Deal to allow social housing before rezoning at Vancouver’s Little Mountain development

VANCOUVER — Four years after all-but four of 224 families were ousted from their homes at Vancouver’s Little Mountain housing development to make way for high-density towers, a deal has been reached allowing some of the displaced residents to return to the property as early as next year.

The province announced Thursday an agreement has been signed with the City of Vancouver and project developer Holborn Properties that will make it possible for up to 40 social housing units to be built on the site before a formal rezoning process is completed.

Under the agreement, a portion of the 6.2-hectare parcel at Main Street and 33rd Avenue, near Queen Elizabeth Park, will be subdivided, enabling the social-housing project to go ahead under the current zoning.

The remaining property will undergo a full rezoning process before any more work begins, said city Coun. Kerry Jang.

“For us (the city), we have always maintained we had to have social housing up first and phased into the development,” Jang said.

The deal also brings to an end an on-going dispute between BC Housing and the four families who have remained living on the site, even as the post-war tract housing around them was demolished and their neighbours removed to social housing elsewhere in the Metro region.

The four families will now be able to remain in their homes until the new housing is completed.

The Little Mountain property is slated to be redeveloped into a mixed-used community that includes stepped towers up to 12 storeys tall, with the majority of the buildings in the four to 10-storey range.

The project is still subject to rezoning, which would trigger public hearings.

Holborn bought the site from the provincial government in 2007 for an undisclosed sum. The province made a commitment to the city at that time that Holborn would replace the 224 units of social housing that had been on the site, and add 10 units for aboriginal people.

All but one of the tract houses was demolished in 2009 and the property has been vacant except for the four families since then. Holborn officials have said they’d like to begin construction by 2013.