East Vancouver group hopes to stop density plans for Commercial Drive

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – An East Vancouver group is set to argue against rezoning on Commercial Drive at a public hearing tomorrow. This move is intended to stop a mid-rise development planned at East 18th Avenue.

The density doesn’t fit with the neighbourhood, argues the Cedar Cottage Area Neighbours. It is also upset over plans to chop down 40 trees.

“The proposal is too much for this site,” says Lee Chapelle with the group. “It’s too large, it’s cramming too much density into this neighbourhood. It could have been done so much better. If they had considered what the community was saying, they could have done something with an apartment building on Commercial Drive.

“But they chose to amalgamate a lot of the adjoining lots all the way up the street into the residential neighbourhood, and build, not just a six storey building on Commercial Drive, but an adjoining building on East 18th Avenue which is, they say, part of the same building. But if you look at the plan, it’s a separate building.”

But former city councillor Gord Price with SFU’s city program says developments like this are needed.

“Trying to add more of what is called the ‘missing middle,’ that is the medium-rise housing somewhere in between the single family that characterizes the older parts of the neighbourhood and the high-rises that people generally seem opposed to,” he explains. “Chances are there will be more and more of this in the future.”

“Indeed there is even an argument that we should be doing a lot more row housing. One, two, maybe three storey developments…. in neighbourhoods that traditionally have seen themselves single family. It’s a great idea until you actually propose it for a particular neighbourhood and then you typically will see people like it the way it is.”

Chapelle says he’s not opposed to more family-oriented housing, but says this proposal doesn’t focus on that.

“One thing that’s missing in the city and there’s a real shortage, is family housing,” says Chapelle. “It’s one thing to build a lot of 400, 500, 600 square foot apartments. But what about the larger ones? Two or three bedrooms that are ground oriented…that’s what we’d like to see in our neighbourhood is something like that. Something where this need for more rental housing is addressed, but also the concerns of the community are addressed – and the character, the pre 1940s houses – something that blends in with that.”

The development proposes to build two towers, four and six storeys high, plus other units including townhouses.