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Vancouver single-family homeowners cash in — sometimes — when city plans change

May 4th, 2015 · 7 Comments

Got to tackle the land-assembly craze that people have been noticing around the city lately, as signs have sprouted all all over the place with whole blocks for sale.

As any number of land-assembly specialists told me, this is all about people stampeding to redevelop when a community plan changes to allow for more density.

Or in Surrey, I was told (didn’t get to include this in my Globe story attached here), it happens when a new piece of infrastructure goes in, i.e. a pumping station, that makes intense development possible.

This kind of land assembly was happening in parts of the downtown the last two decades — we just didn’t notice it because it was older commercial buildings and/or vacant lots.

But with the signs all through Vancouver’s central neighbourhoods — Main, Cambie, Oak, 25th, 41st, 49th — it hits us in the face that the city is changing.

My online Globe story has a bit more in it than the print version, because I went and dug out the numbers on two different projects on Cambie — what the residents got, what the city got, what the developer got. Enjoy.

 

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  • peakie

    Except there are no guarantees that they will not grant deathly mass rezoning for massive monolith blocks killing street-life and cultural sprouts on the street level.

  • logan5

    Mass redevelopments tend to happen in industrial areas. Yaletown actually rejuvenated the old warehouses along Mainland and along Hamilton. Southeast False Creek is the latest industrial area to be reshaped. Now the latest trend is to redevelop shopping mall parking lots. No big loss there.I honestly can’t think of an example where a mass rezoning has destroyed an existing vibrant street life.

    At the same time though, these new high density neighbourhoods are quite depressing and don’t look to have any potential to develop into something remotely vibrant.

  • Internet made me obsolete

    Too much like termite mounds.
    Welcome to how the rest of the world lives, Vancouver.

  • Richard Campbell

    Yaletown is quite vibrant. Lots of people walking around on many of the streets.

    Of course not every large development is going to be vibrant but neither are most single family areas. One can wonder around many of these areas in Vancouver without seeing anyone on the streets or even in their yards.

  • Richard Campbell

    How about respecting other people’s choices on where and how they want to live. For many, it is great to live where there are lots of shops, cafes and other amenities within walking distance. That is only possible with high density homes. It is also great not being forced to drive everywhere.

    Going forward, high density areas are going to be the only ones that are affordable for the average person.

  • penguinstorm

    Those aren’t people, those are douche-bros and plastics.

    Yaletown is a city licensed party zone for the vapid and affluent and I’d avoid it entirely if Norbert the German Watchmaker didn’t have a storefront there. That guy’s great.

  • jenables

    Interesting you believe that prices can only go up from here. .. or perhaps you are referencing the future slums many of these towers will become?