The Van­cou­ver City Coun­cil reject­ed a pro­posed change to the city’s Broad­way Plan that would have put a cap on the num­ber of devel­op­ment pro­pos­als con­sid­ered each year through a “pace of change” pol­i­cy, reports Ken­neth Chan for Dai­ly Hive.

The pro­pos­al came from city staff who esti­mat­ed that as many as 2,000 res­i­dents in the exist­ing res­i­den­tial areas affect­ed by the plan. “The Broad­way Plan’s area is home to 25% of Van­cou­ver’s secured rental hous­ing stock, with much of this sup­ply in the area deemed to be with­in the afford­able range due to the old­er age of the build­ings,” Chan explains.

“City staff assert exist­ing renters have nowhere else to go due to extreme­ly low vacan­cies across the region, and new devel­op­ment projects could be tied up by the Broad­way Plan’s Ten­ant Relo­ca­tion and Pro­tec­tion Pol­i­cy (TRPP) of requir­ing devel­op­ers to find tem­po­rary replace­ment hous­ing for impact­ed ten­ants before they can get shov­els into the ground — some­thing devel­op­ers may not be able to do with ease giv­en the exist­ing rental hous­ing short­ages.”

City coun­cil­lors large­ly reject­ed the pro­pos­al, say­ing it would slow down devel­op­ment and act in oppo­si­tion to the goals of the Broad­way Plan. “ABC coun­cil­lor Peter Meiszn­er said he is con­fi­dent with the ‘very strong’ ten­ant pro­tec­tion and relo­ca­tion pro­grams in place, which are ‘the strongest in North Amer­i­ca.’ He says ‘bold action’ is need­ed to deliv­er more hous­ing, with incom­ing record lev­els of immi­gra­tion and dwin­dling rental vacan­cies.”