Say goodbye to the laissez faire approach to development that allowed industrial land in Coal Harbour and on the former Expo 86 site to be turned into bustling neighbourhoods filled with condo dwellers.
Metro Vancouver's new Regional Growth Strategy (RGS), which plays a pivotal role in how the region will develop over the next 30 years, takes a hard line on protecting industrial land.
Future industrial rezonings will force developers to first gain municipal support and then jump what many say will be the insurmountable hurdle of winning majority support from Metro Vancouver's board, which has a mandate to "support and protect industrial [land] uses."
Industrial developers believe recently approved projects, such as Fraser Mills in Coquitlam, would likely not have received the green light had their backers been forced to navigate the current rezoning process.
The flip side, however, is that the RGS is likely to promote more:
- Port Metro Vancouver (PMV) development;
high-density residential development around transit hubs; and
- projects on so-called "special study areas" that dot municipalities across the region.
The Deltaport container terminal at Roberts Bank in Delta is one of many port sites that will benefit from the new RGS, according to long-time Vancouver real estate industry insider and port land advocate Bob Laurie.
Laurie, executive vice-president of Sequel Integrated Resource Management, envisions rapid development at Metro Vancouver's port sites because, with fewer developers competing to buy the properties, adjacent industrial land will be more affordable.
He said if the port doesn't buy the adjacent industrial land, private companies that offer port-related services will.
Laurie points to the site of a former Canfor Corp. mill along New Westminster's Fraser River shore that Port Metro Vancouver bought for $47.5 million in 2009. The port has since leased the 56-acre property to a construction company pending its long-term development for port use.
That transaction and the port's earlier $30.1 million purchase of a 50-acre site that also touches the Fraser River and was formerly an International Forest Products Ltd. site are examples of land purchases that were overvalued, according to Laurie.
As a believer in free enterprise, he acknowledges that any transaction involving a willing seller and buyer is a fair transaction. However, he said the properties the port bought were driven up in value by Coquitlam's willingness to rezone the Beedie Group's 90-acre Fraser River-abutting Fraser Mills site.
"Fraser Mills is the poster child for inappropriate land-use changes," Laurie told Business in Vancouver.
"The former Canfor land was priced at an amount that presumed developer speculation because a similar site around the bend in the river – one kilometre as the crow flies – was able to be rezoned."
Laurie said the RGS's tough line on converting industrial land into other uses will snuff out interest from developers who want to build non-industrial structures on industrial land.
The result is that Port Metro Vancouver will be able to get more bang for its buck, expand quicker and build on Vancouver's reputation as a cost-effective Pacific Rim port city.
However, the flip side of the coin is that there will be far less flexibility for an executive who wants to build a headquarters atop an industrial warehouse or for a developer to provide a mixed-use destination along the Fraser River shore in municipalities such as Coquitlam or Burnaby, which have comparatively little public access to the riverfront.
Beedie Group vice-president of land development Dave Gormley thinks it would have been a shame had his company not achieved approval in 2007 to build 600,000 square feet of industrial space along with 200,000 square feet of commercial space and 3,700 homes on the Fraser Mills site.
Construction is set to start soon on the Fraser Mills development. Starting in the summer of 2012, Beedie plans to build a 200,000-square-foot residential tower on the waterfront of the Fraser Mills site along with low-rise buildings that contain some commercial space on the ground floor. The final phase of the project is scheduled to be completed within 15 years.
"If you live on the waterfront in Coquitlam, or even in Burnaby, they don't have as much public land as Vancouver," he said. "Vancouver has lots of public waterfront space – Coal Harbour, False Creek and developments in South Vancouver such as East Fraser Lands."
The RGS is also focused on high-density development along transit hubs and at city centres.
Having that vision set out in the regional plan gives developers more confidence that they will succeed if they bring a project along a transit corridor to a municipal council for approval, said urban planning consultant and Brook Pooni president Gary Pooni.
"Municipalities, when they look at a rezoning application, will look to the regional plan and say, 'Yes, let's proceed with the rezoning application because it's in conformity with regional policy,'" Pooni said.
"That enables the process to move a little quicker because the project conforms. It's not fast-tracked. The process just runs a bit smoother."
Pooni pointed to Bentall Kennedy's 38-acre Sapperton Green project on land adjacent to the Braid Street SkyTrain station.
New Westminster's official community plan designates the site as industrial; however, it's currently zoned as a commercial industrial district.
The RGS designated the site as general urban, meaning that residential, commercial, institutional and recreational uses are permitted.
Bentall Kennedy is in the early stages of public consultation for the site and has yet to release clear plans for what it envisages.
"There's a lot of excitement along the Cambie corridor," Pooni said. "Where do people want to live? In a core area with high amenities or around transit. There's limited opportunity for higher density development in the downtown core, so the Cambie corridor is on a lot of people's radar."
But the problem with the Cambie corridor so far has been high homeowner expectations for their properties' resale value.
That has thus far kept developers from scooping up land.
One project in its early stages, however, is the proposed Wanson Development Ltd. development at West 48th Avenue and Cambie Street, which had an open house October 11.
Wanson representatives are expected to file an application soon with the City of Vancouver for an eight-storey building with 30 apartments and five townhomes.
Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver organizer Ned Jacobs fought the RGS earlier this year in the lead-up to 20 municipal councils, with the Squamish Lillooet Regional District, Fraser Valley Regional District and the Tsawwassen First Nation approving the strategy.
One of his biggest beefs was that it would create urban sprawl because it allows Metro Vancouver board members to redesignate land zoned as a "special study area" – mostly agricultural land – with a simple majority vote. Previously, approval required a two-thirds Metro Vancouver board majority.
But Christina DeMarco, who is Metro Vancouver's division manager for regional development, said the Agricultural Land Commission would first have to remove the land from the agricultural land reserve.
Jacobs, however, is also concerned that urban sprawl will climb higher up the North Shore mountains. DeMarco countered that North Shore mountain land is protected by a "context statement" in the West Vancouver official community plan. It states that land more than 1,200 feet above sea level is to be used almost entirely for conservation and recreation.
The rationale to allow projects on special study areas to pass the Metro Vancouver board with a simple majority instead of a two-thirds majority makes sense for developers who believe that it's a trade off for municipalities yielding power to the regional board for industrial rezonings.
"Municipalities have already flagged those special study areas," said Gormley. "They're essentially saying, "We're thinking about doing something here. It's premature now, but 15 years from now it may not be. They're thinking out that far."
