Vancouver City Council targets housing with two freshly approved motions
Posted November 15, 2023 7:13 pm.
Last Updated November 15, 2023 7:15 pm.
Although the Shaughnessy motion was shot down by council on Wednesday, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and the ABC majority council are celebrating another pair of passed housing motions.
In a post on X, Sim says these two motions will help add more housing in the city — specifically with a focus on “creating middle-income housing.”
The mayor introduced one of the motions himself, this one setting a mandate for city staff to use city-owned land to build missing middle housing.
“Middle-income earners are the economic engine of our city. These are our workers, police, firefighters, and nurses,” Sim in his comments at Council. “We have a shortage of middle-income housing that threatens the sustainability and growth of our city.”
The City of Vancouver issued a release saying Sim’s motion marked the “first time in recent memory” that the city “tackled the creation of middle-income housing.”
Coun. Lenny Zhou brought forth the second motion, which is intended to increase family-friendly density near schools and seek out opportunities to work with the Vancouver School Board on the matter moving forward.
In a post on X, Zhou thanked council for unanimously passing his motion.
“Taking [a] pragmatic approach and concrete actions will help to create a more sustainable, attainable, inclusive, and vibrant city for generations to come,” he said.
Council also passed a motion to remove parking minimums for new buildings in the West End and Broadway plan areas, this change taking effect as soon as the calendar turns to 2024.
The city says these three motions reflect the council’s vision for a “vibrant, inclusive, and healthy city.”
“It builds on groundwork already laid by a series of motions passed over the last year and helps us build the brighter future we want for all Vancouverites,” reads a statement from the City of Vancouver.
With files from Cole Schisler
