Broughton Apartments at 1370 Davie Street
We have just passed five years since City Council adopted the West End Community Plan (Nov 2013) and then pre-zoned major sections of the West End (Jan 2014) for significant increases in density and towers particularly along the corridor streets.
West End Neighbours has called on the current council to review the impacts of the WECP. Is it producing the promised results (specifically “deepening affordability”)? We feel this review is important not only for the West End, but also for the entire city as it embarks upon a citywide planning process. When Council adopted the WECP, did Mayor Gregor Robertson and Council, planning department and professional planners consider these consequences?
WEN estimates that thousands of renters have been forced out of their relatively affordable long-term older rental units due to demolition and redevelopment for towers, as actually encouraged by the WECP, and we think the City needs to do a tally and consider how to better protect renters and businesses.
An article in the Vancouver Sun today provides some information about impacts of the WECP and risks for both renters and rental building owners. It’s worth a read. Below are excerpts, plus a link to the full article online.
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“The ‘ticking time bomb’ threatening affordable rental homes”
By Dan Fumano, in the Vancouver Sun, 25-Feb-2019
Excerpts:
… The intricacies of B.C.’s property assessments are meeting the realities of Metro Vancouver’s property market in a way that discourages the operation of long-term affordable rental housing in favour of the development of new condos, landlords say.
In other words, the system seems to incentivize the opposite of the outcome our leaders say they want.
… Older rental homes are, as expected, more affordable. CMHC data show Vancouver apartments built between 1975 and 1989 are, on average, 40 per cent cheaper than those built since 2005. But longtime landlords say the current system threatens their ability to operate the older rental apartments that form a crucial part of the city’s housing stock.
Consider the Broughton Apartments in Vancouver’s West End. In 2015, the property taxes for this 40-year-old, 47-unit rental building on Davie Street were assessed at $854 per unit, said a representative of the owner, Cressey Development Group. For this year, the assessment is expected to be around $2,620 per unit.
That represents a property tax hike of more than 200 per cent over four years.
… As property values in the West End have soared faster than the city-wide average in recent years — particularly since the approval of the West End Community Plan in 2013 and the subsequent flurry of development activity — the corresponding skyrocketing property taxes have been blamed for the deaths of several mom-and-pop businesses, everything from beloved neighbourhood pubs the Dover Arms which pulled its last pint in 2017, to retail fixture Chocolate Mousse Kitchenware, which closed its doors last week after facing a 400 per cent property tax hike over a three-year period. Continue reading →
We reported that City Council would be discussing parking in the West End (
Below is an excerpt of a message from the City of Vancouver.
criteria for “definition of success” (WECP original Terms of Reference) include these two points: “Have the commitment of the City (and, where appropriate) its partners to tracking its [WECP’s] long-term effectiveness” (Item 8); and “Provide a framework for positive change in the well-being of the West End” (Item 9). Presumably, City staff are already tracking the plan’s effectiveness and have criteria and means of verifying positive change, the results of which should be shared in the community.
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