Decision could be made on controversial Chinatown condo development

Vancouver’s Development Permit Board is expected to make a decision Monday regarding a controversial luxury condo development in Chinatown, which opponents say doesn’t fit the neighbourhood.

The proposed development at 105 Keefer Street would include nine levels of condos but would not have any social housing units.

Beedie previously made a proposal in 2017 that was rejected, prompting a lawsuit from the company claiming the city board’s decision was unfair and made in bad faith. In 2022, the court ruled the city had to reconsider the proposal.

More than 70 speakers have signed up to tell the board their thoughts ahead of the vote.

Legacy groups in the area, such as the Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden Society, want to see the development go ahead.

“There is a need for having people in the neighbourhood to create vibrancy and service the businesses … I think definitely we want to see storefront, retail, small-scale just to kind of work within the nature of our community – we’re all small business people, small business owners,” said Jordan Eng, president of the Chinatown Business Improvement Area Society.

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Meanwhile, other grass-root community groups are against the development. Claiming the building isn’t a good fit for the neighbourhood, some critics say the development will expedite the displacement of Chinatown residents “and is not the ‘careful revitalization’ that Beedie Living claims they are engaged in.”

“I want to end by reminding the board of the city’s commitment to heritage, to ‘not only acknowledge our past, but to identify, protect, and pass on diverse cultural values and assets to future generations.’ This project is neither inclusive nor equitable for the vast majority of Chinatown’s residents,” speaker Clare Yow told the board at a previous hearing.

Melody Ma, an organizer with the Save Chinatown YVR group, says the latest proposal will ruin the cultural integrity of the neighbourhood.

“It’s completely culturally inappropriate. It’s looming all over all of these cultural assets. It’s not right to have bars and market condos right in front of a plaza that is honouring people who fought for us and died for us,” Ma told CityNews last month.

She suggests the space should be used for seniors’ housing, or as a park.

“We have thousands of people on our mailing list that feel that Chinatown needs to be protected and this is where the buck stops. You know, you can say we can clean up some feces, put in some garbage cans, but this building is going to be around forever, beyond our lifetimes,” she said.

–With files from Sarah Chew