Agenda Index City of Vancouver


CITY OF VANCOUVER
Community Services
Planning Department
Rezoning Centre

M E M O R A N D U M June 20, 2001

TO:

Mayor and Councillors

COPY TO:

B. MacGregor, Deputy City Manager
F. Connell, Director of Legal Services
G. Johnsen, Legal Services
J. Forbes-Roberts, General Manager of Community Services
T. Timm, Deputy City Engineer
A. Bancroft-Jones, Manager of Real Estate Services
U. Watkiss, City Clerk

FROM:

L. Beasley, Director of Current Planning

SUBJECT:

800 Beatty Street: Text Amendment to CD-1 By-law No. 7248, Repeal of CD-1 By-law No. 7249, and Text Amendment to False Creek North Official Development Plan By-law No. 6650

SUMMARY AND PURPOSE

To achieve comprehensive development on a consolidated Site 5GH (875 Expo Boulevard, aka 858 Beatty Street) and B.C. Place Gap Site (800 Beatty Street, aka 855 Expo Boulevard), it is proposed to merge the zoning on both of these sites, as follows:

· amend the Quayside Neighbourhood CD-1 By-law No. 7248 (#324) to include as part of Site 5GH at 875 Expo Boulevard, the B.C. Place Gap Site at 800 Beatty Street zoned CD-1 By-law No. 7249 (#325),
· permit on the enlarged Site 5GH an additional 400 m² of Retail and Service Uses and 70 public parking spaces which are permitted by CD-1 By-law No. 7249 (#325) on the B.C. Place Gap Site at 800 Beatty Street,
· repeal CD-1 By-law No. 7249 which permits 400 m² of Retail and Service Uses and 1 600 m² of Parking Use on the B.C. Place Gap Site, and
· amend the Quayside Neighbourhood CD-1 Guidelines to include the B.C. Place Gap Site as part of Site 5GH and to guide its development.

To complete the arrangements to achieve comprehensive development on a consolidated site, it is also proposed to:

· amend the Quayside Neighbourhood CD-1 By-law to permit a maximum of 50 public parking spaces as an Interim Use on Site 5GH, and
· amend the False Creek North ODP to increase the maximum commercial floor area on Area 7B of False Creek North by 400 m².

BACKGROUND

When City Council approved the rezoning of Quayside Neighbourhood from BCPED to CD-1 in 1993, it also approved the rezoning of the B.C. Place Gap Site from BCPED to CD-1 (# 325) to permit the use and development of 400 m² (4,305 sq. ft.) of commercial floor area above 1 600 m² (17,223 sq. ft.) of above-grade parking mainly for B.C. Place Stadium. Rather than leave the Gap Site vacant and undeveloped, this development potential was provided as an incentive to development which would include an extension of the Terry Fox Plaza located at the foot of Robson Street. Council also approved:

At Public Hearing on March 08, 2001, City Council approved rezoning applications to amend the Quayside Neighbourhood CD-1 By-law and the False Creek North Official Development Plan to exchange residential development potential and a non-market housing obligation on Site 5GH (875 Expo Boulevard) for commercial development potential in Area 7B (the Apex Site between the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts). (Note: This rezoning was reported in the Policy Report, 875 Expo Boulevard (proposed 858 Beatty Street): Text Amendment to CD-1 By-law No. 7248 (RTS  1808), dated January 26, 2001 and approved February 13, 2001.)

The foregoing rezoning did not include the B.C. Place Gap Site, the triangular, undeveloped portion of 800 Beatty Street which would more appropriately form a part of Site 5GH and its development. The applicant wished to undertake a comprehensive development on a consolidated site, as has been the City's wish since the original rezoning of the Quayside Neighbourhood in 1993, but a business deal had not yet been concluded between the three parties having an interest in the Gap Site (Concord, Pavco and City).

Shortly after Public Hearing of March 08, 2001, at its In Camera meeting of March 13th, when dealing with the Administrative Report, Development of B.C. Place Gap Site (855 Expo Boulevard), dated March 8, 2001 (RTS 1950), Council instructed the City Manager to negotiate arrangements, and authorized the Director of Legal Services andCity Manager to execute agreements, regarding the Gap Site. Council also approved the following:

At its regular meetings of June 5 and June 12, 2001, City Council approved some of the necessary arrangements, including conveyance of the Gap Site and consolidation of a portion of that site with what is referred to above as Site 5GH at 875 Expo Boulevard. Rezoning to move the provisions of the CD-1 By-law for the Gap Site to the CD-1 By-law for Site 5GH, and to repeal the Gap Site's CD-1 By-law, can now proceed.

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS

Three by-law amendments are recommended to City Council. The first set of amendments, (1) below, directly responds to Council instruction of March 13. Two other amendments, (2) and (3) below, are recommended to address oversights in the previous rezoning (Public Hearing of March 08, 2001).

1. Incorporating the zoning provisions on the Gap Site with the zoning provisions on Site 5GH:

· amend the Quayside Neighbourhood CD-1 By-law No. 7248 (#324) to include as part of Site 5GH at 875 Expo Boulevard, the B.C. Place Gap Site at 800 Beatty Street zoned CD-1 By-law No. 7249 (#325);
· permit on the enlarged Site 5GH an additional 400 m² of Retail and Service Uses and 70 public parking spaces which are permitted by CD-1 By-law No. 7249 (#325) on the B.C. Place Gap site at 800 Beatty Street; and
· repeal CD-1 By-law No. 7249 which permits 400 m² of Retail and Service Uses and 1 600 m² of Parking Use on the B.C. Place Gap site.

It is recommended that CD-1 By-law No. 7249 for the Gap Site be repealed and that CD-1 By-law No. 7248 the for Quayside Neighbourhood, which includes Site 5GH be amended:

- to increase the maximum floor area in retail, service and office uses by 400 sq. m. [to do this by amending Table 1 in Section 6.1 and amending Table 2 in Section 6.5], and

- to increase the number of public, short-term parking spaces by 70. For both convenience and consistency, staff recommend a maximum number of parking spaces to replace maximum floor area in parking use. In consultation withEngineering Services, it has been determined that a maximum of 70 spaces could be accommodated within 1 600 m². These spaces are recommended to be "subject to conditions to ensure they are maintained as public, short-term parking, as determined by the Director of Planning in consultation with the City Engineer, and development permits would be limited in time to periods not exceeding three years".

2. Accommodating phased development on Site 5GH:

· permit a maximum of 50 public, short-term parking spaces as an Interim Use on Site 5GH

Rezoning of Site 5GH at March 8th Public Hearing did not anticipate and accommodate the phasing of development which was intended from the outset by the rezoning applicant. All underground parking, storage and related ancillary floor area normally provided below grade is customarily constructed at the outset of most development. However, the zoning regulations prescribe not just minimum parking requirements but also a maximum parking provision, to be calculated on the basis of the amount of floor area to be approved in a development application. If a development application is not for the complete development, then its complete parking provision cannot be approved.

A development application for Site 5GH was submitted following the March 8th Public Hearing to allow all the underground parking to be developed, but, at this time, just one of two proposed mid-rise buildings above. Recognizing that the surface parking lot presently on the site provides 238 spaces, most of them for all-day, commuter parking which the City seeks to discourage, staff support the interim use of parking spaces, which exceed the current maximum permitted, as public, short-term (hourly) parking. The excess parking spaces (50) are recommended to be "subject to conditions to ensure they are maintained as public, short-term parking, as determined by the Director of Planning in consultation with the City Engineer, and development permits would be limited in time to periods not exceeding three years".

3. Amending the False Creek North ODP to transfer an additional 400 m² to Area 7B

· amend Figure 5 in the False Creek North Official Development Plan (By-law No. 6650) to increase the maximum commercial floor area on Area 7B by 400 m² and to amend section 3.2.4 to increase the maximum amount of retail uses outside of the areas designated as office on Figure 5 by 400 m².

The rezoning of Site 5GH, approved at Public Hearing on March 08, 2001, involved a transfer of development potential between Site 5GH and Area 7B, but it had not been indicated in the rezoning application or determined in subsequent review that an additional 400 m² of commercial potential was to be transferred to Area 7B. This transfer is intended to further increase the incentive provided in the original rezoning in1993, and which had not been sufficient to facilitate the development of the Gap Site and achieve an improved public amenity at the foot of Robson Street and a gateway (via the stairs and concourses) to the new neighbourhoods on the north shore of False Creek.

QUAYSIDE NEIGHBOURHOOD CD-1 GUIDELINE AMENDMENTS

Staff recommend amendments to the Quayside Neighbourhood CD-1 Guidelines to replace the Cover Figure and Figures 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 19, and 22 with new figures which incorporate the Gap Site as part of Site 5GH. An amendment is also recommended to guide development of the small retail/service building at the north(west) corner of the site near Terry Fox Plaza.

APPROVAL CONDITIONS

Several legal agreements, or modifications, replacements, extensions and releases, are recommended to be executed prior to enactment of the CD-1 By-law amendments. The recommended agreements are generally self-explanatory, addressing a variety of property owner obligations vis-a-vis the City or abutting properties.

CONCLUSION

The recommended by-law amendments have been prepared in consultation with staff in Legal Services, Real Estate Services, and Engineering Services. They have also been discussed with and are supported by PCI Developments, Busby & Associates Architects, Pacific Place Developments, and Pavco.

Pacific Place Developments on June 19th identified further amendments to the False Creek North ODP. However, this request has been received too late for staff to consider and, if supported, to include in the posted By-laws and this Public Hearing package. Staff will review the request and prepare for presentation at the Public Hearing any by-laws which are consequential in nature.

L. Beasley, Director of Current Planning
larry_beasley@city.vancouver.bc.ca
Phone: 604-873-7698

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