A construction crane at a condo development towers above buildings in Chinatown in Vancouver, on Jan. 15, 2015.DARRYL DYCK/The Globe and Mail
Some leaders in Vancouver’s Chinatown are hoping a recent Supreme Court decision ordering the city to reconsider a controversial condo project will bring a new building and residents to the community in the heart of the Downtown Eastside.
“We need development because we need people in the neighbourhood. We’ve seen what has happened here in the last four years with no eyes on the street,” said Chinatown business-association president Jordan Eng. He was responding to the court’s decision this week ordering the city to reconsider the development application by Beedie Holdings that was turned down five years ago.
The application for a condo building at 105 Keefer Street by a major development company in the Beedie empire, which eventually included 25 social-housing units and some community meeting space, generated a wave of opposition when it was first proposed in 2017. Young people whose parents had had connections to Chinatown were particularly active, as were some older advocates for Chinatown.
Much of the opposition came after three other apartment buildings went up on Main Street as part of an effort to bring new development and residential space to the community. Opponents thought those projects were out of scale with the historic district and provided too few amenities for the existing community.
The Beedie proposal for what remains a parking lot was supported by many of the business owners in Chinatown, who worried about the neighbourhood’s state of decline and the lack of local residents to help support businesses.
After many evenings of raucous meetings, a three-person development-permit board – the city manager, the city’s head of engineering, and the deputy city manager – voted 2-1 to reject the application.
The Beedie company has been fighting the decision ever since, going first to the city’s board of variance, to the Supreme Court, then the Court of Appeal, then back to the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Justice Jan Brongers rejected many Beedie arguments alleging bad faith by the city. But the judge agreed the city did not provide adequate reasons for the decision to reject the application.
Justice Brongers noted the city considered 111 other development-permit applications in the five years prior to the 105 Keefer decision and didn’t turn down a single one. Some were approved but with conditions that had to be met, but none were absolutely rejected the way the Keefer project was.
“I therefore find that that the board’s November 6, 2017, decision to reject the DP Application without indicating what conditions Beedie would need to satisfy in order for it to be approved is a departure from past practice that violated Beedie’s legitimate expectations,” the judge wrote. “I have searched in vain for such a justificatory explanation in the transcript of the board members’ remarks. … In the absence of such an explanation, I find that the board’s decision was unreasonable.”
Beedie lawyer Howard Shapray called it a “big decision for Beedie.”
“We’re hoping we can revisit this issue without all the political noise. There’s a new sheriff in town,” he said, referring to the new mayor and council just elected, “and they want to revitalize Chinatown. There might be a completely different attitude.”
The declining state of Chinatown was a factor in the recent election, as numerous Chinatown leaders went public with fears about how crime and public disorder were destroying the neighbourhood’s economic vitality. The new ABC Vancouver mayor, Ken Sim, and his council promised to put a city office in Chinatown and focus on helping the community.
Many local business owners are hoping for something to turn the tide, and a new building with new residents could be one part of that.
“I’m hoping they’ll go back to the drawing board,” said Henry Tom, the vice-president of the Vancouver Chinatown Merchants Association.
He said the association had always supported the project to try to establish Chinatown as a viable residential district, although he thought that Beedie could have done more for the community with the project.
“There’s a lack of Chinese seniors’ housing and they could do a lot better.”
It’s unclear what kind of opposition a new proposal from Beedie might bring, but Mr. Tom said he’s expecting the issue to remain divisive.
Calls to previous opponents of the project were not returned. Officials from the city and Beedie Holdings said they had no comment for now as they were reviewing the decision.