A new website supporting the VCPC's current work, including A Sustainable City of Sustainable Neighbourhoods, is under development. The new website will include archives of the VCPC's past work.

For a list of current Commissioners and meeting information, please visit the VCPC page on the City of Vancouver website..

After two years of work, a final publication by the Vancouver City Planning Commission members during the 2007-2008 term was produced. Within this booklet the journey of discovery on the topic of adaptability was explored through meetings, debate, forums and public outreach.

While the book was only published in a limited run, this digital copy allows you to read the book full screen in your web browser. Click the above image to view it.

A slide presentation by Keltie Craig, VCPC intern.

The VCPC's Future: Where to Now?

Part One (10 minutes)

Part Two (10 minutes)

By Bob Ransford, Vancouver Sun

There has been a lot of hollow talk about housing affordability during the campaign leading up to today's civic election, but very little discussion about specific initiatives that will help spur the construction of new market rental housing -- a key to providing more affordable housing in the region.

More than half of Vancouverites and more than a third of those living in Metro Vancouver rent their homes. Rental housing is the affordable housing option that spans all segments of the housing market. In many ways, it is a relief valve for the pressure that builds when the market can't keep pace constructing new homes for the sale market during spikes in housing demand.

Demand forecasts point to the need for more than 310,000 new housing units, 70,000 of them rental homes, by 2021 to meet population growth.

Why?

To put it simply, the economics in favour of building rental housing do not exist. You will have a hard time persuading any investor to forgo profits simply to build a rental building instead of a condominium. The recent decline in demand for condo housing makes the mathematics of building rental apartments more appealing, but this is a temporary downturn in the economy.

The Vancouver City Planning Commission are bringing our Market Rental Housing Report forward to the public in our role as City Council's citizen advisory group on planning issues, in order to prompt an informed community dialogue about how to respond to the need in the city for rental housing.

We directed the report to the City Manager in September, who recommended that it not be brought to Council before a staff study on rental housing is completed. The Commission feels, however, that this topic has urgency and merits attention now. Our report we hope will foster a thoughtful public debate on the value of rental housing, and will invite innovative solutions for creating additional supply.

Our committee has given considerable thought to this matter and explored various approaches in arriving at its recommendations. We believe that a productive dialogue on how to increase market rental housing needs to get underway without delay.

Our Market Rental Housing Committee would welcome questions and discussion on the report. Email vcpc@vancouver.ca with your comments and questions.

The report has three components, attached as separate files:

1. VCPC Market Rental Report
2. Appendix 1 Pro Forma
3. Figure 1 (below, click for higher resolution image)

Attention all Douglas Park residents!

Come participate in the YouMap Festival.

WHERE: 3408 Cambie St., and community-sponsored door prizes will be given out.

WHEN: FRIDAY, OCT 24, 2008, 5 to 7 p.m., and SATURDAY, OCT. 25, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A citizen-led tour through the neighbourhood to document favourite spots begins at 5:30 on Friday.

If you are not able to make it on these dates, MAP YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD ONLINE!

Map YOUR Community ONLINE!

Click HERE to tell us about your favourite places, routes and areas. Add photos, stories and more!

Cheryl Rossi, Vancouver Courier
Published: Friday, October 24, 2008

Parks, recreation centres, childcare facilities, libraries and transit are what planners and most Vancouverites typically consider community amenities. But two local planning groups want to hear what else we treasure about our neighbourhoods.

This weekend, residents of Douglas Park, near Cambie and King Edward, can have their say in a second session of YouMap Vancouver--an attempt to find out what else neighbourhood residents would put on the map.

More than 50 participants in a two-day festival of workshops earlier this month in Grandview-Woodland identified a community garden, free tennis courts, independently owned coffee shops, delis and specialty shops as important to their neighbourhood. But the diverse mix of participants, which included children, seniors and aboriginal residents, also said the area lacks clearly marked pedestrian crossings and affordable housing, said Kristi Tatebe, a planner with Smart Growth Advisory Services, a project of the non-profit group Smart Growth B.C., which provides consulting services to municipal and regional governments.

Cheryl Rossi, Vancouver Courier

Vancouver was a sleepy city 50 years ago, with streetcars rolling along major streets, industry belching smoke along False Creek and no SkyTrains shuttling commuters. Granville Island didn't exist, and the city's inhabitants were predominantly of Western European descent. Most women worked only inside the home, and a mill worker could afford to buy a single-family starter home of about 800 square feet.

Today's picture sits in sharp contrast.

Older buildings have been scrapped to make space for new condos while landfills bulge with concrete and rebar.