A new study confirms what the University of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver have been saying for years: the Broadway corridor is good for business and needs better transportation.
The city and the university commissioned the study, which suggests the Broadway area between Commercial Drive and the Point Grey campus generates nearly one dollar for every $10 of the Metro Vancouver region’s GDP.
It also says the corridor accounts for eight per cent of all economic output and five per cent of the region’s resident population.
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All of the data in the study justifies the need for the Broadway SkyTrain extension to UBC, the study suggests.
“Construction of a seamless rapid transit linkage along the full length of the Broadway corridor and beyond should dramatically improve connectivity for institutions, businesses and residents along the corridor, further unlocking the corridor’s economic potential and strengthening its contribution to the regional economy,” the study says.
“A range of transportation choices should be provided, ensuring appropriate infrastructure and service levels (speed, capacity, reliability) are maintained to enable efficient movement of people and goods,” it adds.
Vancouver city council has approved a partial rezoning freeze between Point Grey and Kitsilano in order to curb speculation ahead of the possible extension to UBC.
The extension has been approved by both city council and the TransLink Mayors’ Council, but funding and the business case have yet to be secured.
Construction is set to begin in 2020 on the already approved extension from Clark Drive to Arbutus Street along the Broadway corridor and is set to take five years.
The report says that extension will greatly improve the corridor on its own, increasing speed and reliability for residents and visitors.
Gordon Price, a former city planner and councillor and a fellow at Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, said the report proves the demand is there for when the SkyTrain extension comes.
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“The Broadway extension will be effectively packed from the moment it opens,” he said Sunday. “So any mistake that we can avoid is don’t underestimate.
“We know how to do build rapid transit … but we’ve tended to under-build. The Canada Line is a perfect example: we didn’t build it big enough. We can’t make the same mistake again.”
The study also makes the case for more residential housing to be built along the corridor to keep up with the number of jobs in the area.
A majority of that new housing should be built as affordable rentals, it adds, saying the high cost of housing is contributing to the widening gap between residents and jobs.
It’s one of four other pillars, besides transportation, that’s laid out, including creating an inclusive community along with economic and employment opportunities.
Price said the report lays out a vision for the future that city planners should follow.
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“The report says that we’re talking about a Broadway ecosystem, and I think that’s a pretty good metaphor,” he said Sunday.
“It’s not one single thing, it’s not just one SkyTrain line or these buildings or the jobs, it’s how they all interact in a region. You need to be thinking of it in a very big-picture way and you have to be thinking 100 years out.”
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