Development Community wary of "uncertain minority government. Business in Vancouver October 20, 2024

Prior to last night's election results were know, BIV Journalist Glen Korstrom called to ask my thoughts on how the election outcome might impact the development community. While there are many others who are more knowledgeable and in a better position to comment, I was happy to offer some thoughts based on my recent experience with Bills 44 and 47 and changes to muncipal bylaws.

Bills 44 and 47. For one thing, if the NDP won, there was no doubt the recent Bills 44 and 47 resulting in considerably more densification in every town and city with more than 5000 people would remain in place. However, if the Conservatives won, these Bills could well be rescinded, prompting great uncertainty as to whether municipalities would also rescind the Bills.

Developers hate uncertainty. I told Glen that just as investors in the stock market hate uncertainty, developers do too. Over the past year, several of my clients have been holding off on projects not knowing the ramifications of the new legislation, especially Bill 47-Transit Oriented Development. 

Will higher densities always be allowed? How will Community Amenity Contributions be calculated? Who will determine whether additional sewer and water servicing will be required to accommodate higher densities? Is there enough electrical power to accommodate all these new developments?

Rent controls. What will happen to allowable annual rent increases if the Conservatives get in. 

No clear winner? Alternatively, what will happen if there is no clear winner and the Greens hold the balance of power? This, to my mind would be the worst possible outcome. 

Vacancy Control. For one thing, in the past, Sonia Furstenau and the Greens have wanted to implement Vacancy Controls/ This means a landlord cannot raise the rent beyond the annual limit even when a tenant moves out. This could be disasterous for many existing and new projects.When I tweeted out this sentiment, I was contacted by her office since she wanted to discuss it further. I eventually had a one-hour discussion with Adam Olson trying to explain why this would be harmful.

Before ending our conversation, I told Glen that one thing that hasn't been proposed by any party, or discussed, is whether a modified form of rent control, similar to that in Ontario that allows different increases based on whether a building is existing or new. More specifically, new Buildings, built and first occupied after November 15, 2018 are exempt from Rent Control. If the property was built and occupied after this date, landlords can raise rent by how much ever they want.

While this may be another topic for another day, below is Glen's story that appeared today.

B.C. business owners wary of "uncertain" minority government

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Photo: DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST.

Voters cast ballots at George Jay Elementary School in Victoria in the 2024 provincial general election

Business loves certainty and the only certainty in a minority legislature is uncertainty.

That is not good, according to business leaders. 

As of Sunday morning the BC NDP has 46 seats, the BC Conservatives have 45 seats and the BC Greens have two seats. 

Votes are not entirely counted so the result could change.

The Greens, as of now, however, hold a balance of power. This is a similar situation to 2017, when there was a minority government and the Greens threw their support behind the NDP, and signed what the two sides called a confidence and supply agreement. 

The Greens then backed the NDP and voted with them until then-NDP Premier John Horgan called a snap election in 2020, without first consulting with the Greens and breaking the promise he made to the Greens to govern for four years until the next fixed election date.

Minority governments have been few and far between in B.C. as the previous most recent minority government to 2017 was the W.A,C. Bennett minority government in 1952.

"The worst of all options would be a BC Greens-NDP coalition," Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C. (ICBA) CEO Chris Gardner told BIV.

"If you listen to [BC Greens leader] Sonia Furstenau now, committing what she would want the NDP to do, I will say that it will be a very, very expensive and costly term of government for B.C."

While the Greens won two seats, Furstenau was not one of them. Rob Botterell was ahead with nearly all votes counted in Saanich North and the Islands while Jeremy Valeriote is ahead in West Vancouver Sea to Sky with nearly all votes counted.

Geller Group president Michael Geller expressed dismay to BIV about the result. His company specializes in planning and real-estate consulting for a variety of large and small residential and mixed-use projects.

"They often say the worst thing for the stock market is uncertainty, and the worst thing for the development community is uncertainty," Geller said.

"With no clear-cut decision and one that is uncertain, I think we'll see a lot of development simply stall." 

Other business leaders were hopeful.

“We hope that all parties can come to a swift agreement to form a stable government that will focus on building a strong economy," said the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’ (CFIB) director for B.C. and western economic policy, Jairo Yunis.

"Small businesses across B.C. are looking for certainty and leadership that will support their ability to grow, invest, and create jobs. We are eager to work with all parties to ensure that the needs of small businesses are prioritized in the weeks and months ahead."

Others were taken aback. 

"Things are going to get interesting," said Business Council of British Columbia (BCBC) CEO Laura Jones.

"It is so hard to predict how things will work out. We will work with everyone to really make sure that the importance of a strong economy is understood."

Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood braces for 23 new towers - Vancouver Sun October 19th, 2024

Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood braces for 23 new towers

Douglas Todd: Developers are targeting the beachside Kitsilano neighbourhood now that the Broadway plan has opened up the construction floodgates

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These houses on the 2100-block of W 14th in Kitsilano are set to be demolished and replaced by an 18-storey tower, which developer Michael Geller calls "absolutely absurd." Photo by Douglas Todd /sun

The eclectic beachside community of Kitsilano is often ranked among Metro Vancouver’s favourite neighbourhoods, appreciated for its boulevard trees, old homes, low-rise rental apartments and character. It was the epicentre of hippie culture in the 1970s.

But a wholesale reconstruction of Kitsilano is in play — a vertical upzoning of the neighbourhood’s eastern edge, adjacent to Burrard Street.

As a result of the city of Vancouver’s two-year-old Broadway plan, and the construction of a new SkyTrain station at Arbutus, developers have set in motion at least 23 highrise projects, mostly in the 20-storey range.

Critics, including residents, retired architects and planning consultants, say it’s overreach. It’s out of scale. And the Broadway plan should be placed on hold.

There is already high population density in this four-block-wide zone of Kitsilano apartment buildings, which falls inside the boundaries of city council’s massive Broadway plan upzoning scheme.

Yet the development application signs spreading rapidly through east Kitsilano are going up in front of many 50-year-old, four-storey apartment buildings. They’re also being erected in front of the gardens of charming, renovated duplexes and triplexes.

Overall, the Broadway plan encompasses 500 square blocks between Vine Street in Kitsilano in the west and Clark Drive in the east, bounded by 1st Avenue to the north and 16th Avenue to the south. More than 120 building proposals, almost all for residential towers, some as high as 35 storeys, have already been approved or proposed under the Broadway plan.

“It’s time to pause the Broadway plan and conduct a serious review,” says Grant Roberts, who has lived for two decades in a modest three-storey, walk-up apartment building in Kitsilano at 1855 West 2nd Ave. It is slated to be replaced with a 20-storey tower.

In intense fear of being forced out of his long-standing home, Roberts last month told city council: “You have gift-wrapped the Broadway plan and turned it over to greedy developers. This will displace thousands of people.”

Michael Geller, a veteran Vancouver developer, planner and retired architect, also believes a moratorium should be placed on the Broadway plan.

“It’s overreaching. It’s wrong,” Geller said.

“In principle, I advocate for higher density development close to public transit,” Geller said , noting he’s not overly concerned with tower proposals for the blocks immediately adjacent to Broadway Avenue. For him, that includes around the Kitsilano SkyTrain station scheduled to open in 2027 at Arbutus and Broadway.

“Instead, my concern relates to the high density, 18-20 storey buildings proposed along leafy, duplex-lined streets four or five blocks away from Broadway, in Mount Pleasant and Kitsilano,” Geller said.

“Many of these proposals are at 10 times the existing density and height.”

As an illustration, Geller expresses shock at the blocky, angular, out-of-context 18-storey rental tower proposed for a tree-lined hill of detached character multiplexes on the 2100-block of West 14th, between Arbutus and Yew.

“This is absolutely absurd. How can anyone think this makes sense? It doesn’t belong,” Geller said in a recent YouTube interview with former B.C. city councillor, cabinet minister and talk-show host, Carole Taylor.

When the Broadway plan was first drawn up, Geller said most residents of Vancouver “missed the consequences” of how it would radically alter many livable neighbourhoods that already enjoy healthy mixes of renters and owners.

The tall mostly-rental towers now being planned for east Kitsilano are much different from the handful of 10- to 12-storey highrises that were built in Kitsilano before the early 1970s, before such buildings were eventually blocked.

The city council of that era demanded that developers make sure their medium-rise buildings retained about half of their grounds for gardens, trees, tennis courts and other amenities.

But virtually all the towers now put forward under the Broadway plan, like the one on 14th, have no green space. They abut directly up against city sidewalks, perhaps with a token planter or bench.

Stephen Bohus, who works in the visual-effects industry and has a degree from the University of Toronto’s school of landscape architecture, is working to help citizens comprehend how Kitsilano, Fairview and Mount Pleasant neighbourhoods will look and feel in the near future because of the Broadway plan.

In response to widespread complaints and petitions from Kitsilano and elsewhere that Vancouver city’s website and staff are not being transparent about the scale of the vast changes coming to the Broadway corridor, Bohus has created an online interactive map that includes 23 tower proposals for east Kitsilano.

Ten of the projects are in late stages of rezoning, five are in the midst of rezoning and eight are at an early stage, according to internal Vancouver city figures. Bohus also uses 3D technology to graphically illustrate how towers will impact the Broadway corridor.

Altogether, the 23 towers already in the pipeline for the section of Kitsilano under the Broadway plan — an area which includes a London Drugs on Broadway, St. Augustine’s elementary school and church on 8th, and a Whole Foods on Fourth and the Arbutus Greenway — would provide roughly 3,000 living units, mostly for renters.

That would be in addition to the roughly 20,000 new units in the highrises proposed under the rest of the Broadway plan.

Unfortunately, Geller said, it’s a myth that such widespread upzoning leads to affordability. He believes civic politicians have been “seduced” into approving bad projects by the prospect that 20 per cent of the dwellings built within the Broadway corridor will provide “below-market” rental rates, a term that too often goes undefined.

One of the many problems with this scheme, Geller said, is that most of the taxpayer-subsidized units designated below-market are tiny, and almost unlivable on a long-term basis.

For what it’s worth, Geller believes some Broadway plan towers won’t get built, since some land assemblies and zoning changes are being led by speculators.

Given the ups and downs of the real-estate industry, he said there is a significant chance many speculators won’t be able to sell off their upzoned land to developers who are ready to pump tens of millions of dollars into a project.

dtodd@postmedia.com

 

A Celebration of Life for Craig Waddell, September 1, 2024 Semiahmoo GC

In his book Meetings with Remarkable Men, which I read during my university days, G.I Gurdjieff invites readers to reflect on the remarkable men who influenced their lives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meetings_with_Remarkable_Men. Most of us start with our fathers, and an important teacher or mentor, and then key friends. In my case, J.Craig Waddell was one such remarkable man. 

We first met in 1974 when I was CMHC's assistant architect/planner and Craig headed up the Vancouver office of IBI, at the time a little known architectural firm founded by Phil Beinhaker and based back east. Craig had previously worked for Irving Grossman Architect, a highly respected Toronto firm known for its innovative housing, where I also worked upon graduation, a few years after he left. In Vancouver he worked at McCarter Nairne, one of city's most established firms that had designed the Marine Building. At McCarter Nairne, Craig led the design team for Shaughnessy Place, a terraced condominium complex overlooking VanDeusen Gardens, and still one of Vancouver's best designed and desired places to live. 

Shaughnessy Place 1, designed by Craig Waddell

IBI had been commissioned by the BC government to design the 24-unit Norman Bethune Housing Cooperative in Burnaby. Inspired by Craig's Shaughnessy Place design, it was intended to be a prorotype for future coop projects. While we argued over kitchen designs for households with children, and whether a terraced building in wood, rather than concrete, would last in Vancouver's weather, we became good friends. We got to know his first wife Linda, his two daughters Melissa and Joanna with whom we often spent family holidays, and remained friends for the next five decades. 

During this time, Craig transitioned from being an architect to a developer, where he first joined David Mooney at Narod Developments until its receivership in 1983, and subsequently in Arizona where he built several successful condominium projects and sumptious homes for himself and Coralie, his wife.

It was Craig who hired me away from CMHC in 1981 to join Narod, and who insisted I take up golf as a condition of employment so that I would fit in. Craig introduced me to a world of well-designed furniture, martinis, fine wines and rare steaks, served in expensive restaurants such as Toronto's Three Small Rooms in the Windsor Arms Hotel, across from Irving Grossman's office on Sultan Street. 

Over the years, I often worried that Craig's debauched lifestyle, which included a lot of Waddelltinis (a mix of gin and vodka, straight up, with a blue-cheese-stuffed olives would eventually do him in, but he kept going until he got Parkinson's a few years ago. He took up boxing and was fortunate to have very good care from Coralie. Eventually, he moved into some very attractive seniors' care facilities,  but he didn't give up the Waddelltinis. Sadly on May 13, he passed away, and I posted the following on Facebook. 

On September 1, Coralie organized a Celebration of Life for Craig at the Semiahmoo Golf Club. It was a fitting venue since they had lived in the Semiahmoo community for a number of years and Craig's daughters both lived nearby. It was a wonderful event, attended by friends from Scottsdale, Vancouver and Washington State. Ron Nairne, the grandson of the founder of McCarter Nairne, a friend of Craig's said a few words. After hearing that Craig had served as best man for my wedding, but also several others, he rightly observed it was a testament to his bonds and fiendships that so many asked him to be their best man. Ron Yuen, who had worked with Craig since Irving Grossman days and served as Craig's best man when he and Coralie got married was there, as was  Kelly Heed, of Colliers, with whom Craig did several deals over the years. Peter Horwood, who worked at Narod was there with Holly, reminiscing about the time they were posted in Lake Oswego Portland, where Narod had an office.

I prepared a short presentation (although had Craig been there he would have said it was much too long) offering highlights of his life, including university in Nova Scotia, time in Toronto, Vancouver and Arizona. Below are a few of the images from the presentation. 

Rest in Peace Craig. You impacted many lives as a father, husband, architect, developer and friend. You were truly a remarkable man.

Over the years there were a lot of parties, including annual Halloween parties at our home