and to allow for for six story hotels.
[06:27:09] ▶Yeah. But it doesn't, change fundamentally any form of development
[06:27:14] ▶Speaker 8: or regulations that's already allowed in most of the zones. Right. So I we did sure because, obviously, this what some of the retail, the, you know, the retail continuity in the beloved neighborhoods, storefronts,
[06:27:25] ▶West 4th,
[06:27:26] ▶South Hill, Carysley Village,
[06:27:29] ▶Ace and Sunrise, they're all, like, very vibrant,
[06:27:32] ▶granular retail. Have we done economic testing on what this may mean for I've certainly heard that concern from a few of the speakers that we may be jeopardizing the viability of these vibrant commercial districts
[06:27:45] ▶through speculation.
[06:27:47] ▶Is that a risk?
[06:27:50] ▶Speaker 19: Good evening, councilor. Sean Martinez from Employment Plans.
[06:27:54] ▶I don't believe so. The,
[06:27:56] ▶we do monitor,
[06:27:57] ▶all retail areas in the city through the storefront inventory every year, so we would know,
[06:28:02] ▶if there were any drops, or sudden,
[06:28:04] ▶increases in vacancies within the area.
[06:28:07] ▶New developments do also help with allowing for,
[06:28:11] ▶new retail
[06:28:13] ▶spaces to be placed into these neighborhoods so that,
[06:28:17] ▶so that there is room for,
[06:28:19] ▶stores to be able to relocate and stay within the community.
[06:28:23] ▶Without that allowance,
[06:28:25] ▶if if the,
[06:28:26] ▶if there is no slight vacancy, then we will get displacement, and they will have to move away from other places.
[06:28:33] ▶Speaker 8: I mean, that that that's a challenging assumption for me. Are we are we because because I look at, like, say, Kings Way where there's lots of
[06:28:40] ▶the old fabric seems to be the more vibrant businesses, more affordable businesses,
[06:28:45] ▶and where the new buildings come in tend to attract different kind you know, newer business like dollar stores and that kind of thing.
[06:28:51] ▶Speaker 19: I think I'll I'll, reiterate what my colleagues have said that at this point, this is more of an update to this existing zone and,
[06:29:01] ▶reviews of of things where whereby,
[06:29:04] ▶looking at uses and looking at, size,
[06:29:07] ▶of these units,
[06:29:08] ▶will be further addressed in things like the citywide design guidelines and and other related work,
[06:29:14] ▶Speaker 8: coming down coming down in the future. So expanding on that, that's you're you're citywide design guidelines. You're talking about CRU kind of square footages, and we're not gonna get necessarily big box
[06:29:25] ▶Speaker 19: stores, but keep that granular village style. The employment lands team is working with our,
[06:29:31] ▶development
[06:29:32] ▶planning stage to look at and make sure that we are,
[06:29:35] ▶to to the extent that we are able to to,
[06:29:38] ▶regulate these spaces.
[06:29:40] ▶Speaker 8: Yes. And so there is an active program to because these once they're gone, they're gone. Right? And this is, I think, the crux of some of the comments I heard.
[06:29:48] ▶We are gonna actively monitor the sort of viability of these
[06:29:53] ▶Speaker 19: beloved retails areas. We do already do that with through the, storefront,
[06:29:59] ▶the annual, storefront inventory. Yes.
[06:30:02] ▶And, I believe that will be coming to council,
[06:30:06] ▶soon.
[06:30:07] ▶Speaker 8: Okay. Well, I'm kinda out of time, but, take a look. Thanks, councilor Frey. Councilor Maloney?
[06:30:12] ▶Speaker 11: Thanks.
[06:30:15] ▶Are there any,
[06:30:16] ▶benefits of having more housing and hotels in in on commercial streets? I mean, are there
[06:30:24] ▶what's the purpose of of this? Is it seen as, supporting
[06:30:29] ▶local businesses?
[06:30:34] ▶Speaker 19: Thank you, councilor. So, we know that hotels are able to assist with regards to just allowing more leverage,
[06:30:41] ▶into a,
[06:30:42] ▶into,
[06:30:43] ▶an arterial shopping street by providing more,
[06:30:47] ▶not just the so the residents kinda provide a certain amount of traffic, and then our hotels would provide additional traffic that can expand the amount that would be supported within the street. So providing more options, more restaurants, and things like that because you do have that transient
[06:31:01] ▶as nature. In addition, with hotels, they're kinda have a self limiting property in that you wouldn't get more than probably one in a specific area because that would be sort of the demand in the area or that. I'll,
[06:31:14] ▶I'll, invite my housing colleagues to speak to the housing demand portion.
[06:31:19] ▶Speaker 6: Yeah. Adding adding,
[06:31:21] ▶housing to these vibrant commercial areas is part of our,
[06:31:25] ▶complete communities,
[06:31:27] ▶initiatives. So it's really trying to create complete
[06:31:29] ▶equitable communities across the city where adding housing will, you know,
[06:31:34] ▶will increase,
[06:31:36] ▶vitality, bring,
[06:31:38] ▶residents,
[06:31:39] ▶to
[06:31:40] ▶shop and walk in their local business areas.
[06:31:43] ▶Speaker 11: Thanks. And,
[06:31:45] ▶are there any protections
[06:31:47] ▶for small businesses,
[06:31:49] ▶especially independent businesses?
[06:31:52] ▶Speaker 19: Thank you, Hessler. So,
[06:31:54] ▶the city does have the commercial tenant assistance program. So this is a website that, was launched in 2022,
[06:32:02] ▶and we,
[06:32:04] ▶the applicants are asked to provide information,
[06:32:08] ▶from a website that provides information to all tenants,
[06:32:12] ▶prior to them being displaced. So if there is a development,
[06:32:16] ▶happening, we request that all the the applicants provide this information
[06:32:20] ▶to
[06:32:21] ▶their tenants.
[06:32:23] ▶The information is translated into five different languages, and it provides essentially
[06:32:28] ▶information with regards to tenant rights,
[06:32:31] ▶what they're able to,
[06:32:33] ▶to negotiate with regards to their leases,
[06:32:36] ▶and allow them the assistance to,
[06:32:39] ▶to help them find a new space. Unfortunately, we do not have the same purview with regards to commercial leases as we do for for residential leases.
[06:32:48] ▶So that's this this, this program has been in place since 2022.
[06:32:53] ▶Speaker 11: Thank you. And,
[06:32:56] ▶how can the public
[06:32:58] ▶participate in decision making if council adopts these these recommendations?
[06:33:07] ▶Speaker 6: There's still the notification process that happens through the development permit application.
[06:33:12] ▶And so,
[06:33:13] ▶the public gets notified through through that process and can send in comments to staff.
[06:33:19] ▶Speaker 11: Okay. And we had some questions about whether this will fuel land speculation.
[06:33:24] ▶Can you, answer that?
[06:33:27] ▶Speaker 6: So,
[06:33:28] ▶in terms of the rental housing, this is already allowed through the existing zoning.
[06:33:33] ▶So there is really no additional density here that's being that's being provided.
[06:33:39] ▶So there isn't,
[06:33:40] ▶an additional incentives here. As to the hotels,
[06:33:44] ▶I think John, did you wanna?
[06:33:46] ▶Speaker 19: So as, as our colleague has already mentioned,
[06:33:49] ▶the hotels are only filling up to the same density that is allowed for housing. So there is no new density being provided here.
[06:33:57] ▶So,
[06:33:58] ▶the highest and best use would still be with regards to that, the the the housing,
[06:34:03] ▶provision to the six stories, which is already allowed.
[06:34:06] ▶Speaker 11: Thank you. And, what would it do to the viability of,
[06:34:11] ▶the six story rental,
[06:34:14] ▶housing if we were to require that 20%
[06:34:17] ▶below market
[06:34:19] ▶inclusive zoning be provided?
[06:34:22] ▶Speaker 6: It wouldn't work. So nobody would choose to build that,
[06:34:26] ▶right now. It's particularly because there already is a six story option for market rental.
[06:34:33] ▶Or if you just changed it to below market rental, then people would just just choose to do the strata option that's already allowed under zoning, and you would get no you wouldn't get the rental. But regardless of that, we've we've done the this economic testing in six in in six stories.
[06:34:49] ▶A below market rental at 20% wouldn't work.
[06:34:53] ▶Through our other,
[06:34:55] ▶initiatives,
[06:34:56] ▶we've, you know, done a lot of economic testing, and we know that you would need, you know, a significantly more, incentive to make below market rental work, which would bring you into a tower form, much like, you know, our our experience through the,
[06:35:09] ▶MURPH of modern income rental housing pilot and through the Broadway plans. So you're looking more at, like, tower forms.
[06:35:15] ▶Speaker 11: Thanks. I think I'm out of time. Thanks.
[06:35:17] ▶Speaker 10: Yeah. Thanks, councilor Maloney. Councilor Klassen.
[06:35:20] ▶Speaker 9: Thanks very much,
[06:35:23] ▶To, to staff,
[06:35:25] ▶and we have I appreciate
[06:35:28] ▶the, the commentary that responded to some of the concerns we heard from
[06:35:33] ▶speakers tonight and particularly,
[06:35:37] ▶the the sentiment that,
[06:35:40] ▶some of this policy will threaten,
[06:35:42] ▶it doesn't address affordability
[06:35:44] ▶and potentially will impact workers, seniors,
[06:35:47] ▶and, take away from beloved retail.
[06:35:51] ▶Just
[06:35:53] ▶sorry. So first question is,
[06:35:56] ▶is
[06:35:58] ▶is is
[06:35:59] ▶there any way that adding additional rental housing could worsen affordability
[06:36:05] ▶for workers and seniors
[06:36:06] ▶from a housing policy perspective is the intent of increasing
[06:36:11] ▶the secured rental supply actually to improve vacancy rates and help moderate rent pressures over time.
[06:36:19] ▶Speaker 6: Yes. That's that's the intent. It's,
[06:36:21] ▶to increase,
[06:36:23] ▶increasing supply will, have a moderating
[06:36:26] ▶moderating impact on rents. We're actually seeing that now,
[06:36:30] ▶in new market rents. We have seen that,
[06:36:33] ▶that rents have,
[06:36:35] ▶new market rents have gone down, you know, for the first time in a very long time. So for renters, that's actually good news. That means,
[06:36:42] ▶you know, more choice and better affordability.
[06:36:47] ▶Speaker 9: I know that you tried to underline that that we have significant efforts surrounding,
[06:36:52] ▶housing affordability
[06:36:54] ▶tied to other,
[06:36:55] ▶projects developments,
[06:36:57] ▶the low market rental requirements.
[06:37:00] ▶But in this particular case, this these projects are,
[06:37:05] ▶not necessarily a part of that that more holistic,
[06:37:08] ▶approach. Right? That's correct.
[06:37:11] ▶Speaker 32: Okay.
[06:37:12] ▶Speaker 9: So
[06:37:14] ▶we know that many of the sites can and can already pursue six story rental projects through rezonings.
[06:37:22] ▶And so is one of the primary changes here simply to reduce time cost and and uncertainty?
[06:37:28] ▶Speaker 6: That's correct. Yeah. Noting again that the majority of sites,
[06:37:32] ▶in the c two
[06:37:33] ▶already allow that for rental. We're just bringing in the 232
[06:37:37] ▶previously excluded sites.
[06:37:40] ▶Speaker 9: K. Thanks very much. And I just,
[06:37:42] ▶can you just respond to,
[06:37:44] ▶what are the consequences
[06:37:46] ▶of maintaining the status quo?
[06:37:50] ▶Speaker 6: Maintaining the status quo,
[06:37:52] ▶we would
[06:37:53] ▶for those 232,
[06:37:55] ▶excluded sites, they would have to go through a longer process and add to their time and cost.
[06:38:03] ▶There would be,
[06:38:05] ▶our our rezone our, zoning districts for the c two, they will continue to be,
[06:38:12] ▶complex with rules that are out of out of date.
[06:38:15] ▶Further,
[06:38:16] ▶one of the consequences is that this is the this this c two zone is going to be used as a new basis for the c two for the villages program, so this is helping to bring that forward. It's also,
[06:38:30] ▶making sure that this new c two is ODP compliant, So we had to make a change to,
[06:38:35] ▶to ensure that there's,
[06:38:37] ▶ground floor a ground floor, nonresidential
[06:38:40] ▶Speaker 9: uses just to ensure that it's compliant with ODP. Thanks. And just the last question, there are a number of comments expressing concern around the lack of public hearings.
[06:38:49] ▶Since we've adopted the ODP, we are responding to provincial legislation. So this is something that's been driven by the provincial government largely to kinda reduce and and streamline that process. Correct? That's correct. Okay. Thanks very much. I'm happy to move the recommendations, chair, and, we'd be happy to go to not quite there yet. Just give me a moment, please, council.
[06:39:09] ▶Speaker 10: Just checking in with the clerk. Do we receive any additional public comments as close of public comments?
[06:39:17] ▶Speaker 3: No. We did not.
[06:39:19] ▶Speaker 10: Okay.
[06:39:20] ▶And I will remind council we need to move the recommendation together with the yellow memo,
[06:39:25] ▶of April 27. And councilor Glassman, you'd like to move that? Do we have a seconder?
[06:39:31] ▶Seconded by councilor Montague.
[06:39:33] ▶Council will now make its decision on the application. Is there any discussion?
[06:39:38] ▶Speaker 1: Oh.
[06:39:39] ▶Speaker 10: Councilor Claussen, do you wanna put yourself back on? There we go. Yep. Go ahead.
[06:39:44] ▶Speaker 9: Seeing that the clock hasn't been reset, but that's fine. I'll be very quick.
[06:39:49] ▶These,
[06:39:50] ▶these,
[06:39:51] ▶these policy changes that are coming through,
[06:39:54] ▶as, as described are,
[06:39:57] ▶in for the most part, in response to,
[06:40:01] ▶in in the most part, response to, provincial
[06:40:05] ▶Speaker 10: Hang on a second. We're just I'm trying to move you to the main queue so we can reset your time or cancel class, and apologies. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. There you go. Yeah. No. Thanks very much. I just, I realized that, some of the work that staff are bringing back to us are a direct result of provincial legislation. But nonetheless,
[06:40:22] ▶Speaker 9: we are also,
[06:40:24] ▶trying to respond to what has been a long standing
[06:40:27] ▶concern about the the the time,
[06:40:29] ▶is driving up the the cost of of housing development here.
[06:40:34] ▶I'm
[06:40:35] ▶as much as I respect,
[06:40:38] ▶people who come in and and and speak, to,
[06:40:41] ▶to
[06:40:44] ▶these proposals.
[06:40:46] ▶And and and, I do think
[06:40:48] ▶it it's,
[06:40:49] ▶it's a bit of a stretch for me to hear that,
[06:40:52] ▶by building more rental housing and more,
[06:40:56] ▶small hotels,
[06:40:57] ▶that we are going to,
[06:40:59] ▶have this adverse,
[06:41:01] ▶impact on on our neighborhoods.
[06:41:03] ▶And I'm I,
[06:41:05] ▶wanted to just use the example of Fraser Street because Fraser Street,
[06:41:10] ▶has is is,
[06:41:13] ▶is is part of this proposal. And I've watched the Fraser Street over the last two and a half decades,
[06:41:20] ▶evolve into,
[06:41:21] ▶one of the, the most livable and attractive streets in our in our city.
[06:41:27] ▶I would say vacancy rates,
[06:41:29] ▶are largely extremely low. I've seen, small retail,
[06:41:33] ▶recently,
[06:41:35] ▶expand into a larger premise, in a newly built
[06:41:38] ▶six story building at, 28th in Fraser,
[06:41:42] ▶all of and and and all, six of the, storefronts there,
[06:41:46] ▶I gather even though,
[06:41:48] ▶not have opened yet. There's, I think, a couple that are close to it, but I'm according to,
[06:41:54] ▶the developer, all of the the spaces have been leased.
[06:41:58] ▶We're seeing,
[06:42:01] ▶the,
[06:42:02] ▶the new, housing or new rental housing development at the corner of Kingsway and Fraser on the, on the on the Northeast Corner,
[06:42:11] ▶where,
[06:42:13] ▶Sal
[06:42:13] ▶y la Mon,
[06:42:15] ▶a restaurant and other retailers that were there worked out a deal with the developer
[06:42:21] ▶to,
[06:42:21] ▶have space when they could come back after the completion of the project.
[06:42:25] ▶So, there was a lot of effort on to try and
[06:42:29] ▶accommodate those things. I'm I'm sort of seeing,
[06:42:33] ▶over time, I'm seeing, with with, the new retail spaces,
[06:42:37] ▶there's some incredible new,
[06:42:38] ▶places that have opened up,
[06:42:41] ▶at 19th And Fraser, at 20th And Fraser,
[06:42:46] ▶and,
[06:42:47] ▶new commercial, very, you know, places that are 23rd And Fraser that are all kind of as a result of new housing development, new rental housing development that's been happening in those areas,
[06:42:57] ▶located in in every case in six story buildings.
[06:43:00] ▶I I just think that we're gonna see over time that's and and there are also some other commercial areas,
[06:43:06] ▶that are,
[06:43:07] ▶really, near end of life. You can tell from just looking at them that they have,
[06:43:12] ▶they really need significant
[06:43:14] ▶investment or or, maintenance,
[06:43:17] ▶in order to be able to continue. And sometimes it's just an unaffordable to,
[06:43:22] ▶allow that to happen. So,
[06:43:24] ▶I,
[06:43:25] ▶I generally take a very optimistic view, but I think we all have to have a very close eye on, the impacts. And so,
[06:43:33] ▶the comments from staff back that they are monitoring this. They're looking if you can see rates. They are watching,
[06:43:39] ▶the the cost to rent,
[06:43:41] ▶among other things as,
[06:43:43] ▶considerations.
[06:43:43] ▶So,
[06:43:45] ▶I will be happy to support,
[06:43:48] ▶the moving this, this, plan forward,
[06:43:52] ▶and, but also,
[06:43:54] ▶comforted by the fact that,
[06:43:56] ▶I'm seeing some positive outcomes and as well we are watching very closely,
[06:44:01] ▶the impacts of some of these changes over time. Thanks very much.
[06:44:04] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you, councilor Glass. And councilor Maloney?
[06:44:07] ▶Speaker 11: Thank you.
[06:44:09] ▶I I appreciate the,
[06:44:11] ▶public speakers for taking the time to share their views with us tonight.
[06:44:16] ▶And I'm
[06:44:17] ▶really deeply sympathetic
[06:44:19] ▶to to the people who've talked about having to travel long distances to reach work in Vancouver,
[06:44:26] ▶and not being able to afford to live in Vancouver. Your concerns are
[06:44:31] ▶absolutely legitimate, and government should be providing
[06:44:34] ▶enough nonmarket affordable housing so that everyone can afford a home
[06:44:39] ▶close to where they work. And
[06:44:41] ▶I I just couldn't agree more strongly that we need living wages and affordable housing.
[06:44:47] ▶I also
[06:44:49] ▶believe that we need more homes in the city of Vancouver where the center of the region
[06:44:55] ▶there is a connection, as one of the speakers said, between housing scarcity and housing affordability.
[06:45:03] ▶We we generally need to be allowing
[06:45:06] ▶low rise apartment buildings to be to be built,
[06:45:10] ▶in more places in the city.
[06:45:13] ▶I'm I'm in favor of more low rise apartment buildings. And,
[06:45:18] ▶quite frankly,
[06:45:19] ▶the one thing I don't like about this proposal is is building more rental housing on arterial roads when we're not doing enough to,
[06:45:29] ▶reduce the negative effects of
[06:45:33] ▶of busy roads
[06:45:35] ▶because tenants just like it, everyone else want wanna live on quite,
[06:45:40] ▶safe, leafy neighborhood streets, not on noisy, polluted, dangerous arterials.
[06:45:46] ▶But
[06:45:47] ▶I I want to see more low rise apartment buildings built all over the city.
[06:45:54] ▶What this proposal does
[06:45:57] ▶is not,
[06:45:58] ▶designed to solve
[06:46:00] ▶the very real problems of affordable affordable housing.
[06:46:04] ▶You know, we've heard staff say that
[06:46:07] ▶if we require,
[06:46:11] ▶20%
[06:46:12] ▶below market
[06:46:13] ▶housing in six story
[06:46:15] ▶rental apartment buildings. They just won't be built.
[06:46:18] ▶And there are benefits to having,
[06:46:22] ▶market rental housing.
[06:46:24] ▶That doesn't mean that we we can't do both things. We need to do both things.
[06:46:28] ▶And, you know, I've taken every opportunity,
[06:46:32] ▶during my period on council to push as hard as I can
[06:46:36] ▶for,
[06:46:37] ▶more affordable housing and for streamlining
[06:46:40] ▶social housing
[06:46:41] ▶projects.
[06:46:44] ▶The problems are real.
[06:46:46] ▶This is not the vehicle,
[06:46:48] ▶I believe, to to solve all the problems, but I think, generally, that approving this is gonna gonna make things,
[06:46:56] ▶better in some
[06:46:58] ▶ways, on balance. So,
[06:47:02] ▶I really appreciate the legitimate concerns that have been raised by the public speakers.
[06:47:07] ▶And,
[06:47:09] ▶there are other ways that we can,
[06:47:12] ▶work on those those issues and should be not not just senior levels of government, but us at the city of Vancouver.
[06:47:20] ▶But this is a good,
[06:47:22] ▶streamlining
[06:47:23] ▶program, and and I'm in support of it. So I'll be voted in favor. Thanks.
[06:47:28] ▶Speaker 10: Thank you. Councilor Frey?
[06:47:31] ▶Speaker 8: Yeah.
[06:47:32] ▶Well, I appreciate the work the staff put into this, and I really appreciate the speakers. And I and I recognize that a lot of the the conversation tonight around this was driven by very legitimate concerns around housing affordability and how disconnected,
[06:47:47] ▶housing,
[06:47:48] ▶market rents are from from median incomes in the city and indeed, as we heard from median incomes of folks who can't even afford to live in the city,
[06:47:57] ▶but would like to. And I think that's an important reflection. I but I also recognize that that's not what this particular,
[06:48:06] ▶proposal is is about and this consolidation of these various zones.
[06:48:11] ▶I still have concerns, and I totally appreciate the work that staff have put into this. And I recognize that
[06:48:17] ▶that that they have articulated that, look, there's gonna be some checks and balances, but there's this
[06:48:24] ▶pieces lacking for me in this report that's like a pace of change. And and, you know, counselor Classen was talking about,
[06:48:30] ▶you know, how Fraser Street's doing and and Kingsway. And and and and it and it's true. There's lots of really interesting opportunities and stuff. But when I look at a lot of those streets,
[06:48:39] ▶the best businesses tend to be in the single stories. They're they're not there's nothing above them. They're usually one story buildings, and they're fairly ubiquitous all along Kingsway, all along Fraser,
[06:48:49] ▶Hastings Sunrise and stuff. And, unfortunately, when we do see new builds come in, oftentimes, what ends up ending up there is, like, a dollar store, a vape store, a dentist office. And and I and I totally appreciate that we are seeing more work coming in in in how we can kind of finesse that vibrancy and ensure that we have that continuity of the the businesses that make our neighborhoods so great.
[06:49:15] ▶But I'm I'm I'm struggling because I don't actually see it in in a way that's comp that gives me the confidence in. And I recognize this is consolidation of multiple zoning maps, but I can also see where where as members of the public look at it and they look at, like, all of Kingsway is now outlined in black, and it suggests that it could be big changes for Kingsway. And because we don't have any kind of rate of change baked into this, because we don't have any kind of moderating effect that we're basically trusting to a future report, possibly a future council,
[06:49:44] ▶I'm struggling to give this my full stamp of approval.
[06:49:48] ▶And so I I feel,
[06:49:50] ▶that my best recourse on this is to abstain from a vote, which does count as an affirmative, but it also suggests that I don't have enough information to
[06:49:59] ▶vote positively
[06:50:00] ▶in the affirmative, but I do recognize that
[06:50:03] ▶we're also being driven by housing targets that we need to achieve,
[06:50:07] ▶provincial mandates,
[06:50:08] ▶the the need for more supply. It doesn't necessarily translate into affordable supply that folks are are seeking and I've talked about tonight, And it hasn't translated into the kind of,
[06:50:20] ▶business continuity that I would like to see in these kind of plans that really recognize the vibrancy of our our our retail neighborhoods, which often don't get the conversation that they're due.
[06:50:31] ▶So
[06:50:32] ▶I'll leave it at that.
[06:50:33] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. Thank you. Council,
[06:50:35] ▶reminder that anybody participating virtually whose video is disabled will be marked absence for the vote. So if you wish to vote, please ensure your camera's on. I'm now gonna call the vote, if council can do that on screen. And,
[06:50:48] ▶Clerk, can I get a vote assist in favor?
[06:50:51] ▶I should be able to get a sec. I should be able to do that myself. Here we go.
[06:50:59] ▶Chair, I'll require a vote assist in favor, please. Thank you. Okay. And a vote assist for councilor Dominado.
[06:51:07] ▶Okay.
[06:51:08] ▶So
[06:51:10] ▶that passes
[06:51:14] ▶with none
[06:51:15] ▶in opposition.
[06:51:19] ▶Okay. So that, thank you, everybody. That concludes item two. I'm now gonna ask
[06:51:25] ▶present an option to council.
[06:51:27] ▶Obviously, I don't think we're gonna get into speakers this evening for the next item.
[06:51:31] ▶We will
[06:51:33] ▶cease at 10:00 unless council wishes to consider an alternative because we do have staff here as well as the applicant who have been here for quite some time,
[06:51:41] ▶for item one. And I'm wondering if council would like to conclude at ten or alternatively,
[06:51:46] ▶hear the presentation,
[06:51:48] ▶from the applicant,
[06:51:50] ▶since the staff have waited for that. We have a staff team and the applicant.
[06:51:54] ▶And then we could commence speakers on our reserve date, which is coming up on Thursday on May seventh.
[06:52:00] ▶Speaker 20: Councilor Montague? I'm happy to move a motion to hear the staff presentation and the,
[06:52:06] ▶applicant presentation.
[06:52:08] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. Do we have a do we have a seconder for that?
[06:52:12] ▶Speaker 35: Second.
[06:52:13] ▶Speaker 10: K. Seconded by councilor Dominato,
[06:52:16] ▶and that is debatable. So councilor Maloney, would you like to speak to it?
[06:52:21] ▶Speaker 11: Does that mean that we will be asking questions or we will just
[06:52:26] ▶Speaker 10: hear the That's up to council if you'd like to do the questions as well.
[06:52:31] ▶Speaker 11: I do not want to do the questions. I'm happy to
[06:52:36] ▶hear the presentations by council and the applicant, but that's it for me.
[06:52:42] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. Thank you. Councilor Bly?
[06:52:46] ▶Speaker 14: Well, if that's the case, then I think the applicant and staff are going to have to come back anyway. So I think we should just recess
[06:52:53] ▶and start the application in full,
[06:52:57] ▶on the reserve date on Thursday,
[06:52:59] ▶hearing the report now,
[06:53:00] ▶the presentation,
[06:53:02] ▶and then holding questions. I feel like we'll just need the presentation
[06:53:06] ▶repeated on Thursday, so,
[06:53:08] ▶I won't be supporting
[06:53:10] ▶starting it. We only have seven minutes till we can recess.
[06:53:13] ▶Speaker 10: Okay.
[06:53:14] ▶Thanks, councilor. I put myself on to say I would concur. I would do the, the app the presentation, the questions out of sort of consideration of staffs and the applicant's time, but I'll leave that to council if they want to
[06:53:25] ▶amend or consider the motion as it's on the floor. Councilor Maloney?
[06:53:30] ▶Speaker 11: Yeah. I I would vastly prefer to just
[06:53:33] ▶start everything
[06:53:35] ▶on the reserve date.
[06:53:37] ▶Speaker 10: Okay.
[06:53:38] ▶If there and then any other comments, final comment, councilor Montague?
[06:53:43] ▶Speaker 20: Well, I can either rescind my my motion or
[06:53:46] ▶Speaker 10: or change it to We can either just vote on it, and it will pass or not, or we can rescind it. We can do two votes to rescind and then to
[06:53:56] ▶do you wanna do a motion to rescind?
[06:53:58] ▶That requires a two thirds, and I don't the body, and I don't believe we have that many councilors.
[06:54:08] ▶Okay. That is the other alternative is that you can withdraw it, which requires unanimous consent of all councilors.
[06:54:15] ▶Speaker 20: Judging from what I'm hearing around the council chamber, well, I just,
[06:54:19] ▶rescind the motion?
[06:54:22] ▶Speaker 10: Okay. So you're withdrawing just because I withdraw the motion. Yeah. And
[06:54:26] ▶okay. All in favor?
[06:54:28] ▶Are there any opposed to that?
[06:54:32] ▶I'm just double checking. Did I I didn't hear any nays.
[06:54:36] ▶Okay.
[06:54:36] ▶Alright.
[06:54:38] ▶Thank you, everybody. That means that we are now recessed until Thursday, May 7
[06:54:45] ▶at 3PM, at which point we will
[06:54:47] ▶commence with item one.
[06:54:51] ▶Yes. Item one.
[06:54:53] ▶And we will remind council it's important you don't engage in any discussion or correspondence in respect to the remaining applications.
[06:55:04] ▶Okay. And referencing the meetings here in Chamber and online. Thank you, everybody. Good night.