On Tuesday, December 10, members of the Squamish Nation approved the development of their land at the south end of Burrard Bridge. Called Sen̓áḵw, for the name of an ancient village that was originally on this site until about 20 Squamish families were forced off and moved to North Vancouver in 1913, this development will be Canada’s largest project developed by a First Nation. Cost: $3 billion.
The plan—for the area west of the Molson Brewery site near Vanier Park on the False Creek waterfront in Kitsilano—envisions 6,000 units, mostly rentals, which will mean approximately 11,000 people living there. The site is just over 11 acres and 11 towers are proposed, the tallest one 56 storeys. The density concentrated in tall buildings leaves 80 percent of the land free for parks and community space.
I am both excited and a bit concerned.
I am excited because this development will be almost entirely car-free. With the crisis of climate change upon us, everything we can do to reduce our reliance on cars is to be celebrated. I’m also very excited because almost all of the units will be rentals. We have an extreme shortage of rental units in the city of Vancouver and this development will go a long way toward addressing this problem.
But I am also concerned about the number of units to be fit into this site. It was originally proposed as a project containing 3,000 units, or housing for about 6,000 people, which seemed satisfactory. (CBC News has a good article about the history of the site here.) Then suddenly it was announced the number of units would double.
None other than Vancouver’s former director of planning, Ray Spaxman, a man I greatly respect and admire, has expressed reservations about this new, doubling of density. (See his concerns in this Dec. 4 Tyee article.). I share his concerns.
I don’t pretend to know enough regarding the optimum number of people for the site but, on the whole, I always favour less density.
One example of too much density on a site ironically happens to be the development on the old O’Keefe brewery (eventually bought out by Molson’s) at Arbutus and W.10th—Arbutus Walk. Here the developer got much greater density than the community wanted and when you go into this area, the height and closeness of the buildings creates excessive over-shadowing and an oppressive atmosphere. The Sen̓áḵw proposal is much different. Still, I wonder if there are any lessons to be learned here.
In another project, the proposal by three First Nations, (including the Squamish) and Canada Lands Company (a federal Crown corporation) for what’s called the Heather Lands in the Cambie Corridor development area is 21 acres, or almost the double the size of the proposed Sen̓áḵw site. As now proposed, the Heather Lands will have only 2,500 residential units in buildings 3- to 24-storeys high.
The Sen̓áḵw project will mean lots of changes for the area. Let’s keep a careful eye on this exciting project.
Visit the Squamish Atlas to learn more about the historical and cultural context of Sen̓áḵw, and to learn its pronunciation.
Have you signed and shared my petition on the Empty Homes Tax? Please do, so that Vancouverites can find the housing they need!
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (Dec. 12 2019): 411.37 ppm
One year ago (Dec. 12 2018): 409.73 ppm
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