As reported on DailyHive.com, more rental homes have been approved for Vancouver’s Fraser Street corridor, following another round of similar discussions and debates in council and amongst public speakers over market rental housing and building heights.
On Thursday evening, Vancouver city council voted 7-3 in favour of Strand Development and Integra Architecture’s proposal at 3833 Fraser Street for a six-storey, mixed-use building with 121 market rental homes and nearly 11,000 sq. ft. of ground-level restaurant and retail space.
Those opposed to the proposal, which attracted neighbourhood angst, were councillors Jean Swanson, Colleen Hardwick, and Adriane Carr.
In his closing comments during the public hearing, Mayor Kennedy Stewart warned that the developer could easily turn the site to unaffordable duplexes based on existing zoning — a home type that he would not be able to afford himself.
“Those duplexes would sell for about $1.5 million each, and you’d need an income of over $300,000 to afford them plus a down payment of $300,000,” said Stewart,
“I’m a renter and as your mayor, I could not afford that. The mayor of Vancouver cannot afford the alternative to what is being proposed here, which I think is kind of insane.”
For councillor Christine Boyle, she said her support for the project was partially based on the fact that the redevelopment would not replace any existing rentals, and as a result there is no displacement of tenants.