Vancouver Chinatown condo project is approved after years of controversy
Vancouver’s planning board has approved a controversial nine-story residential tower in the heart of Chinatown that supporters hope will revitalize the neighborhood, but critics see as a symbol of gentrification that undermines the neighborhood’s needs and history. does not reflect.
Monday’s unanimous vote came after years of battle between the city and developer Beedie Holdings Ltd. about the location at 105 Keefer Street.
The approval is conditional on a series of recommendations by city officials, including alterations to the building’s facade and improving the building’s relationship with nearby “culturally significant” features, such as the Chinatown Memorial Monument and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.
Beedie managing partner Rob Fiorvento said the company was “obviously pleased” with the decision and “we look forward to working with city staff and community groups to move this project forward.”
“We are ready to roll as fast as the city. So we will be working quickly with the city and community groups to kick-start engagement,” Fiorvento said, adding that the project was in line with the city’s efforts to revitalize Chinatown.
He said Beedie supported the permit board’s call to review the building’s architectural features “to further represent its character and cultural heritage neighborhood.”
Jade Ho, a Vancouver Tenants Union organizer who opposed the “widely despised” condo project, said Monday’s decision marks an “extremely horrific moment” in a city that continues to prioritize “profit over people.”
“The decision they made today will exacerbate displacement and accelerate gentrification in a neighborhood that is already becoming increasingly unlivable for seniors and low-income residents,” Ho said Monday.
The permit board had repeatedly rejected the plan since 2017, citing neighborhood opposition and a lack of compliance with regulations.
However, a BC Supreme Court judge last year ordered the board to reconsider the project, citing insufficient justification for rejecting the building.
Critics of the plan to build 111 residential and commercial units on what is now a parking lot denounced the lack of public housing, saying it is inconsistent with the neighborhood’s National Historic Site status.
But the project received support from several prominent Chinatown groups, including some who had opposed the project in 2017.
More than 140 people, most of whom were against the project, gave presentations to the board at meetings on May 30 and June 12 that continued well into the night.
Dozens of seniors and young activists gathered at Vancouver City Hall on Monday to watch the vote, some using simultaneous interpreters provided by the city.
The tenants’ union said in a press release that a “vocal brotherhood of Vancouver’s elite” would welcome the decision, but that the development “will only accelerate the destruction of a community they claim to care so much about.”
It said the community would continue to fight the project, which has been in the works since Beedie bought the land 10 years ago.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 26, 2023.
This story was produced with the financial support of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
