Developer Greg Coombs across the street from his properties, which have been affected by the relocation of the Cambie Street origin point, in Vancouver, on March 7.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
A Vancouver developer says he and another landowner on Cambie Street got the short end of the stick when the city moved a ‘view cone’ and redirected it through their properties.
He alleges the changes were made to open up development opportunities on city-owned sites and constitute a conflict of interest.
“Changing the view cone was forced on planning by the mayor and council behind closed doors in order to benefit City of Vancouver properties at the expense of private landowners,” said developer Greg Coombs, owner of two properties at 2323 and 2325 Cambie St., just south of the Cambie Street Bridge and the Olympic Village station, and two blocks north of the Canada Line SkyTrain station at Broadway.
Vancouver’s “view cone” policy is a long-established way of protecting its famous views by limiting the height and location of new buildings. When the city amended the view cone policy last year, they removed some protected views and made changes to others. Several developers benefitted from the changes and are now proposing taller buildings around the city. But Mr. Coombs has been thwarted by the changes.
“The change has prevented any development above what is on 2300 block Cambie from proceeding,” he said.
The city moved the view cone that points toward the Lions (also called Twin Sisters) mountains so that it begins at the Broadway and Cambie SkyTrain location and narrows in scope. As a result, the protected view cuts through the properties in the 2300 block of Cambie Street – greatly impacting any future redevelopment in that block.
Mr. Coombs hired Andrew Cook of Formwerks Architectural to assess how the new view cone would impact 2301 to 2395 Cambie St. Mr. Cook confirmed the new view cone cuts through the middle of the site.
Mr. Coombs purchased and renovated the pair of two-storey buildings on 40-foot-wide side-by-side properties in 2009. He has developed other small-scale retail buildings, such as the building at 3835 Main St. that is occupied by Portland Craft. He and another landowner in the 2300-block, his neighbour CRS Group, had plans to potentially redevelop their properties for a mixed-use tower. CRS owns the property that is occupied by a government liquor store at 8th Avenue and Cambie. Mr. Coombs had hoped for a tower with retail, office, hotel and residential, without impacting the view.
It rankles him that the public wasn’t consulted about changes to the policy.
“I think it was a concerted effort, and what the planners have told us in [our meeting] is that they were instructed by the mayor and council that they wanted no public input, that this was going to get rammed through. They say it clearly,” said Mr. Coombs.
Standing across the street from his property last week, Mr. Coombs pointed out that the view cone that slices directly through the future building he’d envisioned doesn’t even capture the entire view of the iconic east and west Lions. He and CRS propose a simple revision to the new view cone that would allow a straight trajectory view of the Lions and impact the least number of properties. If the city refuses to make a change, he said he’s considering legal action.
The province mandated that municipalities must pass bylaws to allow residential developments at least 20 storeys high within 200 metres of SkyTrain stations. The 2300 block Cambie falls within 200 metres of two SkyTrain stations.
After the view cone changes were announced, the city launched its plan this year to build its own rental buildings, to be run by the Vancouver Housing Development Office. In early February, Mayor Ken Sim said that they were “putting our real estate assets to work and thinking outside the box on housing solutions.”
There is a pilot project under way that identified five development sites to start, with the goal to build market-rate rental housing that will help fund non-market housing, amenities and infrastructure.
Mr. Coombs said the city is in a conflict because it is effectively a developer that has the authority to create regulations for its own benefit, and he believes he’s on the receiving end of that conflict.
“I think the city has an obligation to implement the bylaws and not bias the process by not becoming developers and competing with the private sector. And I definitely don’t think they should increase the value of their own land behind closed doors at the expense of private landowners, with crazy policies.”
He met with city staff a few weeks ago and told them that the move was “pretty harsh” because it directly impacts his site. City staff told him that the Cambie Street views were risky because people love those particular views, but staff had been advised by council to make the changes without public engagement.
When asked if the city had revised view cones with future rental developments on city-owned lands in mind, Kevin Spaans, senior development planner and project lead, responded in an e-mail:
“To determine which view cones would be adjusted, we considered known growth areas and alignment with provincial TOA legislation, but did not factor in individual development projects.”
He said the policy was modernized to support new housing, job space and economic growth, and was part of a bigger plan to “overhaul, modernize and simplify the city’s urban design and development guideline framework.”
Commercial broker Mark Goodman said the Cambie 2300 block is “a no-brainer for densification.”
“It is within blocks of two-existing Canada Line stations, walking distance to the hospital and currently houses underbuilt commercial buildings meaning there are no tenant displacement concerns,” he said
“Having a view cone bisecting a site in this fashion makes for very inefficient oddly shaped floorplates and high construction costs. Low efficiency and higher costs often make redevelopment unviable, even if an architect could draw something up in theory,” he said.
“If efficiency and floorplate layouts are also impacted, there may be a further reduction in value.”
Mr. Coombs’s company is a family-run Vancouver firm that’s been in operation since 1995.
If he were to somehow make the Cambie Street properties viable, he would have to partner with a big developer, but he would want to stay on as property manager.
“The big developers come in when we amalgamate the sites, all the little guys put them together. There are single digit returns on investment these days. That’s why nothing is happening. So, when the city says they are doing everything to increase affordability, that’s a lie. What they should be doing is focusing on economy, making it as strong as possible so people have jobs so they can buy a house.”
Editor’s note: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that a Vancouver developer and another landowner on Cambie Street say they have been affected by the relocation of a "view cone" through city-owned properties. The "view cone" was redirected through the developer's and landowner's properties. This version has been updated.