Commercial Street Cafe, a local cafe at the corner of Commercial St. and East 20th Ave. in Vancouver, on Oct. 25.Kayla Isomura/The Globe and Mail
Commercial Street is a special little shopping street tucked away on Vancouver’s east side, just west of Victoria Drive, part of the historic Cedar Cottage neighbourhood. The street has enjoyed a revival in recent years, with a growing population, restoration of the Gow Block heritage building, and the arrival of interesting shops, such as Second Nature Home Boutique, Flourist Bakery, Collective Goods and Equinox Gallery.
More than 100 years ago, it was a thriving high street thanks to a popular stop for the Central Park interurban streetcar, according to history buff and resident Peter Finch. But by the early 1950s, B.C. Electric had replaced the streetcars with buses. Most of the retailers moved away.
Mr. Finch, a retired letter carrier and motorman who drove the demonstration streetcar at the Olympic Village during the 2010 Winter Games, worries that their little gem of a street will be obliterated now that the city has its sights on rezoning it for higher density. As part of the city’s Vancouver Plan, staff recently announced the next step in prezoning 17 intersections as future “villages” that will offer residential buildings up to six storeys without having to go through a lengthy rezoning. The roughly 400-metre catchment area will include existing retail areas that have potential for more density, such as Commercial Street and East 20th Avenue. That crossroads currently has the Gow Block on one corner, a three-storey 1970s walk-up mixed-use building on another and large one-level light industrial buildings on the other corners, where a wholesale bakery and the Equinox Gallery currently do business.
A photo c. 1912 taken by Cedar Cottage resident Philip Timms. The double gable facade of the Ellington Building can be seen on the left. At the very end of the street in the distance is a city streetcar waiting on what is now Findlay Street to return to the 'big city.'Philip Timms
Retail and service shops along Commercial Street, between the Victoria Diversion and East 20th Ave.Kayla Isomura/The Globe and Mail
In recent years, a dozen or so new residential low-rises have arrived in Cedar Cottage, and Mr. Finch is grateful for renewed life on the street. He sees the new village as an opportunity to further enhance the street with outdoor patios and new four-storey buildings, with protections in place for existing character buildings and mom-and-pop retailers, a sustainability effort to build with wood instead of concrete and protections for trees. But he’s skeptical that the city will listen to community feedback and be respectful of Commercial Street’s special qualities.
When he was a letter carrier in a wealthy part of the West End, Mr. Finch estimated about one-third of the homes were empty.
“What we’re doing here is just wrong at so many levels. We’re building housing for a potential market, not for people who are already here.
A temporary installation titled East Van Stories, part of a development project by Vancouver-based real estate developer Hudson.Kayla Isomura/The Globe and Mail
“I’m not against redevelopment because it’s brought the street back to life – but let’s do it right,” says Mr. Finch. “It doesn’t have to be modern brutalism. … We can retain the cachet and still increase the population.”
Former city of Vancouver senior urban designer Scot Hein agrees. The opinions of citizens like Mr. Finch should be taken into consideration, he says. Instead, the distinctive features of each neighbourhood are more often lost to generic redevelopment. He cites the Ridge Theatre redevelopment as an example of the city ignoring the cultural importance of an iconic theatre and bowling alley, which were both lost.
Chance Café, at the corner of Commercial St. and the Victoria Diversion.Kayla Isomura/The Globe and Mail
“On the face of it, I think they are trying to release more land for assembly to the market,” says Mr. Hein. “They do it under the guise of affordability, meaning market rental. But, of course, it’s not truly affordable. As we have run out of land in the downtown and we have the Broadway corridor sort of taken care of, and we move into the single-family zoned areas with more modest missing-middle-like housing, the only thing that’s kind of left to plan are these mini commercial nodes,” he says of the villages.
“They say a maximum six storeys, which, on the face of it, sounds innocent. But a six-storey building compels land assembly, so you start to get a much different kind of mixed-use intersection and streetscape, with longer frontages.”
Cities grapple with how to balance iconic views with building more housing
A real estate sign sits near a group of townhomes on Welwyn St., near East 20th Ave. The area is located one block west from local businesses on Commercial Street.Kayla Isomura/The Globe and Mail
Former city planner Sandy James points out that the scope of the villages is much larger than the massive 500-block Broadway Plan. Taken as a whole, the villages will include a potential 600 city blocks, she says.
“That’s a lot of real estate,” says Ms. James.
A property housing a single-detached home at the corner of Commercial St. and East 22nd Ave.Kayla Isomura/The Globe and Mail
“Many of the areas suggested in the proposed villages have existing affordable rentals,” she adds. “There’s a severe disconnect between what the city is proposing and what the community knows about the work.”
Mr. Hein says if they approve large-scale development in sensitive neighbourhoods such as Cedar Cottage, it means certain death for the small independent shops and the historic patina of old buildings. An urban design approach would typically map out the culturally significant assets and work to protect them – but he doubts that work will be done. He refers to the current mixed-use building design as “generica,” which is typically a wide concrete structure without any setback, and only chain retailers who can afford the ground level retail.
“What’s delightful about these local mini nodes – the pastry or coffee place that’s been there forever – is they are small, and the owner/operator or the mom and pop have been able to make enough money to pay their taxes, but they are surviving. So, let’s give them a fighting chance to stay in the neighbourhood as ground-oriented tenancy. You do that by thinking of pattern and scale of the building. I don’t think that work has been done.
Single-detached homes on Beatrice Street.Kayla Isomura/The Globe and Mail
“We live in this paradigm where we reward speculation. We incent land assembly because of the way we think about the size and scale of buildings. Why are we doing that? It feeds more realtor commissions; it feeds the speculators and the soft costs that come along with having to create bigger sites.”
Developer and consultant Michael Geller is in favour of the village approach because it will offer relief from the 20-storey towers being introduced throughout low-rise neighbourhoods.
“I think it’s saying we won’t allow towers, but we will allow increased density three- to six-storey buildings,” he says. “Bump up the density a bit, get a little more mixed-use, expand retail a little bit. I think it makes a lot of sense.”
However, he would like to know how heritage fits into the city’s plans.
City director of community planning, Neil Hrushowy, said heritage buildings would not be exempt from the pre-zoning. However, heritage regulations and policies would apply. And Mr. Hrushowy said boundaries will vary.
A tree-lined Beatrice Street.Kayla Isomura/The Globe and Mail
“The intent is to ‘prezone’ as much of the Villages as possible, though there will be exceptions for unique [and] large sites, City-owned sites, et cetera, which we will also identify through this planning process,” he said in an e-mail response.
“The boundaries will not be uniform for each Village and will be determined through technical work and feedback from community engagement. They will vary based on the size and location of the shopping area, as well as unique neighbourhood topographies, block patterns and road networks.”