City council of the earlier this week, but one community organization worries about what the future holds.
Allan Buium, chairman of the Riley Park South Cambie Community Steering Committee (RPSC), told the Courier members are happy with improvements to the public realm, but they’re confused about how the city is addressing affordable, social and non-market housing, and how the build-out will play out. They’re also worried about future traffic congestion and that there won’t be enough schools to accommodate the anticipated population growth — the area’s population is expected to double by 2041.
Phase three of the plan, which deals with growth and development in areas off of the arterials, aims to deliver 5,000 secured market rental units, 2,800 social housing units and 400 below-market rental units. Other targets within the plan include enabling the creation of many parks and plazas, as well as space for thousands of jobs in a new business centre in the Oakridge Municipal Town Centre, which covers the area around Cambie Street and West 41st Avenue.
The RPSC group’s concerns were outlined in a letter sent to city staff, the mayor and councillors prior to the vote on the plan. Buium also anticipates group members will meet city staff in the future.
“To some degree we’re pleased. I think the public realm is a step in the right direction [but] we have concerns with regards to some aspects of the housing. They talk about non-market housing, they talk about social housing. How are they going to do this with the [land] prices as high as they are?,” Buium said. “What kinds of concessions are going to be given to the developers? That’s a factor that has to be considered in all of this.”
The need for more affordable housing, especially given the high-price developments sparked by phase two, was cited as an influencing factor when staff worked on phase three.
Over 16 years, between 2001 and 2017, the median income in Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»rose 18 per cent while the average market rent rose 75 per cent and the median sale price of an eastside single-detached home rose 365 per cent, according to city staff.
But Buium isn’t clear what the housing mix in future high-rise developments will look like, and his group is concerned there won’t be enough economic diversity, which he says is critical for a healthy community.
“If you create all non-market housing in one or two sectors, are we not going back to the whole concept of ghettoizing people? We think you need an honest socio-economic mix, which is far heathier,” he said.
Buium also isn’t convinced there will be enough housing produced over the life of the plan that working Vancouverites can afford.
“The land costs are extremely high. We’d also like to see what we call alternative housing… there’s no mention of co-op housing coming in. If we’re going to bring in the other levels of government, what about the feds? What about CMHC and co-op housing?,” he said.
And, given the population growth that’s expected, he wonders where incoming families will send their children to school, particularly elementary school.
Buium maintains the school board and the city need to spend more time ensuring that issue is addressed, while the city should also focus on the potential for worsening traffic congestion.
While he’s encouraged by plans to invest in areas such as walking and cycling infrastructure, he suspects most people won’t walk or ride as much in the rainy season and that there won’t be enough investment in transit infrastructure by TransLink.Â
“We need a comprehensive traffic study and we haven’t see one. We think this is very, very important and needs to be done now, not five years from now,” he said.
Ultimately, it’s unintended consequences of the plan, and the possibility of a faster pace of change than expected, that Buium particularly worries about.
“People thought that phase two would be built out slowly. Well, it hasn’t. In five years, look at it. And we know other buildings are coming on stream," he said.
"That’s phase two. So, if the economy remains relatively stable, as some economists predict it will, and they’re talking about more job creation, and you’re also going to see Oakridge shopping centre start construction, probably in the latter part of this year, they’re going to be building out far more rapidly than the 20-year build-out that they often talk about now."
