CITY OF VANCOUVER
Policy Report
Urban Structure
Date: |
February 11, 2004 | |
Author: |
K. Hiebert/I. Smith | |
Phone No.: |
604.871.6066/
| |
RTS No.: |
2972 | |
CC File No.: |
8206 | |
Meeting Date: |
March 11, 2004 |
TO: |
Standing Committee on Planning and Environment |
FROM: |
Director of Current Planning in consultation with the Director of Real Estate Services |
SUBJECT: |
Update on Southeast False Creek Official Development Plan (ODP) Planning Process |
RECOMMENDATION
THAT Council receive this report for information.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS Council's receipt of the above information.
COUNCIL POLICY
In October 1999, Council adopted the Southeast False Creek (SEFC) Policy Statement, identifying Southeast False Creek as a site of a future community and major waterfront park that would be a `model of sustainable development".
PURPOSE
This report summarizes the work to date on the SEFC Official Development Plan (ODP), including:
- A summary of the original terms of reference for building design and sustainability strategies for SEFC and Stewardship Group recommendations on how to achieve a sustainable community in SEFC (See: Appendix A for Southeast False Creek Stewardship Group Report to Vancouver City Council).
- Commentary from independent designers, staff, and the public on the City Lands ODP submission.
- An update on how the development area will model sustainability and excellence in urban design, and relate to other initiatives of the City of Vancouver, such as Cool Vancouver and the 2010 Winter Olympics initiatives.
BACKGROUND
The Site
The area referred to as "Southeast False Creek" (SEFC) is comprised of four sub-areas (see map below): the City Lands, the Private Lands, Translink site, and City Gate South.
Figure 1: Southeast False Creek Sub-areas
Three of the SEFC sub-areas are currently zoned M-2. City Gate South is zoned FC-1, permitting residential and commercial development. In 1990, SEFC was designated as a "let-go" industrial area and in 1991 Council directed that residential development in SEFC should provide a significant amount of family housing. Council further directed that SEFC incorporate principles of energy-efficient community design in its plan and that the City should explore the possibility of using SEFC as a model for "sustainable development."
Adoption of the SEFC Policy Statement
The public dialogue and research on `sustainability' in the first stage of SEFC planning resulted in an award-winning Policy Statement that demonstrated a new concern for the environment and principles of `sustainability'. The Policy Statement was prepared by staff, with considerable assistance from the Southeast False Creek Stewardship Group (a citizen advisory committee established to help guide the SEFC development), and with public input that included over 30 meetings with interest groups, adjacent neighbours, Council's advisory committees and the general public. In addition, a design charette that involved three teams of local and international experts was conducted, representing architectural, engineering, planning and development interests. The Policy Statement outlined the general planning principles to guide future development of the SEFC site - principles that would be translated into an area plan or Official Development Plan (ODP), which would in turn guide future CD-1 rezonings.
Completion of the Environmental Studies
In January 2003, four environmental studies required by the Policy Statement were completed. These studies focussed on energy, transportation, water and waste management, and urban agriculture. Upon their completion, the City hired a consultant (reSource Rethinking Building Inc. in association with Harris Consulting Inc., Keen Engineering Co. Ltd., Hotson Bakker Architects, and Thornley BKG Consultants Inc.) to note synergies and conflicts between the various plans and to recommend directions for the SEFC ODP. Thornley BKG Consultants were also asked to provide costing information for the site and amenity costs, as well as undertake a Bench-marking Study, to better understand the incremental costs of developing green residential buildings in Vancouver, if the city should choose to use a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard.
Submission of the ODP for the City Lands
In February 2003, work began on developing an Official Development Plan (ODP) for the area, a three dimensional exploration of the site. The City hired two planning and design consultant teams to do this work: VIA Architecture for the City Lands sub-area (including consideration of the Translink site) and CIVITAS Urban Design and Planning in collaboration with Stantec Architecture for the Private Lands sub-area. In the case of the City Lands site, VIA Architecture has been working with Real Estate Services who is acting as the `developer' with the other City Departments reviewing the work. With the Private Lands, the consultant has worked under the direction of the Planning Department. Both consultants were asked to propose an urban structure for the different sub-areas, including the road network, development parcels, open space, built form character, and maximum heights and densities.
In addition to recommendations for the overall urban structure and massing, the Private Lands consultant was asked to produce urban design guidelines for the Private Lands site. This was because in 2001, Council had agreed that there would be advantages to the owners and the City to proceed with an area-wide rezoning process for the Private Lands, even prior to the completion of the City Lands ODP. This was when CIVITAS/Stantec Architecture were originally hired. At that time, the City also hired Coriolis Consulting to evaluate the potential amount of a Community Amenity Contribution (CAC). The rezoning was targeted for completion in 2002; however this was not possible due to a lack of agreement and incomplete information. Consequently, the Public Hearing in September 2002 was terminated with an understanding that staff would continue to work with the owners to resolve the issues around height, density, and the costs of redevelopment, including infrastructure, green buildings, and the amount of the community amenity contribution. The timing of the Private Lands sub-area rezoning is discussed further in this report.
Both the City Lands and Private Lands design teams attended a series of integrated design workshops in February and March 2003 with the environmental consultant (reSource Rethinking Building Inc.) to further integrate sustainability objectives into the SEFC ODP and the urban design guidelines proposed for the Private Lands. This led to a preliminary ODP submission for the City lands in May, 2003. The CIVITAS/Stantec team also submitted their recommendations for built form, height, and density as well as urban design guidelines to staff in May 2003.
The first stage of public consultation was undertaken for the SEFC ODP between May and July 2003, with a focus on the City Lands. The results of the public process are summarized in this report.
Finally, Vancouver's successful bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, announced in July 2003, has resulted in further planning work on the Olympic Athlete's Village on the City Lands site integrated with the overall ODP vision.
DISCUSSION
Southeast False Creek Policy Statement Framework
The SEFC Policy Statement covered a wide scope of planning principles to guide the development of the ODP as set out in Appendix B (see for further details on the objectives outlined in the SEFC Policy Statement). Generally stated, SEFC is intended to be a sustainable urban community that builds on Vancouver's experience with major projects and further encourages the social health of the community, and ensures economic viability both in terms of project economics and in terms of providing housing close to jobs thereby supporting the economic vitality of the Central Business District. As well, SEFC is intended to influence all development in the City to continue to improve our standards of environmentally and socially sensitive development. Staff have also considered the recommendations of the SEFC Stewardship Group contained in Appendix A, particularly the process for achieving a sustainable community.
To that end, the ODP process has followed the steps outlined below:
1) Prepare and Apply Environmental Plans: As noted above, the environmental plans were prepared and then integrated by staff and consultants. Many recommendations have been integrated within the proposed ODP (see: Appendix C Draft Summary of SEFC Proposed Sustainability Package) and will continue to be reviewed through the final stage of public consultation, and other recommendations will be integrated at appropriate points later in the process.
2) Set Standards for Public Amenities: After a review of community amenity standards of new neighbourhoods in Vancouver, staff have recommended a range of community facilities in SEFC to address the educational, social, health, recreational, and cultural needs of residents and employees.
- Standards for non-market housing, family housing, facilities and amenities (i.e. school site, indoor recreation space, group and family day cares, library contributions and public art) as outlined in Appendix D, have been proposed taking into account the project development economics.
- Staff have also recommended that these facilities be sited in a way that maximizes the possibilities for multiple --uses and integrated programming.
3) Make this Development Economically Sustainable: Staff have undertaken a pro-forma analysis of the SEFC project on the City Lands with the aim of returning at a minimum the industrial land value, with the intent of demonstrating that the new approaches for infrastructure and design practices do not result in a significant cost increase and as such can be transferable to other developments in the city.
- The pro-forma analysis considers future revenues from the development of the lands and expected costs of community facilities, amenities, and sustainability measures, based on Thornley BKG's costing information.
- Making the numbers "work" has proven to be a challenge on the City Lands site because of the cost of cleaning contaminated soils to residential standards, providing new infrastructure in an area that has few existing services, and introducing a high level of public amenities, including a large 26.4 acre waterfront park. Council adopted the 26.4 acre park target at the time of the SEFC Policy Statement, having considered the need for additional park in this area of the city, notably the Mt. Pleasant area which is currently park-deficient according to currently used standards. Staff are close to finalising a package that we believe will work from the economic, social, and environmental perspectives. This will be the subject of a separate report to Council in March 2004.
4) Maintain the Design Objectives as outlined by the SEFC Policy Statement: Staff continue to work with the City's consultants to ensure the design incorporates:
- Diversity of built form;
- Fine-grained urban pattern;
- An active, interesting and safe public realm;
- Environmentally sustainable infrastructure;
- Appropriate massing and height so as to ensure successful transitions with the
adjacent neighbourhoods;
- Unique characteristics of the site; and
- Heritage character in the design and programming of its buildings, landscape, and
public realm. (See: Appendix B for further details on the objectives outlined by the Southeast False Creek Policy Statement)
5) Pursue Green Buildings: Staff from all departments continue to work on a strategy for greener buildings which will advance the goals of Cool Vancouver, will work for both public and private developers in SEFC, and will continue to advance green buildings in the rest of the city. This strategy, which may incorporate an interim solution dependent on guidelines and City review and a longer term goal of a building rating system and third party review, will be reported to Council prior to the public hearing on the SEFC ODP in May 2004.
City Lands ODP Response to the SEFC Policy Statement
In May, 2003, the City's architectural consultants submitted a draft ODP and an illustrative plan, shown below, for review and comment by staff, the SEFC Stewardship Group, and the public.
Figure 2: Draft City Lands ODP Proposal, May 2003
The preliminary ODP proposed a maximum of 2 million gross sq. ft of residential uses, of which 35% will be family units and 20% non-market residential units, and a maximum of 200,000 sq. ft of commercial and flex uses (live-work spaces) on the City Lands. It included 26.4 acres of parkland, and public amenities as mentioned above and outlined in Appendix D. The Olympic Athlete's Village, with its requirements for 600,000 sq. ft of housing for athletes, had also been integrated into the ODP Proposal.
Public Review
The first stage of public consultation for the ODP Proposal included over 14 meetings between May and July 2003. Information was also presented on the Private Lands general urban design directions and possible sustainability measures, including suggestions for green buildings.
Five public events, including two open houses and three workshops (investigating the themes of sustainability guidelines, urban design, and the park design) were widely advertised in local newspapers, on the SEFC website, and through newsletter drops to community centres, schools, and libraries. All events were well-attended, with attendance ranging from 50-200 people. Several public information days were held, as well as separate meetings with local business and resident associations, and a historical society. A Professional Urban Design Workshop was also held. The workshop, intended to provide a critique of the City Lands ODP proposal, was attended by some of Vancouver's most prominent and environmentally progressive architects, landscape architects, planners, developers, and engineers. The major themes of the public process were summarised and presented to the public at the `wrap-up' Open House, posted on the SEFC website, and documented more recently in a follow-up newsletter.
A complete summary of what was heard at each major public event, via comment sheets or through notes taken, is on file with the Clerk's Office. The commentary from the Professional Urban Design Workshop is summarised in Appendix E of this report.
Public Commentary
Briefly, the public and professionals supported:
- All sustainability measures, and were particularly interested in seeing a variety of transportation options, urban agriculture, energy efficiency, waste management and water conservation become priorities.
- The proposed 26.4 acre waterfront park.
- The proposed "green fingers" (park spaces that intersect with 1st and 2nd avenue) and generously landscaped north-south streets.
- The proposed package of public amenities.
- The proposed water features of the park and the innovative uses of stormwater throughout the development.
The public suggested changes in the following areas of the ODP proposal:
- More variety of building types.
- Better integration with the private lands and the surrounding neighbourhoods.
- Better recognition of the history and character of the site.
- A more animated and accessible waterfront.
- Further development of sustainable measures in energy use and transportation.
In addition, the professional review recommended:
- Introduce smaller parcel sizes and a greater variety of housing types and heights while maintaining 2 million sq. ft of residential density on the City Lands site. The revised plan should also integrate with the built form proposed for the Private Lands.
- Extend `green fingers' back to 2nd Avenue.
- Further integrate park space with the neighbourhoods.
- Reconsider the location and size of the neighbourhood centre, so as to create a more defined and focussed centre, which would provide some of the local-serving retail and commercial uses, including a modest-sized grocery store.
- Create stronger linkages to adjacent areas, notably on the east end of the site via the Central Valley Greenway.
- Further commemorate and celebrate the history of the site and heritage structures.
Staff Assessment of the ODP Submission
Staff comments back to the applicant have reflected the professional and public commentary outlined above on the draft ODP proposal for the City Lands, and staff have provided general and specific directions for revising the ODP design and sustainability measures to improve the ODP submission.
Urban Design Panel Comments on Revised ODP Plan
On August 21st, the Urban Design Panel considered the preliminary ODP proposal as well as revisions based on the professional and public review as a "work-in-progress".
The Urban Design Panel supported the new directions of the site design, including the enhancement of the `green fingers', looser grid structure, increased water edge activity, smaller parcel sizes, and general approach to redistributing the massing and height, but noted that more change was necessary.
Additional Design Explorations
Before finalising the ODP re-submission and the form of development as presented in the illustrative plan, two additional design explorations were undertaken. Both concepts were assessed from urban design, livability, and value perspectives.
1) Lower Height Design Exploration
During the public review, some members of the design community encouraged staff to generate a lower height design concept for the site to see what the urban design and density implications would be. Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden architects were hired to generate this concept and instructed to strive to meet the density target of 2 million sq. ft residential and 200,000 sq. ft of commercial density, and the park target of 26.4 acres. They were to do this with lower building forms (i.e. more row houses, town houses, mid-rise housing, courtyard housing, etc).
The Lower Height Design Exploration, which featured built form generally 8 stories and below, performed well in many respects from livability and urban design perspectives. However, the Consultant had been pushed to try to achieve the total development program square footage, while minimizing the amount of park re-allocated to development sites. Consequently, the Consultant increased the heights of some of the buildings to 10-12 stories on the north-south streets which posed shadowing and street design concerns. Even having done this, the Lower Height design was unable to meet the full development program target, without compromising park acreage by about 4 acres. Additionally, the financial return to this option was poor in comparison to the other development options with higher building forms, primarily because of a loss of water and mountain views.
2) Higher Density Design Exploration
The second design exercise undertaken was to examine approximately half a million square feet of additional residential density on the City lands site, beyond the 2.2 million sq. ft development program target. James Cheng Architects were hired to generate this concept. The rationale for this exploration was to generate additional revenue, potentially to fund site amenities, sustainability demonstration projects, or Cool Vancouver initiatives.
In the staff review of this concept design, strong concerns about general livability and quality of overall community design were identified. The scheme proposed towers (ranging from 16 to 28 stories) at two per half block in the eastern section of the site and one per block in the western section, resulting in tower forms ringing the site from Quebec Street all the way to Cambie Bridge. The density proposed in the scheme did not allow for adequate transitions of height through the site, and to adjacent areas (i.e. Mt. Pleasant and False Creek South to the west characterized by much lower heights). In addition, the proposed towers met only minimum standards of separation, and were on block sizes far smaller than, for example, Downtown South blocks, where similar kinds of density can be found.
Staff concluded that the Higher Density design would not meet the quality of community design and high degree of livability established elsewhere in the downtown area, particularly the major projects such as Coal Harbour and False Creek North.
It was concluded that neither design exploration sufficiently met the objectives of the SEFC Policy Statement; however the lessons learned from drawing up these concepts were very beneficial and informative. It was decided that key lessons from the design explorations should guide further revision of the ODP Proposal, noting that these conclusions are consistent with the public comments on the initial ODP Submission:
1. Revise the structure of the ODP to achieve the following:
- Enhance the north-south streets to promote street end views and pedestrian
and other forms of movement to the waterfront.
- Design smaller blocks and development parcels (to promote incremental
development) and consider applying the built form prototypes from the other
schemes.
- Introduce a road on the western edge of the waterfront park in the east to
allow for clear separation of the public and private realm.
2. Consider more intensive development of the eastern waterfront area. While
maintaining the required 30 metre setback from the shoreline, consider
small-scale commercial development in the eastern waterfront area to further ensure an active and interesting waterfront.
3. While maintaining a large waterfront park, look for opportunities to create
smaller parks particularly within the eastern neighbourhood.
Private Lands Sub-area Rezoning Timing
When approving the SEFC Policy Statement in 1999, Council agreed to have staff work in consultation with the private land owners to create residential uses in addition to existing uses and clean industrial uses (see Appendix F for Council's direction regarding the Private Lands SEFC study area, as adopted at the time of the Policy Statement). Council was receptive to allowing the Private Lands to serve as a catalyst for redevelopment in SEFC prior to the development of the City Lands.
In 2001, in response to three serious CD-1 rezoning inquiries within the Private Lands area, Council agreed that there would be advantages to the owners and the City to proceed with an area-wide rezoning process encompassing the Private Lands. As noted earlier, the rezoning was targeted for completion in 2002; however the Public Hearing held in September 2002 was concluded without a decision to rezone the lands. Staff have since worked further with the owners to resolve height, density, and cost issues, including infrastructure, green buildings, and the community amenity contribution.
Given that the public, the Stewardship Group, and representatives of the urban design community have called for further design integration of the Private Lands vis-à-vis the City Lands, staff are now pursuing an integrated ODP process for the City Lands and Private Lands sub-areas. Staff believe both the City and Private lands will benefit from a better and more responsive urban design and better integration of open space and sustainable measures.
Upon re-submission of the City Lands ODP application, staff will commence the second stage of public consultation for the SEFC ODP (City and Private Lands). Comments on the revised ODP proposal will be considered and reported to Council. It is anticipated that a sub-area rezoning for the Private Lands could proceed concurrently, or shortly after, the Public Hearing for the ODP.
The key target dates for the SEFC ODP process are the following:
Target Date:
Re-submission of City Lands ODP proposal Feb. 16, 2004
Second Stage ODP Public Review
-meetings with stakeholder groups February and March 2004
-Public Open House #1 February 21, 2004
-Public Open House #2 February 28, 2004
Development Economics Report March 2004
SEFC ODP Referral Report to Council April 8, 2004
SEFC ODP Public Hearing May 18, 2004
A work program and staffing report for the rezoning of the City Lands and the development of design guidelines will be given to Council for consideration as soon as possible after the conclusion of the ODP process.
CONCLUSION
From the beginning, the SEFC process has been different from previous major projects. In this stage, completion of work required by the Policy Statement has brought about a different kind of submission that has built upon and advanced the work of creating a more sustainable community and waterfront park. The recently completed public process has given more clarity and a stronger direction to the ODP, including further design exploration and the integration of the processes for the City and Private Lands. It is anticipated that the revised ODP submission will benefit from these new directions leading to a more comprehensive ODP and ultimately a better form of development in SEFC.
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