Lori Culbert, Dan Fumano and Joanne Lee-Young are nominated for a National Newspaper Award in the Politics category with their in-depth look at what governments had done and were promising to do ab…
Lori Culbert, Dan Fumano and Joanne Lee-Young are nominated for a National Newspaper Award in the Politics category with their in-depth look at what governments had done and were promising to do about affordable housing in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Winners will be announced on May 3. This piece was originally published on Nov. 27, 2018.
“I cannot believe that this very valuable piece of land that was supposed to have social housing for 224 families is still empty.” Silvestrone and others outraged by the lack of activity on the valuable site have demanded answers for years. Although this is just one property, experts say this practice of developers sitting on empty parcels of prime land for extended periods must be discouraged, potentially with a new tax that reflects the increased value of the land.
Rich Coleman, who oversaw the Little Mountain sale as the Liberal housing minister, insisted he got a great deal for the land, one that allowed the province to invest in social housing elsewhere. But he admits the delays are disheartening. In part because of Little Mountain, city policies have since changed: The city now looks for a phased approach to tenant relocation on major projects to allow residents to remain in the community during redevelopment, and no eviction notices can be issued until developers have all their building permits in hand.“It feels sad to me, and it feels like a giant failure that we should certainly learn from,” said Boyle.
Three years later, a social service agency offered the Steenhuisen family a one-bedroom apartment at the site, after mother Toni gave birth to triplets and father Johann was quoted in a Vancouver Sun story that there was no room in their basement apartment for the suddenly large family. In the fall of 2008, when Gregor Robertson ran in his first campaign for mayor of Vancouver, he proposed creating temporary housing on the Little Mountain site.
Protest groups were formed and in 2012 officials relented by allowing the last four holdout families to stay in one corner of the site while a new 53-unit building for seniors was built and opened in 2015. “It was pressuring the situation in terms of how much density felt they needed, whether or not they can and should provide community amenities and benefits, and whether they should try to keep the residents on site or just clear the site. All of those pressures had to do with the land deal, which the city was not either privy to or a party to.”
The land was transferred to Holborn in 2013, but it only made a $40-million down payment, according to B.C. Housing annual reports. The remaining $294 million was to be paid in portions when a development permit was received from the city for each new building. He added, though, that it would be unfair to judge the purchase price and sale based on today’s soaring land values, since the property assessment could instead have gone down over this time.
After the rezoning approval in 2016, the land’s assessed value more than tripled to $362 million last year, from $101 million in 2016. Industry experts say such huge surges in value are not uncommon for major real estate developments that have obtained rezoning approval.
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