Referral to Public Hearing – CD-1 Rezoning: 1500-1580 West 3rd Avenue
Motion 20 · Council Meeting, May 19, 2026
Summary
- A developer (ICX Holdings Inc.) is proposing to rezone two parcels at 1500–1580 West 3rd Avenue, near Fir Street and close to Granville Island and the future South Granville SkyTrain Station, from industrial (IC-2) to a comprehensive development (CD-1) zone.
- The proposal is for a 17-storey, 160-unit hotel building with rooftop indoor and outdoor amenity spaces and four levels of underground parking, representing a dramatic increase in FSR from 3.0 to 16.4 and height from 30.5 m to 53.6 m.
- The site is very narrow (only 15 m / 50 ft. wide), which creates notable urban design challenges around building scale, contextual fit, and shadowing impacts on neighbours — concerns staff have acknowledged but weighed against the city's priority to increase hotel room supply.
- The Vancouver ODP designates the area as Industrial and Employment, which permits hotels near rapid transit; the Broadway Plan for this sub-area also allows hotel uses on narrow lots on a case-by-case basis with flexibility in height and density to support viability.
- City policy (the Hotel Development Policy) supports new hotel development across Vancouver to address a critical shortage of hotel rooms and a target of approximately 10,000 new rooms by 2050.
- Staff recommend approval in principle and proposed referring the application directly to a Council meeting (not a Public Hearing) as it is consistent with the ODP; however, Council voted to defeat that referral path and instead passed a separate motion to send it to a Council meeting under different terms.
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So the next item on the docket is referral report number two, CD-1 rezoning 1500 through 1580 West 3rd Avenue. Before we begin this agenda item, does anybody have a conflict that they have to disclose? No? Okay. This item does not have a team member presentation. Councillor Orr, you held this item, so you have up to five minutes to ask questions of team members.
Thanks so much. Sorry, this is all moving very quickly, but I did put an amendment. I do think that this referral report should go to a public hearing. Can I just get you to the amendment queue, please?
Okay, so back to the main queue. So, Clerk, does that mean we have to move the motion first?
Okay. All right. Councillor Orr, please go ahead if you want to move that as the main motion.
Yeah, pretty straightforward. I think in terms of that staff say that this is conspicuously tall and out of scale, and that the report says zero tower separation, which will prevent adjacent lots from ever redeveloping, and that the report claims that GLU will consider opportunities for hotel use near rapid transit areas. The report notes that this is a tier three, but the proposal exceeds the heightened density for the TOA designation, which would limit this to eight stories. So I do believe considering these things in the report that we should hear from the public on this particular application.
sorry i'm just trying to follow this last minute is this not being referred to public hearing in the first place i'm sorry um sorry mayor i maybe questioned through you to uh uh the city manager or director of planning or whoever is appropriate to answer this because i'm a bit confused i was of the impression this was being referred to public hearing um
Austin Norrie, Resigning Planner on the line. This application is being referred to a regular council meeting, not a public hearing. It's eligible to do so because it is consistent with the Vancouver ODP and is consistent with the Broadway plan as well as the hotel development policy.
Council, is there any other discussion?
Seeing no one else in the queue, we will put Councillor Orr's, it's very clear quote, we'd call it an amended motion. It's a main motion by Councillor Orr to vote.
If we can please go to the voting panel.
Statement Watch
Austin Norrie, Resigning Planner on the line. This application is being referred to a regular council meeting, not a public hearing. It's eligible to do so because it is consistent with the Vancouver ODP and is consistent with the Broadway plan as well as the hotel development policy.
Okay, thank you. Then, yeah, that's it for me then. Thank you.