CITY OF VANCOUVER

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

 

Report Date:

February 28, 2005

 

Author:

Tom Phipps

 

Phone No.:

604.871.6604

 

RTS No.:

04879

 

CC File No.:

3258

 

Meeting Date:

March 15, 2005

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

Director of Current Planning in consultation with the Directors of Housing Centre, Social Planning and Cultural Affairs and Manager of Engineering Services

SUBJECT:

East Fraser Lands Official Development Plan Program

RECOMMENDATION

FURTHER THAT, Council endorse parallel consideration of a Phase 1 rezoning application, not to proceed to Public Hearing in advance of enactment of an ODP.

FURTHER THAT, consistent with City cost recovery policy, Council accept a policy phase contribution of $881,800 to begin the program and a rezoning phase Contribution of $364,200 in 2006 from Parklane Homes to fully cover these costs:

AND FURTHER THAT these contributions be applied to rezoning fees.

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of the above.

COUNCIL POLICY

· Regional Context Statement Official Development Plan, 2000
· CityPlan, approved May 1995
· Victoria Fraserview-Killarney Community Vision, approved January 2002
· East Fraserlands Planning Program, approved May 28, 2002
· Industrial Lands Policies: Fraserview, approved March 1995
· East Fraserlands Policy Statement December 16, 2004.

SUMMARY & PURPOSE

This report describes and recommends a fully cost recovered planning program to work with neighbouring communities and development interests to develop, assess and recommend to Council an Official Development Plan (ODP) for East Fraserlands flowing from the East Fraserlands Policy Statement. The ODP would define overall development parameters and community amenity requirements. Comprehensive Development Districts (CD-1) would then be recommended to provide detailed zoning for sub-areas. The first sub-area rezoning could be initiated prior to completion of the ODP.

BACKGROUND

Site Description: East Fraserlands is located in the southeast corner of the city on the Fraser River, between Kerr Street and Boundary Road, and south of Marine Way. The site comprises 51 hectares (126 acres) of land currently zoned for industrial use.

A Canadian Pacific Rail corridor bisects the site. The land south of the rail corridor was in use by the Canadian White Pine Sawmill until its closure in 2001, and is now owned by ParkLane Homes. The City of Vancouver is the major land owner north of the tracks. The City lands were originally acquired to create an industrial park although these uses were never established. The parcels are now covered with scrub growth. Parklane Homes currently holds an option to purchase these lands. In addition, several small parcels, comprising 9 acres (3.64 ha) in total, are privately owned and are either vacant or have industrial uses.

Summary of Planning Process to Date: When West Fraserlands was planned on the industrial lands to the west of Kerr Street in the 1980s, the possibility for new residential development to the east was discussed, if the sawmill use left the area. However, to avoid displacing a viable industrial use, the City kept the industrial zoning in place for the lands east of Kerr.

The 1995 Industrial Lands Policies stated that the land uses for the area would be re-evaluated if the sawmill use ceased. Further the Council adopted CityPlan Vision for Victoria-Killarney/Fraserview (VFK) (January 2002) concluded that if the sawmill closed, the City "should initiate a major study of future uses of this area which should include consideration of a range of housing options, along with required park space, waterfront walkways, schools and other public facilities and services required for the future population".

In 2001, the landowners approached the City about considering other land use options. In May 2002, at the outset of the East Fraserlands planning program, City Council directed staff to:

At the request of the owners, much of the early planning work focussed on site planning elements such as density, required land dedications, amenity provision, building heights and land use allocation. These issues were critical to the business decisions and agreements between the original landowners, Weyerhaeuser and the City, and the prospective purchasers, ParkLane Homes. Feedback obtained form Open Houses in Summer 2002 and Fall 2003 favoured less focus on site planning and more emphases on the preparation of a Policy Statement to establish general objectives and principles for East Fraserlands.

Accordingly, City Staff prepared a draft Policy Statement for the site in consultation with the East Fraserlands Sub-Committee of the VKF CityPlan Committee and ParkLane Homes. The draft document was presented to the wider community in October 2004. The input from this process informed the final draft of the Policy Statement which addresses questions of land use, transportation, development density, urban design and community amenities, and provides general direction on resolving these questions in the more detailed ODP and rezoning stages of planning - recognizing that critical choices and trade-offs will have to be made at those stages. The Policy Statement is therefore flexible enough to accommodate a variety of detailed plans and options to be refined and evaluated during future planning work and community consultations. However, it also establishes clear principles for the creation of a successful, sustainable and viable new community.

The Vision: The vision for East Fraserlands is to create a complete and "walkable" community which will provide opportunities for residents to live, work, learn, shop and play locally. The Policy Statement is the framework for a self-sustaining new neighbourhood with varied housing options and a rich mixture of facilities including commercial services, retail, community facilities, parks, schools, recreational opportunities and natural elements.

At the heart of the vision is the desire to recycle this large area of brownfield land close to the metropolitan core in an efficient and sustainable way. The objective is to remediate the damage done by the site's industrial past and to create a new neighbourhood which takes full advantage of the natural place-making opportunities of the south-facing riverfront setting.

By establishing a series of strategic principles informed by sustainable community planning, the Policy Statement embraces the challenge of creating a new neighbourhood of the city which respects its neighbours; encourages walking, cycling and transit while restraining use of the car; promotes environmental, social and economic sustainability; and inspires quality in the design of buildings and the public realm.

Implementation and Phasing of Public Amenities: A fundamental element of the vision is that the new community should be locally and adequately served by public amenities and commercial services provided concurrently with arrival of new residents. When rezoning land for redevelopment, the City seeks Community Amenity Contributions (CACs) in the form of in-kind or cash contributions which help finance public amenities. The type and amount of amenities provided through negotiated amenity packages vary. There are general levels of service sought by the City, but amenity amounts are not fixed. Rather, they depend on how well served an area is relative to demand, and by the ability to finance amenities through private and public means. For East Fraserlands, a community needs assessment will be undertaken to inform negotiations at the ODP phase.

The location of public amenities will not be evenly spread across varied land ownership due to the desire to concentrate facilities around a neighbourhood centre and parks along the riverfront. Given that the land is unlikely to be consolidated under a single ownership, it is important to establish the principle that, as far as possible, the obligation to provide public amenities will be shared equitably amongst landowners based on their share of the development potential determined at the ODP and Rezoning stages. For this reason when approving the Policy Statement, Council endorsed a strategy for determining and securing a public amenity package for East Fraserlands to be based on the following principles:

DISCUSSION

The East Fraserlands Policy Statement provides a policy framework within which the City may consider a plan setting out the parameters for development and the specific amenities appropriate to support that development. The Policy Statement does not provide the level of detail needed to guide site specific zoning, particularly for this large scale site expected to be developed over an estimated 20 year period. Therefore, an ODP is recommended to provide more specific direction and an overall consistency within which individual zonings may follow.

Experience with ODP development indicates that this needs to be an iterative public process in which concepts are proposed and revised until an acceptable balance of development and amenities and other policy objectives are achieved and language developed to reflect a structure for delivering it. This structure must allow for numerous more specific zonings to be developed for phased development which would evolve over a 20 year period, while maintaining the intended directions set out in the Policy Statement.

Achieving a framework for desirable development patterns will require a focus on plan development including: public access, land use, parcelization and built form questions to be addressed in a manner which provides for development opportunities responding favourably to Council's policy objectives. This requires exploration of diverse residential building and unit types able to provide for a suitable demographic mix. Location, size and nature of park, school and other public amenities will need to be determined along with appropriate configurations for commercial and potentially light industrial uses. A permeable pattern of public street dedications must be suitable for transit, encourage pedestrian convenience and accommodate traffic.

A sequence of focused and broader public input opportunities will be provided. While achieving efficiency, the program must provide ample time and resources for local residents to absorb, understand and respond to the proposals. Program timelines reflect a balance of these objectives. Parklane's willingness to host a major design Charrette at the outset of the program will offer opportunities to crystallize directions for a plan at an early stage, leading to further on-going discussions. This will contribute to the efficiency of the process and increases hands-on opportunities for public involvement in creation of the plan.

This program is structured to provide an opportunity for proponents to initiate a rezoning application for the first phase of development in parallel with the ODP process, at a stage when sufficient direction has been achieved on the ODP structure. This approach would encourage delivery of amenities for existing and new residents at the earliest opportunity, before they develop patterns of seeking commercial services elsewhere. Therefore, a first phase rezoning would need to involve delivery of a balance of residential, commercial and community serving functions.

Process Objectives: To ensure credibility with the public and continuity in the process, it would be beneficial for the property owners to provide assurances to the City that once staff have been committed and the public engaged in a program, the owners intend, all things being equal, to complete the ODP stage and if appropriate a rezoning.

Program Staffing: To provide the public, advisory groups and proponents with the level of service needed to achieve appropriate and timely conclusions, and potentially rezoning, requires a dedicated program team, including urban design resources and the usual range of departmental technical representatives (see Appendix B). Staffing levels are recommended to reflect the desire to permit a partially concurrent first phase rezoning. This team would work under the guidance of the Major Projects Steering Committee. The Current Planning Major Projects team will be assigned the planning and project management role in this work. This role will also include providing direct assistance to community representatives to provide for their resource needs as active participants in this process.

Rezoning Fees: Cost Recovery planning programs have established the principle that voluntary contributions paid to cover pre-zoning policy work would be contributed toward rezoning fees if full cost recovery is achieved, including rezoning. Initial analysis indicates that full cost recovery for the scoping, ODP and rezoning segments of the program would be achieved through the recommended budget and may be credited against ODP and rezoning fees. There is no specific fee for creating an ODP. However, if the full site is rezoned to
CD-1 the Fee By-Law would currently require a fee of $3,176,960. The ultimate objective is full cost recovery for the overall process, but not beyond that. To ensure that this objective is achieved, the Fee By-Law will be reviewed when the Phase 1 rezoning is nearing completion. This will assist staff in assessing future costs for subsequent rezoning phases. Fee By-Law amendments may be recommended.

PUBLIC BENEFITS

Development Cost Levies (DCLs): DCLs will apply to new development at the rate operative at the Building Permit stages, however any application of DCL funds to capital projects on East Fraserlands will be the subject of further reports to Council.

Community Amenity Contributions (CACs): Current City CAC policy directs that for sites in excess of 2 acres staff will negotiate a CAC of at least the flat CAC rate $32.29 per m2 ($3.00 per sq. ft.) on net increase in allowable non-industrial development. The CAC flat rate establishes a benchmark for negotiating. A negotiated CAC (cash or in-kind) should not be less than what the flat rate CAC would provide. The policy also states that for non-standard rezonings providing a negotiated CAC, such as this project, the contextual information to assist negotiations could include: the cost of providing facilities to City standards; the adequacy of neighbourhood facilities; development economics (of the specific area and sites); and community support. In this case a "needs assessment" will also inform negotiations.

This policy is intended to deal with local amenity needs, to ensure that the new development does not generate significant additional costs for the general tax base particularly where limited amenities now exist. Those amenity needs will be contemplated during the ODP process to give guidance to negotiation and securing of a CAC at the time of the rezoning. Staff would apply Council-approved "Guidelines for Determining Specific Amenities" which direct staff to evaluate the full range of City services and amenities in the area in developing a specific CAC package.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

A full cost recovery budget based on initial discussions with the proponent is estimated to be $1,246,000 as outlined in Appendix C, providing for the technical team as described above as well as public process. Consistent with the cost recovery policy, costs are included for completing public process, ODP development and scoping work undertaken to assess the proponents' needs and report the program to Council. It is proposed that payments correspond to phasing, with payment for scoping work, ODP preparation and enactment split into three payments starting with a contribution of $300,000 by March 18, 2005, to be followed by $300,000 by August 31, 2005 and $281,800 by February 15, 2006, to be committed in writing by the proponent; and the remaining contribution of $364,200 to be made in two instalments of $182,100 by January 31, 2006 and June 30, 2006 in anticipation of a rezoning application. ParkLane Homes and Wesgroup, as owners of the majority of East Fraserlands, agrees with and is prepared to fund this budget and acknowledge that the required voluntary contribution would be increased if actual program costs exceed this budget. Financial contributions not committed to expenditure by the City on the East Fraserlands planning program would be refunded.

PROPONENTS COMMENTS

See Appendix D

VICTORIA-FRASERVIEW/KILLARNEY VISIONS SUBCOMMITTEE COMMENTS

See Appendix E

CONCLUSION

The recommended Official Development Plan planning program and phase 1 rezoning process are designed to follow through on the detailed work and public process required to implement the East Fraserlands Policy Statement approved by Council in December 2004. This process will involve development of a plan for East Fraserlands which embodies the principles established in the Policy Statement. The ODP and associated agreements will set out the basis for specific zoning and amenity delivery to follow.

- - - - -

APPENDIX "A"
PAGE 1 OF 2

Recommended Program Timetable

Scoping                                                                 Process

January 2005                                                         Develop program proposal

February Initial process meetings

March Present program report

Policy Process

March Conclude background research

April Invite community/stakeholder

May Assess Charette outputs,

June Public open house/workshop

July/August Incorporate Public, Panel and VCPC

September Review Draft Plan and

October Revise Plan as necessary
November Revise amenity proposals as necessary
December Submit ODP application

January 2006 Public ODP Review Process

February / March Revise ODP, Amenity package

April Complete ODP referral report

May ODP Public Hearing

June Draft Phase 1 Referral Report

July Present Phase 1 referral report

Enactment

August Respond to conditions
September Draft Legal Agreements

October Complete Legal Agreements

November/December Enactment Reports to Council

APPENDIX "B"
PAGE 1 OF 1

East Fraser Lands ODP Program

Staffing Time (person months) Allocations

Core Staff

Senior Planner 6
Project Planner 20
Planning Analyst 9

Technical Team

Rezoning Planner 12
Planning Assistant 12
Urban designer 7
Subdivision Coordinator .25
Solicitor 7.25
Civil Engineer 16
Social/Cultural Planner 6
Housing Planner 4
Park Planner 6

APPENDIX "C"
PAGE 1 OF 1

East Fraser Lands Program Budget Summary

 

Scoping

ODP Process

Phase 1 Rezoning

Enactments

Total Salaries, Benefits

$25,003

$399,613

$221,587

$119,741

Core Team

        

Senior Planner

$8,182

$24,545

$8,386

$8,386

Project Planner 11

$12,710

$104,225

$6,514

$6,514

Planning Analyst

$0

$33,638

$0

$17,240

         

Technical Team

        

Rezoning Planner 1

$0

$0

$71,807

$0

Planning Asst 111

$0

$27,353

$28,037

$0

Urban Designer

$0

$26,779

$20,587

$0

Subdivision Co-ord

$0

$1,560

$0

$0

Civil Eng 11

$0

$65,966

$29,318

$21,989

Legal Services

$4,111

$32,890

$33,712

$50,568

Housing Planner

$0

$23,947

$8,182

$0

Social/Cultural Planner

$0

$31,930

$8,182

$8,182

Park Planner

$0

$26,779

$6,862

$6,862

         

Total Process Cost

$0

$208,393

$33,909

$11,974

Public Consultation

        

Public Hearing

        

Consultancies

        

Supplies, Services

        

Contingency

        
         

Overhead Costs

$0

$136,607

$58,679

$28,584

Office Space

        

Administrative

        
         
       

$112,209 Enact ODP

       

$ 48,090 Enact RZ

Phase Budget

$25,003

$744,613

$316,175

$160,299

Cumulative Budget

  

$769,616

    

plus Enactment

  

$112,209

$ 48,090

  

Phased Payment

  

$881,826

$364,265

$1,246,091

APPENDIX D
PAGE 1 OF 1

PROPONENTS COMMENTS

In December of last year, the East Fraserlands Policy Statement received unanimous approval from Council, thus enabling the project to proceed to the official development plan stage of the planning process. ParkLane is looking forward to working with City Staff, the community, and council to generate the best possible plan for this area of Vancouver.

To help facilitate the process, ParkLane is staging an 8-day design charrette in the middle of April of this year. To encourage the greatest community involvement possible, the event will be held on the old mill property. With support from City Staff, we believe that this will provide an unequaled opportunity for the community and the other stakeholders to take a hands-on approach in shaping the future plans for East Fraserlands. Over the eight days, the community will have in excess of 60-hours of time where they will be able to participate in subject meetings, observe and comment on the different planning options as they are drawn up and explored, and to participate in more formal presentations as the plan develops over the eight days.

Following the charrette, the City's public consultation process will continue to give the public further opportunity to review and influence the plan. ParkLane supports the attached cost recovery program and is prepared to fund the budget as outlined.

APPENDIX E
PAGE 1 OF 1

VICTORIA-FRASERVIEW/KILLARNEY VISIONS SUBCOMMITTEE COMMENTS

"The "Vision" of the East Fraserlands Development is accurately noted on page four of this report. This vision could be seen to be at odds with the "strategy for determining and securing a public amenity package" as noted on page five. In point one on page five, there is reference to 1) the normal City policy expectations for amenities, 2) the finding of the needs assessment, and 3) the context of the financial realities of the site as determinants for securing a public amenity package for EFL.

Additional evidence of the struggle between "vision" and reality is found on page seven. Setting of Development Cost Levies and Community Amenity Contributions is intended to ensure that developments like EFL do not generate significant additional costs for the general tax base.

The tension between community concerns/vision and city standards and financial realities is reflected in the Policy Statement. In Section 3.3.5 it is noted that it is the Park Board and the community that wants a total of 2.29 sq. ft. of indoor recreation space per new resident. While this is the desire of the community, we have been repeatedly reminded that the financial realities of this project will not support much more than 1 sq. ft per resident.

The EFL site is isolated in a corner of the city currently not well served by existing amenities and next to the West Fraserlands with no amenities. The EFL Committee expects that the amenity package will include the needs of West Fraserlands residents and will be driven by the goal to reduce the need for EFL and WFL residents to leave their neighbourhood to meet their recreational and community needs. If this cannot be done given the "financial realities" of the site alone, then the City has to work with the community and the developer towards a viable solution. We will not be satisfied with any excuse based on financial realities for not creating a truly "complete" community.

We will not accept solutions such as sharing of facilities unless it is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the competing interests of both school age children and other residents of the community can be met. In addition, the provision of community facilities can not be dependent on a provincial government that has shown its extreme unwillingness to build new schools.

Council, City staff and the developer have to know that the community will continue to demand that the EFL development push the boundaries of city standards and financial realities in order to create together an outstanding, complete and sustainable community."

Sharon Saunders for the EFL Committee

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