GVRD Housing Choices - July 2007

The Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) is developing a strategy to meet the increasing demand for residential housing that is located close to employment, transportation and service centres. Meeting this demand will require an increase in housing diversity in the region.
 

To further explore ways of increasing housing diversity the GVRD, in partnership with the Ministry of Community Services, the Urban Development Institute, and the Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association has funded a study. The study will identify actions required to redevelop single family and low density residential urban areas to higher densities. The study will also highlight how to promote opportunities and minimize barriers to increased densification.
 

Urbanized sites are often more difficult to develop than undeveloped sites. As a result, development often occurs in suburban locations. A few of the challenges to urban redevelopment include:

• lack of appropriate zoning or land use designations which may not be economically viable;
• developer risk aversion;
• inappropriate servicing requirements;
• land use policies that maintain existing land use; and
• design constraints.

The specific objectives of the study are to:

• analyze the economic factors which may impact the feasibility of urban redevelopment or intensification;
• identify suitable housing forms which may be appropriate for urbanized sites and analyze the circumstances where the forms may be viable;
• create an inventory of 20 residential projects that demonstrate residential intensification;
• identify and analyze aspects of municipal planning processes which may act as opportunities or barriers;
• use five “pilot sites” to analyze the economic and planning factors that affect redevelopment;
• outline criteria to assist local governments to identify candidate sites for redevelopment to higher density housing; and
• analyze and identify policies or practices which may improve the viability of the redevelopment of existing detached and semi-detached housing sites to multiple family housing.

The outcomes of the GVRD study will create a model for other local governments. In particular, there will be a significant amount of analysis around the challenges and opportunities with respect to economic viability of redevelopment and the municipal planning processes. There will be examples of redevelopment and a set of criteria to identify possible urban redevelopment sites. Finally, the identification of policies or practices which improve redevelopment could be used by other jurisdictions.
 

When the Greater Vancouver Regional District Housing Choices project is completed a summary of the results and links to further information will become available on the Ministry of Community Services’ website.