The neighbourhood around the 22nd Street SkyTrain station will be growing up in the decades ahead.
As part of the official community plan update, the city has been considering land-use designations for that area. On Monday, council supported the draft land-use designations for the land around the station and directed staff to create the next draft of the land-use designation map that would include:
* The properties below the SkyTrain line (between 20th and 22nd streets) would be designated residential – highrise.
* The properties on the south side of Seventh Avenue (between 20th and 21st streets) would be designation mixed-use – highrise.
* The city will designate two blocks as residential – multiple-unit buildings. A report notes this is seen as a way to transition from medium or high-density housing forms to the lower density townhouse form.
* The land on 20th Street that’s currently designated as commercial in the official community plan (OCP) would be designated as commercial in the new plan and would not allow residential development. These ares would be identified for service- and auto-oriented commercial uses.
* The residential block bounded by 20th and 21st streets and Hamilton Street would be designated as mixed-use – highrise. This would allow up to two residential or office towers on the block, with commercial at grade. (Council supported this plan, Option B, rather than Option A, which contemplated a mixed-use – midrise designation.)
“This scenario allows a greater number of people to live in close proximity to the SkyTrain station,” stated a staff report. “The higher population near the station also better supports the amount of commercial proposed, since there will be more customers in the area. This makes it more likely that an anchor tenant could be attracted to the area. This form of development would also likely result in a higher amenity contribution, which would be put toward amenities in the area.”
“I think that this particular piece of the OCP is potentially one of the most challenging, but also exciting because we could see quite remarkable change there over several years,” said Coun. Mary Trentadue. “We have to keep reminding ourselves that this OCP will take us to 2040, which is a long way off. I think we are certainly going in the right direction.”
Jackie Teed, the city’s acting director of development services, said staff is currently reviewing and interpreting all the feedback from council and the community and preparing a final draft of the land-use map that will be brought forward with the draft official community plan on Jan. 30. If council endorses the document at that time, it will go out for the final round of community consultation in February.
