These Vancouver neighbourhoods could be next up for the 'Broadway plan' treatment
The Rupert and Renfrew Station Area Plan is a transit-oriented plan similar in scope to the much-discussed Broadway plan. City staff estimate the plan would add nearly 19,000 residents to the current 31,000 by 2050 — a 61% increase. It would bring 8,000 additional jobs and add another 10,000 homes, nearly doubling the amount of housing in the area.
'Investment priorities have been identified for the next 10-year period and are estimated to cost (approximately) $1.2 billion (in 2024 dollars),' Neil Hrushowy, general manager of planning, wrote in the recommendations to council.
The area covered by the proposed plan runs from the southern end of Hastings Sunrise, starting at Parker St. to E. 27th in Renfrew-Collingwood. East-west, it runs from Boundary Road to Kamloops St., one block east of Nanaimo St.
Most of the land covered by the plan is currently single-family housing, low-density commercial or light industry.
In keeping with the Broadway plan and the province's transit-oriented development legislation, the highest densities will be closest to the Renfrew and Rupert SkyTrain stations. Existing commercial and industrial land in the area, including those closest to SkyTrain stations, will remain non-residential. Additional employment would be supported by accommodating a wider range of commercial and industrial uses on these lands, and in mixed-use developments along major streets like E. Broadway, Renfrew and Rupert.
Similar to the Broadway plan, the plan envisions four key land use types:
Rapid transit areas: Towers up to 45 storeys close to SkyTrain stations
Villages: Four to six storey mixed-use buildings at key intersections, like Renfrew and E. 1st or Nanaimo and E. Broadway
Multiplex areas: The remaining residential areas would also include options for small-scale businesses like corner stores or shops
Employment lands: Office, labs, hotels, light industry (eg: film studios, warehouses) and big box stores near SkyTrain stations and along Still Creek
There are also plans to develop the site of the former B.C. Liquor warehouse at E. Broadway and Rupert. The site is owned by the First-Nations-owned MST Development Corporation in partnership with Aquilini Investment Group. Early plans put forward for public discussion in fall 2024 showed nearly a dozen towers on the site, some as high as 60 storeys. They included a mixture of residential, retail, office and industrial space as well as child care, affordable housing and public spaces.
The site is one of 15 properties designated as 'unique sites' in the plan, where larger sites that deliver a 'significant public asset' could receive special accommodations. Other sites include the First Avenue Marketplace shopping mall, the Akali Singh Sikh Society Gurudwara and Skeena Terrace, where over 19,000 new social housing units have been proposed.
The plan also calls for enhancing Still Creek, one of the last salmon-bearing streams in Vancouver.
'Widening and enhancing the Still Creek corridor is critical for managing flood risk resulting from increased development and climate change,' Hrushowy wrote.
Much of the existing commercial and industrial land around Still Creek is built on a floodplain, according to the report.
The plan also includes an option to expand the creek enhancement into a larger restoration project that could see an ecological corridor running from the Renfrew Ravine at Renfrew and 27th St., through Still Creek and north to Skeena and E. 1st.
It also includes additional child care spaces, new artist studios and workspaces, and expanding Renfrew Community Centre, Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House and the local firehall.
More than 1,900 new social housing units being proposed for this east Vancouver neighbourhood
'This is just the beginning': First Nations' real estate megaprojects game-changing for Metro Vancouve
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