Debates over East Vancouver towers an increasingly normal sight

It’s a common Vancouver story: A tower is going up, and some local residents don’t like it.

“It’s still too high,” said one man tonight at the open house for the Rize Mount Pleasant project.

The mixed-use complex at Broadway and Kingsway will have five buildings, including a 22-storey tower.

The rezoning was approved by City Council last year and only has a development board approval to go, so the open house was essentially a courtesy meeting.

What’s happening in Mount Pleasant this summer is happening all over East Vancouver.

“The easy parts have been done for a while,” says former Vancouver head planner Brent Toderian. “The downtown…is getting more and more complete, we’re not developing any more industrial lands. So the low-hanging fruit is gone, and now we’re talking about how the rest of the city can evolve.”

In some cases, that means towers – especially if they’re around transit hubs. Residents of Grandview-Woodlands are currently up in arms about plans for towers up to 36 storeys at the Safeway at Broadway and Commercial and along nearby corridors (though not Commercial itself). A similar debate has played out on Kingsway for the Norquay Village.

In other cases however, towers aren’t necessarily the best form – and it’s up to city planners to work with residents to find that balance, says Toderian.

“I think we can do a lot more of different forms. We don’t need to solve our city’s problems in a few really tall towers.

“It’s about creative design and the public engagement, where the two engage and educate each other. Our planners should never insert our own answers, because design is a team sport.”

As a result of meetings with city council and people in Mount Pleasant, the height of the tower was reduced, the buildings became thinner, and the individual buildings took on more unique characteristics.

Chris Vollan, Vice President of Development at Rize, says they have made several major changes to the project in response to community concerns.

“One of the big feedback comments we got from the community was concern over the large retail,” says Vollan.

“The tower has increased in stories, but it has stayed the same elevation because we took out the large format commercial on the second floor,” says Vollan.

He says Rize has also made changes to the building on Watson Street, a laneway running next to the site.

Despite this, opposition in some corners still remain.

Gordon Price, who served on Vancouver council from 1986 to 2002, says that the tension in some of these debates is natural.

“We should be surprised if they weren’t, that would be the unusual thing,” he says.

“What’s unusual about the era we’re in is that the rate of change has really slowed down and yet our perception of it has increased.”

But one thing that most development watchers agree upon is that, whether local residents like it or not, changes will happen.

“Densification is going to happen, particularly around transit,” says Toderian.

“That’s not a yes or no.”

– With files from Peter Meiszner and Aaron McArthur