Turf war reaches new heights in Vancouver?s West End
One co-op?s land value skyrockets by 95 per cent in one year, leaving residents shaking their heads
JOANNE LEE-YOUNG
Other
The West End is turning into the latest front in the turf wars over residential land in Vancouver.
As city planners opt for allowing higher-density to deal with soaring prices for single-family homes, their solution can threaten existing, affordable housing that residents have come to love.
In the West End there has been a slew of recent, dizzying land sales, and some of the priciest new condo towers are going up there.
At the north end of the Burrard Bridge, eight brightly painted, Victorian-era homes sit in front of a seven-storey low-rise built in the 1980s. Together, they are known as the Pacific Heights Housing Co-op. Among its 200 residents who live in 91 units are 30 families with children. The co-op includes one of the largest stocks of three-bedroom units in the West End, according to Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert, who described it as a “model of affordable and community living.”
It’s a place where sense of community is very much alive, says co-op member Zak Mathis.
“Where else can you have your neighbour knock on your door, asking to get the ladders because another neighbour’s dog is on the roof and they aren’t home?” he asked.
For years, the co-op’s property had been valued in the mid $20-million range, but in 2016, it skyrocketed 95 per cent from $26 million to $51 million.
“It was shocking,” said Jon Breisnes, another resident. “A lot of our more experienced members said, ‘That’s got to be a mistake.’”
If not, they want to know if this new assessment is a foreboding sign the co-op could eventually lose its lease with the city, which expires in 9 years. For now, it at least means an accompanying hike in property taxes that will cost each unit an additional $75 a month. Unlike homeowners, co-op members don’t have equity in a property that is going up in tandem, said Mathis.
As a first response, the co-op is asking B.C. Assessment for an appeal. It is also taking its concerns about the future to the City and will meet with councillors Geoff Meggs and Raymond Louie on Monday.
The trigger for the higher assessment seems to be the co-op’s prime location at the very bottom corner of the West End Community Plan’s Burrard corridor, which runs one block wide down Burrard, from Haro to Pacific Streets, and specifically allows for taller, residential towers.
The idea was for shiny, new buildings with much higher density allowances to sit on the outside edges of the West End on Burrard and Georgia streets, leaving laneway housing, townhouses and other infill residences to be sprinkled behind existing buildings in the West End.
And so, a few blocks from the co-op, some of Vancouver’s most architecturally striking, high-end condos with all the fixings are in progress. Reliance and The Jim Pattison Group is building One Burrard Place, a 53-storey residence with concierge service for luxury buyers. Westbank’s Vancouver House on Howe Street will be a twisting, 59-storey building. And Grosvenor Canada is applying to rezone the site of the old Il Giardino restaurant on Hornby Street for a 39-storey residence.
More recently, there has been another string of land sales in the West End that have been attracting attention for achieving even higher prices than were paid for the above projects. Some haven’t closed yet, but real estate industry sources say a set of buildings on Alberni at Nicola sold for $160 million, about twice what they sold for in 2014; and, two buildings on Nelson Street assessed at $16 million went for $60 million. Two weeks ago, the buildings at 1070 and 1080 Barclay Street, assessed at $19.8 million in 2016, were sold to local developer Bosa Properties for $58.5 million.
For all these properties, there is a stipulation within the community plan that 25 per cent of any new developments are set aside for social housing.
Still, it’s no wonder the co-op’s assessment has jumped by so much.
Jason Grant, regional assessor with B.C. Assessment, wasn’t able to speak about this specific case, but generally put it this way: “Assessments reflect the factors that purchasers and vendors consider in arriving at the negotiated price for a particular property. If zoning changes are one of the factors being considered by market participants then it is likely they will also influence the assessments.”
The city, however, maintains that even when a property falls within the Burrard Corridor, “rezoning is not an assured right,” according to assistant director of planning Kevin McNaney. He said there are a slew of considerations each time that are analyzed by city staff and put in front of council and public hearing.
For now, Breisnes and some other residents are encouraged that city councillors were willing to meet promptly. Recent news that the city is proposing to offer up to 23 mostly vacant sites for building social housing — provided the federal government will pitch in money to build them — is also heartening, he said.
“If something happened to this co-op, we would survive. (Many of us) could go elsewhere, maybe into the (Fraser) Valley, wherever we needed to go,” said Breisnes. “But we do have a swath of different members who would be affected much worse. There are seniors and others who are in care suites. They live in adapted units.”
About a third of the co-op’s members pay a subsidized rate.
Mathis conceded it’s no surprise prices are increasing downtown.
“It’s the density. I guess that’s understandable. There’s only so much land,” he said.
“But it’s also a great model here that already works,” he added, looking around a courtyard where, during a span of 10 minutes, one neighbour stopped with a message about a borrowed vacuum cleaner, and another neighbour walked into another’s unit to pick up the dog for a walk.
Other co-op members, who declined to speak on the record, see the new assessment as writing on the wall. They fear the worse of the many market forces circling the co-op’s coveted location, one block from the beach and a short walk downtown.
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