Vancouver plans for possible doubling of population

City pursues ‘EcoDensity Initiative’ that expands downtown housing boom to transit-friendly corridors.

City pursues ‘EcoDensity Initiative’ that expands downtown housing boom to transit-friendly corridors.
The government of Vancouver, British Columbia, is championing higher-density development throughout the city as a way of addressing environmental threats and providing affordable housing for more of its residents.
Since June 2006, when Mayor Sam Sullivan announced his EcoDensity Initiative, planners have been working on techniques to accommodate substantial population growth within the already largely developed city of 588,000. Planning Director Brent Toderian says that with the right decisions, the city can build on the densification success it has achieved in its downtown, which in the past two decades doubled in population, to 85,000 from 43,000.
Some predict that the population of the entire 44-square-mile city could double in the coming decades if the EcoDensity Initiative results in more housing being built along transit routes, in neighborhood centers, along alleys, above shops, and elsewhere. The city, however, has been careful not to set targets yet. Rather, officials have focused on the big contribution that density can make to environmentally responsible development.
Increased density will be proposed in nearly every part of the city, Toderian says. While some cities shield parts of their territory from increased density, in Vancouver “the whole city is in play,” according to Toderian.
One proposal calls for making it easier to build second and third suites in single-family houses and making it simpler to build coach houses and to add living quarters above garages — citywide. These are currently allowed only in certain neighborhoods. Planners also have raised the question of whether the city should require utility connections for possible future secondary suites in all new single-family houses. The intention is to eliminate construction challenges should the owner decide to add an accessory unit.
To encourage some kinds of development, parking requirements may be reduced or waived. Spaces may also be required for car sharing, so that fewer residents will feel impelled to own vehicles.
This spring the city has conducted public discussions aimed at seeing which methods of increasing the density will prove popular and where they should be applied. The idea-sharing will conclude in an interactive forum June 23 and in presentation of recommendations to the City Council in October.
Toderian says public response so far has been mostly positive. He believes this reflects Vancouverites’ awareness of connections between their living and density patterns and climate change — and an awareness that there have already been numerous Vancouver projects in which density has been accompanied by high-quality design and neighborhood amenities, improving livability. (See Dec. 2003 and Jan. 2004 New Urban News.)
Sullivan said there was a time when “the mere mention of increased density often meant the kiss of death for a civic politician’s career.” Now, he said, “with an aging population, rising home prices, and an increased public interest in protecting our local and global environment, the time has come for us to embrace density.”

ecology and affordability
The EcoDensity Initiative (see www.vancouver.ca/ecodensity) is premised on the idea that Vancouver’s “ecological footprint” is four times as large as it should be. Gordon Price, a city council member from 1986 to 2002, says the density campaign “has been very nicely framed: how about living on one planet?” Residents are being told that if the whole world consumed land and resources at the rate that Vancouver does, there would have to be four planets, not just one.
Sullivan has coupled environmentalism with the idea that if much more housing were produced, Vancouverites would also get some relief from the highest housing prices in Canada. The National Post reported in April that “detached bungalows in Vancouver sell for an average of $758,000” ($703,000 US), nearly twice as much as in Toronto. “You combine the affordability issue with the environmental issue and you’ve got a powerful combination,” Price observed.
Within the past year, publications ranging from Governing magazine to The New York Times have questioned whether the growth in downtown Vancouver housing will infringe on the central business district’s office market and pose a long-term threat to employment there. Last December the city released a study  that warned that the downtown peninsula could run out of job space within five to 25 years if zoning regulations are not changed.
“We do take that seriously,” Toderian told New Urban News. However,  he said there are a number of policies that could allow the city to continue adding thousands of housing units in the broader downtown while safeguarding and expanding the central business district’s employment potential and facilitating office construction. These include expanding the business district into additional areas and reconsidering building height restrictions. This fall the planning department will present options to the city council on what could be done to increase office capacity.
“In the meantime,” Toderian said, “our credo is ‘no net loss’ of capacity. We will say no to any proposal in the CBD to convert offices to residential or to convert hotels to residential or even to convert potential — not just existing — buildings to residential.” In the past, some residential development has been allowed in the CBD, which occupies a small portion of the downtown peninsula, “but we’re not allowing any more,” he said. “Housing is lifeblood for downtowns, but ultimately there must be a balance.”
The growth of housing in the CBD and elsewhere on the peninsula has given the business district greater vitality in the evenings and weekends than it would otherwise have had.  “Almost 130,000 people are working on the peninsula,” he noted. “A fair percentage of them are living downtown.”
As downtown housing has proliferated — much of it in glassy towers, often with townhouse-like units at their base along the sidewalks — Vancouver has insisted that community amenities such as parks, schools, and shopping be provided nearby. Consequently, the downtown has attracted families with children along with singles, childless couples, and empty-nesters. “We have proven we can do livable density,” Price said. “Density makes retail more viable. It makes transit more feasible.”