Vancouver city council got a first look at proposed work to revitalize the fading Granville Entertainment District on Wednesday.
City staff presented a report outlining terms of reference for an 18-month Granville Street Planning Program aimed at a cultural and economic revitalization of the city’s historic high street between Robson and Drake streets.
The area in question is home to some of the city’s most historically significant buildings and iconic neon signs, key live performance venues and theatres, restaurants and the highest concentration of single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels outside the Downtown Eastside.
It is also one of the city’s busiest transit corridors and includes key stations on both the Expo/Millennium and Canada lines.
However, the report notes the area has suffered numerous challenges in recent years, including reduced daytime activity, empty storefronts, crime and safety issues, nighttime violence linked to intoxication and growing concerns about homelessness.
The goal of the completed plan would be to boost opportunities for entertainment, live performance, dining and tourism, retail and office space and limited housing, while preserving the street’s heritage, according to the report.
Key priorities of the planning process include re-establishing the street as the city’s premier destination, centering arts and culture, boosting daytime and nighttime activity, preserving heritage character, boosting pedestrian and transit access and defining the future of housing on the strip.
The report also lays out an interim rezoning policy, which would freeze rezonings in the study area in a bid to curb land speculation, but allow already submitted applications to continue.
It also makes specific note of the major rezoning application for 800-876 Granville Street, which proposes a multi-story addition above some of the most iconic properties on Granville Street, including the Commodore Ballroom and Orpheum Theatre, and significantly reshapes the look and feel of the block.
City staff has recommended an “enhanced rezoning” for the site, which the report proposed conducting in tandem with the Granville planning program “ensuring that details from the planning program are incorporated into the rezoning proposal as the site options are developed.”
The rezoning application would also include “an ‘enhanced’ engagement process, which means there is an opportunity for policy development and deeper public engagement beyond that of a typical rezoning application,” the report states.
If approved, the planning work would start in the first quarter of 2023 with $300,000 in funding from this year’s operating budget.
Councillors received the report Wednesday but deferred a debate and vote on the plan until Jan. 31.
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