By Frances Bula, Globe and Mail | Link to Article
The rapid pace of condo development in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown has prompted a local advocacy group to start petitioning for a moratorium on new building.
By Frances Bula, Globe and Mail | Link to Article
The rapid pace of condo development in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown has prompted a local advocacy group to start petitioning for a moratorium on new building.
“We’re seeing a wave of development that is changing the character of Chinatown. It’s become another Gastown or Yaletown,” said King-mong Chan, who works with a Chinatown planning group through the Carnegie Centre Action Project. “And it’s condos and luxury hotels, when there’s a wait list for affordable housing here.”
Mr. Chan and his group, who were out collecting signatures this week, are not alone in being worried about the transformation of Chinatown in the past two years, with 780 units of new housing developed or proposed since a new neighbourhood plan went into effect in 2012.
Former city planners, people whose families have a long history in Chinatown, and heritage advocates have expressed concern about the wave of building because it is not bringing the community benefits they thought it would and it does not mesh with the neighbourhood’s historic architecture.
In response to the latter, the city’s planning department has organized a meeting in March between the city’s urban design panel – local architects who vet major projects before they go to council for approval – and the Chinatown Historic Area Planning Committee.
“Those [concerns about design] are valid,” city planner Kevin McNaney said. “The meeting in March will look at how can these developments reflect the architecture of Chinatown.”
He also said the city got 22 units of social housing from one project (although only 11 rented at the lowest rate of $375 a month) and $1.3-million from another that will go to refurbishing 600 units of low-cost apartments in Chinese family-society buildings.