Agenda Index City of Vancouver

POLICY REPORT REPORT
DEVELOPMENT AND BUILDING

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

Director of Current Planning

SUBJECT:

Design Guideline Amendments - Beach Neighbourhood - Townhouses

 

RECOMMENDATION

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

Relevant Council Policies for the Beach neighbourhood include the:
· False Creek Policy Broadsheets, approved by Council August 1988.
· False Creek North Official Development Plan (FCN ODP), approved by Council, April 1990.
· Beach Neighbourhood CD-1 Zoning, approved by Council October 1999.
· Beach Neighbourhood CD-1 Guidelines, approved by Council October 1999.

PURPOSE

This report recommends the adoption of amendments to the Beach Neighbourhood CD-1 Guidelines to clarify the long-standing urban design intent that townhouses are developed on the lower floors of residential buildings.
BACKGROUND

The Beach neighbourhood is bounded by the Granville Bridge, False Creek, David Lam Park, and Homer Street The current zoning and design guidelines for the Beach neighbourhood were approved by Council in 1999 and development is currently underway. The intent of the original area plan was to have substantial townhouse frontages, however this intent was not made absolutely clear in the guidelines document. Staff and the developer (Concord Pacific) now have more experience and confidence in townhouse forms from both an urban design and marketing perspective. When we recently reviewed the guidelines and development to date in the neighbourhood we agreed that the intent of townhouses facing open spaces and streets should be made more explicit in the guidelines, so that those that review and decide upon upcoming applications would be provided a refreshed understanding of the original planning concept.

Townhouses have become a key urban design element for Vancouver's new neighbourhoods in the Downtown. The city's experience with these two-to-three storey, ground-oriented dwellings has demonstrated the following benefits:

· they provide housing that is attractive to families with children;
· they are also attractive to those households who want to live downtown in ground-oriented housing;
· they are an economically viable housing form;
· they create pedestrian-level interest and informal surveillance to improve safety; and
· they create a sense of domesticity and residential character; and
· they help to moderate the perception of high density in tower forms from sidewalks and streets.

DISCUSSION

The proposed design amendments clarify that streets, mews, park walkways, and the waterfront walkway are to be lined with townhouses with their front entrances oriented to the public realm.

The design guideline amendments:

· confirm provision of townhouses along the base of residential buildings in locations facing public spaces and streets as a key urban design principle for developments in the Beach neighbourhood;

· clarify that they should be provided along the base of low-, mid- and high-rise buildings; and
· insert photographs into the guidelines and refine the precinct maps to illustrate the suggested location and design of townhouse units.

CONCLUSION

The city has had a very good experience combining higher-density development forms with ground-oriented townhouse dwellings. This key urban design principle - which was intended in the original plan for Beach Neighbourhood - is being confirmed and refined in the attached updating of the guidelines. Provision of townhouses along the base of residential buildings, open spaces, and streets expands the diversity of housing, is economically viable, provides a residential character and pedestrian scale, and improves the safety of public areas by increasing the number of "eyes on the street" at the ground level. The landowner/developer concurs with the changes.

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APPENDIX A: BEACH NEIGHBOURHOOD CD-1 GUIDELINES

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