Vancouver’s Development Permit Board voted today to approve Beedie’s application for 105 Keefer, imposing a set of conditions surrounding the design of the building. The decision comes despite no direct engagement from the developer with the community on the present iteration of their proposal, and follows two Monday mid-day Development Permit Board (DPB) hearings on May 29th and June 12th, where over dozens of Chinatown residents, community members, and supporters, spoke in opposition to the project.
In order to meet the conditions set by the city, Beedie must redesign the building to better reflect the 25-foot frontages typical of Chinatown’s historic design context, and change the materials and pallette of the facades to “better reflect the materiality of the community.” Further, approval requires “significantly reshaping the expression and massing” of the Southwest corner of the building, redesigning the ground-level unit to serve as “the primary commercial space” and redesigning the ground-level facade “through the lens of contextual fit.” In addition, the development must be redesigned such that the Keefer Street frontage (facing the Chinatown Memorial Square) is less than 7 storeys, reduce the visual impact and prominence of the glass boxes located at the top of the building, and introduce cladding around the elevator boxes and mechanical penthouses that extend much higher than the allowable heights for the HA-1A zone.
The DPB notes that the conditions they have set will reduce the achievable floor area for the building. The need to reduce floor area in order for the building to meet the design test was part of the reason for the DPB’s rejection of the proposal in 2017.
Beedie’s proposal for a 9-storey luxury condo development came back to the City of Vancouver’s Development Permit Board this year at the direction of the BC Supreme Court. Following years of community opposition and multiple rejections from the city, the Development Permit Board had rejected Beedie’s application, identical to the one before them today, in late 2017. The City offered Beedie multiple opportunities for resolution, including a land-swap and an outright purchase of the land, but the developer chose instead to launch a multi-year legal action. Beedie’s complaints were rejected on all accounts except one by the BC Supreme Court in December, which ruled that, given the DPB’s history of approving every application that came its way, their lack of reasons in 2017 made the decision “unreasonable.” The Court did not rule on the correctness of the decision, and it is unclear if the reasons voiced during the November 6, 2017 DPB meeting rejecting the application were considered by the Court, as during that meeting, Jerry Dobrovolny, the City’s Chief Engineer at the time, made clear that Beedie would need to make dramatic changes and significantly reduce the floor-space of the building to meet the design guidelines.
The DPB’s reversal signifies a dangerous precedent for the City, opening the path for more developers to turn to the courts rather than modify their development applications or pursue alternative solutions that can better serve the public.
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