Extend Meeting Past 12 pm (Item 4 Speakers)

Statement Watch

Thank you. I am Michael Cook, a co-founder of the Myron Manor Collective at 75 East 8th Avenue, a parishioner at St. Patrick's Church with my wife and our two sons. I'm a member of the BCGEU, an instructor of metal fabrication and ship construction at BCIT. Yeah, I was supposed to represent more than three. I am representing eight children who live in our building. As I mentioned, they're all in bed now. So this is another one of the barriers that's created to limit public input. And you can have those three minutes. First, I want to ask council to consider two amendments. First, that the hotel development policy be amended by the removal of subsection 3.2.2.1D. The subsection declares all displacements of rental apartments by hotel developments to be in conformance with all community plans, despite the stated intent of those community plans and the official development plan to minimize displacements. Second, that the council immediately redesignate 75 East 8th Avenue to general urban use, according to the authority granted by Metro 2050 Regional Growth Strategy subsection 6.2.7a, in order to prevent the displacement of tenants. The site has never had an industrial use. The current building predates its industrial designation, and the developer is not applying for an industrial use. I noticed that city staff did not make the claim that, as they've made several times before, that, quote, for new residential uses to be considered on the site, the site would need Metro Vancouver Board approval for redesignation from industrial to general urban. According to 6.2.7a, council has the authority to make that decision. However, we heard that false claim from planning department staff many times in writing. We also heard it in person. We also heard it from the relocation specialist who claimed to be representing our interest. I want to state for the record that the process of this rezoning has been unfair throughout because of misleading statements made by the planning department staff and representatives of the developer. I think I want to thank the applicant for acknowledging our existence and taking a moment to speak to us and talk about his expectation that it will take two years to start construction. At the beginning of this process, Nestwell told us that it would be 18 months before there was a hearing on the rezoning. That was eight months ago. City staff in the same call said 12 months until a rezoning hearing. creates different expectations than the expectations that are actually being claimed when those expectations are not met. Another expectation I'd like to talk about is the planning department's claim in the referral report that displacements like these are expected to be infrequent. Why would that be the expectation? The extended stay hotel model is a 10x revenue multiplier on a traditional rental apartment. That's the reason for the application. They want to multiply revenue. That's their job. They're wealth managers. If the city's going to allow... extended stay hotels to replace rental apartments, then, of course, developers are going to apply to do that everywhere. And if the developers and the city staff are working so closely together to find loopholes to allow it, then, yeah, why would you expect it to be infrequent? It seems like a false claim coming from people who've made a lot of false claims on the record. I'd be interested to know when they decided to stop claiming that they needed Metro Board approval to redesignate the site. When did they decide to stop claiming that? Because they've claimed it to us in writing many times, many times. I won't have time to get through all the contradictions in the city's zoning policy or all the false claims that we've been told by city staff, but this has been entered into the record.

Yeah, I don't have time.

I will say about the Tenants Need Survey, it was distributed in April. It was filled with misinformation, offers of potential supports that we've been told before and since don't exist. And... And we were told that it was critical for us to fill out that survey a month after we had asked for a corrected survey, and we were still waiting for it. And at that same meeting, Nestwell already knew that this hearing was going to happen nine months early, and we weren't told. And the city staff claimed that there was no special treatment being offered and no particular fast-tracking for this at the meeting where the developer already knew that this was happening in the summer.

Statement Watch

Okay, good evening, Council. My name is Ricardo Peggi. I'm the rezoning planner assigned to this application at 75 East 8th Avenue for a 21-story mixed-use hotel and industrial building. The subject site is comprised of three parcels, located at the northwest corner of Quebec Street and East 8th Avenue in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood. The site is currently developed with a three-story apartment building, including 27 units of primary rental housing. The site is located towards the edge of the Mount Pleasant Industrial Area, a block west of Main Street and a block north of East Broadway. Lands to the north and west are generally used for a mix of office, service, and industrial uses. Lands to the south and east of the site contain a mix of office, residential, and commercial uses. The neighborhood is undergoing significant change with future redevelopment as per the Broadway plan, as well as with the SkyTrain extension. The future Mount Pleasant Station is located approximately 175 meters to the southeast. The existing apartment was constructed in 1961 and predates the current industrial I-1 zoning that applies to the property. The building is considered a non-conforming use, which means that it may be maintained but may not be expanded or reconstructed under the current zoning. Metro 2050 is the regional growth strategy for the Metro Vancouver region. The RGS sets regional land use designations at the parcel level to ensure sensitive and important lands are protected. The city is required to then align land use policies and zoning with the RGS. The site is designated as industrial, and those lands are intended for industrial uses, as well as complementary job spaces, and are not intended for residential uses. The site is designated as industrial employment in the generalized land use map in the Vancouver ODP. This designation supports a number of industrial and employment uses, including hotels near rapid transit areas, and generally does not permit residential uses. The Vancouver ODP does not prescribe applicable heights for this designation. Site is located in the Mount Pleasant Industrial Area, Area A of the Broadway Plan, which enables industrial, office, service, retail, cultural, and institutional uses, typically with heights up to 11 stories. While the plan does not enable a hotel development at the subject property, this location has similar characteristics to area where the plan does consider hotel use. namely along the periphery of the Mount Pleasant industrial area and near to rapid transit. Further, the proposed height and density will be consistent with other developments enabled by the Broadway plan near to the Mount Pleasant SkyTrain station. The proposal is to rezone the site to a comprehensive development district to enable the development of a mixed-use hotel building with an industrial podium. The maximum height is 21 stories or 70.9 meters, and the proposed density is 12.1 FSR. The proposed development contains 190 hotel units and industrial uses in the bottom two stories. The site contains 27 units of primary rental housing, of which 25 are eligible under the city's tenant relocation and protection policy for the Broadway Plan area. The proposal does not include any replacement rental units, so the right of first refusal and associated rent top-ups will not apply. The applicant will be required to support eligible tenants to identify housing options that reflect tenant household needs and priorities, including assisting low-income tenants and tenants with additional barriers to secure affordable housing and provide additional moving assistance as required. Staff worked with the applicant to propose additional enhanced relocation supports. Should the application be approved, The applicant will be required to support eligible tenants to find housing at rental rates that do not exceed 20% below citywide average market rents and assist applicable tenants with applications for non-market housing, provincial rental assistance programs, or other applicable supports. At the time of drafting the report, 204 pieces of correspondence were received through the Shape Your City platform and by email, including a letter collectively sent by 36 tenants who live at the subject site. A form email in opposition to the proposal was submitted to staff and council with 651 submissions counted. The proposal is consistent with the Vancouver ODP, but less than 50% of the floor area is proposed for residential use. Council therefore had the discretion whether to refer the item to a regular council agenda or to refer the item to a public hearing. Given the volume of public feedback, staff recommended the item be referred to a public hearing, and council did so on June 2nd. Public feedback expressed support for additional hotel space, the location for the project near to rapid transit, and the attractive building design. Concerns were also expressed. Firstly, that the proposed development should include replacement rental housing units for current tenants. It should be noted that the proposal does not contain residential uses, so a full staff review of the inclusion of residential uses has not been conducted. Staff point to the Broadway Plan, Vancouver ODP, and Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy, all of which do not permit new residential uses in the Mount Pleasant Industrial Area. The inclusion of housing would require a redesignation of the site under the Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy and would require an amendment to the Official Development Plan. The second is that the proposed rezoning is removing existing affordable rental housing and will displace residents with no comparable housing costs nearby. As mentioned, staff worked with the applicant to propose additional enhanced relocation supports for tenants. The applicant will be required to support eligible tenants to find housing at rental rates that do not exceed 20% below citywide average market rents and will assist applicable tenants with applications for non-market housing, provincial rental assistance, or other supports. Lastly, the proposed building height is inappropriate for the area and is inconsistent with the existing scale and neighborhood character. The proposal maintains compliance with key urban design performance criteria, including protected viewcones, shadowing, and minimum tower separation requirements. In addition, the site is located within an outlying area of the Mount Pleasant Industrial Area near to the future SkyTrain station. The proposed built form is consistent with the emerging context near to the Rapid Transit Station. The public benefits from this application consist of a cash CAC based on the commercial linkage fee, DCLs, and a public art contribution with a total value of $5.4 million. In summary, the proposed land use is generally consistent with the intent of the Broadway Plan to permit mixed-use hotels and industrial developments on the fringes of the Mount Pleasant Industrial Area near to transit, and the land use is consistent with the Vancouver ODP. While the proposal raises concerns related to tenant displacement, Staff have worked with the applicant to develop a site-specific approach to tenant relocation that is as close as possible to the full enhanced TRPP per the Broadway plan. Staff therefore recommends approval of this application subject to the conditions outlined in Appendix B. And that concludes my presentation. Staff and the applicant team are available to answer questions.

Statement Watch

Good evening. I'm Josh Anderson, VP of Development at Nicola Real Estate, here on behalf of the applicant team. We've worked closely and collaboratively with staff on this application, and we're proud to bring this project forward as part of the evolution of Mount Pleasant. keep my remarks to the big picture why a hotel and why here as a starting point this site in this area have long been protected for industry and employment and under vancouver city policy housing is not permitted as a future use For more than three decades, the city and the region have deliberately protected this part of Mount Pleasant for jobs and industry, beginning with Vancouver's industrial lands policy in 1995, reaffirmed since then through the Broadway plan in 2022, and Metro Vancouver's 2050 regional growth strategy. And the direction running through every one of those layers is the same. Protect this land for employment and use it more intensely. Intensively, pardon me. Our proposal does just that. So again, why a hotel and why here? Look at what surrounds this site. Mount Pleasant has become one of the city's true innovation districts. Life sciences and biotech firms like Abcelera, tech and gaming studios, film and production companies, makers and breweries. These businesses bring people to Vancouver, sometimes for weeks at a time, relocating staff, visiting clients, contractors, and researchers who all need somewhere to stay. And today, there is no hotel of any kind on this part of the Broadway corridor. Nothing east of Heather Street or on this side of the downtown. We're also within short distance of Rapid Transit and three hospitals. Mount St. Joseph and VGH are here today, and the new St. Paul's Hospital is opening in 2027. A facility for patients in longer treatment, the families who come with them, and the clinicians and researchers who follow. These are people who need accommodations sometimes for a night and sometimes for a longer stretch. Okay, cool. As staff themselves note, a hotel here is a compatible service use, one that supports businesses, workers, and visitors this area is being built for. Vancouver's hotel development policy identifies a clear need for more hotels in the Broadway corridor, and the Broadway plan enables exactly this hotel in industrial form. Let me also say a word about who's behind this application, as I think it's important to mention. Nicola Real Estate, which is part of Nicola Wealth, is a Vancouver company with a local team, and we invest in Mount Pleasant for the long term. Along with several industrial and office buildings nearby, a few blocks away from this site is 2111 Main Street, and we're redeveloping the old city center motel into 447 new rental homes with retail and a dedicated arts and culture space at the base. For the past five years, rather than fence off the site, we've partnered with David Dupre and the Narrow Group to create what became known as the Arts Lodge and still is, affordable art studios and event space that has given the local arts community a home for several years and earned international recognition as a result. More broadly, through our staff giving program at Nicola Wealth, we've contributed significant charitable donations and staff time from our own company to over 300 organizations since 2016. Covenant House, who provides safe shelter, meals, and around-the-clock care to young people aged 16 to 24, escaping homelessness and human trafficking, the Arts Umbrella, who provide accessible arts education to more than 20,000 children a year, and the Union Gospel Mission, who provides meals, shelter, and addiction recovery in the downtown Eastside, have been amazing community partners for Nicola Wealth. I don't want to raise this as a reason to approve the rezoning, but just so you know the kind of neighbor standing behind the project and the proposal. Finally, I want to speak to the residents of the apartment building at 75 East 8th today. We are following the city's tenant relocation and protection policy, and we're working closely with city housing staff to go beyond what it requires. In the outset, we've reached out to tenants directly and one-on-one through a professional relocation firm, Nestwell, since the application in 2025 in November. We've hosted on-site open houses week after week. Neswell has been working with every household individually or attempting to do so, and city housing staff have been part of the table throughout. And when the time comes for the project to potentially move forward, if approved, we'll go further still. As mentioned by staff, we'll be helping residents secure new homes at below-market rents so that with our support, hopefully they have a chance to stay in the neighborhood. Several long-term residents have already chosen to move out of the building for their own reasons, and with the full TRP compensation and support, have actually shared positive feedback with us about their process and about the relocation experience. It's also worth putting the timeline in perspective for this project. Even if this is approved through this rezoning, to move quickly through this would be difficult in the current climate, and we expect no less than two years of time between now and construction could possibly begin.