Vancouver city council has unanimously approved the official development plan for a First-Nations-led project to build thousands of new homes in Vancouver’s West Point Grey neighbourhood.
The plan, which has been hotly contested by some area residents, envisions 13,000 new homes housing 24,000 people on the Jericho Lands site, a 90-acre former military garrison across 4th Avenue from Jericho Beach Park.
The project would include more than two dozen buildings ranging from four to 49 storeys, with work to take place over a 25 to 30-year time horizon.
The project is a partnership between the MST Development Partnership and the Canada Lands Company (CLC), a federal Crown corporation. The MST Development Corporation is the for-profit development arm of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation).
“I do think this is a positive change. This is a neighbourhood that has had a population change of one person since 1996 – that’s almost 30 years,” said ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung.
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“It is a stark contrast to how other neighbourhoods of the city have been growing.”
OneCity Coun. Lucy Maloney added that she was “overjoyed” to support the plan, which she said “exemplifies the potential and mutual benefit that can result when our municipal governments support the rights, priorities and initiatives of First Nations and work alongside them.”
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However, Maloney said she had been troubled by the tone and substance of some project opponents’ comments about the project’s Indigenous proponents.
“I am very disappointed by the comments of some residents who have promoted fearmongering of Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh representatives, their rights, the U.N. Declaration (on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) or future residents who wish to live in this neighbourhood,” she said.
“It’s clear that the city needs to do further work to inform our residents of the human rights of First Nations peoples and how they will be reflected in this city moving forward.”
Scores of people signed up to speak at council when the plan was presented last Tuesday.
Residents who opposed the project organized under the banner of the Jericho Coalition, arguing the proposal is too large and too dense and at odds with neighbourhood character.
They pitched an alternative vision that included low- and medium-rise buildings on the site.
The official development plan would see the site developed with 2,600 units of social housing, 12.4 hectares of park and open space, 259 child care spaces and a future transit station if and when the Broadway subway is extended to UBC.
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