Weekly Roundup: Regional Growth Strategy | Casino Hearings | Broadway and Kingsway


Casino Hearing Begins |

Last night the first of a series of public hearings was held to debate the proposed $500 million mega-casino development on the land adjacent BC Place. The meeting, which began at just after 7:30pm, was preceded by a rally, organized by ad-hoc community group Vancouver Not Vegas.

163 people had signed up to give delegations, but only 11 had time to speak after presentations by staff and project proponents, and questions from Councilors. The majority of the over 300 people present were against the project, but a contingent of union workers wearing yellow “Save our Jobs” shirts, who arrived in charter buses, also filled the council chambers. Representatives of the NPA and COPE were both also present. There were already signs that the casino issue might split the Vision caucus, who have until now voted as a bloc.

The second hearing is being held tonight. The speakers list has now grown to 181. The meetings will then reconvene next Monday, March 14th at 6:30pm in the Council Chambers at City Hall.

Regional Growth Strategy |

Despite what some have called a “seriously flawed process,” Vancouver City Council has voted to accept the Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy (RGS). The policy transfers what are now municipal land-use powers to the un-elected Metro body. The plan replaces the Livable Region Strategic Plan and will stand in effect until 2040. It was opposed in Vancouver by City Councilors David Cadman and Suzanne Anton, with Cadman arguing that it confuses what is now known as the “green zone,” and Anton arguing that it gives up too much municipal rezoning power.

Critics are concerned with the public consultation process. While proponents of the plan argue that the public was engaged over a course of five public hearings, none of the hearings were held in Vancouver. The RGS is a complex plan that many say the public has not had time for it to digest.

Some fear the the RGS will undermine the Agricultural Land Reserve, as well as allowing a general loss of green space throughout Metro Vancouver. The strategy allows for the elimination of some of the reserve, pending approval from municipal councils. A more comprehensive summary of the issues surrounding the policy are available here.

Kingsway and Broadway Tower |

The first public consultation for the 26 story Rize development that is proposed to be built on the South-West corner of Broadway and Kingsway. The consultation will be held on Sunday, March 20th at the Native Education College (285 East 5th Ave). The meeting will begin at 12:00pm with the doors opening at 11:30am.

Community groups are already mobilizing in opposition of the tower, with posters popping up around Mount Pleasant urging residents to attend the consultation.

Mega-casino proposal exposes corporate and government collusion

Corporate developers are ‘betting’ that they can twist enough arms to transform Edgewater Casino into a mega-casino next to BC Place. But resistance has sprung up from across the political spectrum.

The proponents of the $500M project are: the pseudo-public BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), the BC Lottery Corporation (BCLC), and Las Vegas-based Paragon Gaming. In this bid, there is no distinction between State and corporate interests, much like when PavCo managed the $400M over-budget Convention Centre project. PavCo is today chaired by BC Liberal-appointee David Podmore, who is currently CEO of Concert Properties. Concert Properties, a major Vancouver development company, donated $8,000 to Vision Vancouver last election (see full list of donors here). Podmore is also the immediate previous Chair of Vancouver’s Urban Development Institute, the city’s leading gentrification think-tank and development lobby.

In early 2009, the Provincial government put out a request for proposal to lease the lands West of BC Place. Only two companies submitted proposals, the winner being Paragon’s mega-casino plan. In March 2009, T. Richard Turner, director of one of Paragon’s gaming entities and investor in Edgewater Casino, phoned BC Liberal tourism minister Kevin Krueger and told him that Paragon would only go forward with the mega-casino project if the government would build a new retractable roof on BC Place (see here and here). Note that while Mr. Turner was negotiating on behalf of Paragon, he was at the same time BC Liberal-appointed Chair of ICBC, as well as director of VANOC. He was also previously Chair of BCLC from 2001-2005.

After receiving the call from Turner, the Provincial government then decided to go forward with constructing a new retractable roof on BC Place for $450M. PavCo’s David Podmore is now managing the ongoing upgrade of BC Place, and has spent this week telling media that the project is on-time and on-budget. Of course, one could argue that the roof was always-already over-budget, since it is a monstrous useless waste of money.

City selling-off Olympic Village social housing to bail-out Millennium


The City of Vancouver stands to profit from selling-off housing units at the Olympic Village that were promised for affordable and social housing. The original Official Development plan for the Olympic Village committed that 2/3rds of the 1100 units would be affordable, half of which would be social housing.

But the City has invested almost no funds toward meeting these promises. Millennium development corporation, which built the Olympic Village, has already paid $29M to the City for the land lease. The City then put forward a similar amount ($32M) toward the few remaining “affordable” units. In short, the City spent almost no new funds on affordable housing. Even worse, these “affordable” units were then transferred to a co-op to be marketed at unaffordable levels.

The City stands to collect another $170M from Millennium for the land lease, but the City has no plans to reinvest any of this profit to meet housing promises. There is ample precedent to do so: the fourteen sites of supportive housing were built by the City putting forward the land without expectation of profit.

Millennium on the hook, not the City
The Millennium development corporation is not bankrupt or insolvent, as many suppose. On the contrary, they remain legally on hook for the construction loan. For now the City has taken control of marketing the Olympic Village properties, but Millennium has many other properties and assets. Instead of going after Millennium’s assets, the City has bailed-out Millennium. Millennium had been paying high interests rates, but the City has waived that requirement. The City is selling off social housing to keep Millennium afloat.

The City has hired condo marketer Bob Rennie to sell-off the ‘broken promise’ units. Bob Rennie claims that he is trying to “protect the taxpayer,” but in fact by liquidating the broken promise units, he is protecting Millennium by ensuring that the City does not go after their assets. [To be continued in Part 2, “Poverty Runs Over-budget at False Creek”]

Vancouver Needs to Emulate Chinese Housing Policy

The story of Chinese investor impact on Vancouver real estate is neither new nor surprising. But recent changes to real estate taxation within China may ramp up hunger for this favored class of investment in offshore locations — and further exacerbate conditions local to Vancouver. In a nutshell, China seems to be on the verge of exporting even more financial froth.

At the same time, China seems to be developing an internal approach to housing affordability that Vancouver needs to emulate.

Beijing has now prohibited residents from buying more than two dwelling units, and non-residents are required to show five years of tax documentation in order to make a purchase (Feb 18: “China home”).

Any Canadian public official who talks about affordable housing in Vancouver should be met with a demand to bring forward similar measures.