By Justin McElroy, on November 6th, 2017
After five proposals over three years, a proposed development at 105 Keefer Street has been rejected by the City of Vancouver’s Development Permit Board.
In a 2-1 vote, the board decided the application — a nine-storey tower with 100 per cent market housing and ground level cultural space — did not meet technical zoning requirements for design aspects.
The city’s chief planner, Gil Kelley, and chief engineer, Jerry Dobrovolny, voted to reject the proposal, with assistant city manager Paul Mochrie voting against their motion.
“Because this is such an important site, with such design significance to Chinatown, and because I feel that the application has not met the design test in my view, I’m going to support the motion to refuse the application,” said Kelley, who was the last to speak on the matter.
The Chinatown Action Group, one of the associations in the area publicly opposed to the development, applauded the decision.
“We’re over the moon that the [permit board] finally put a stop to Beedie’s profit-driven development and, instead, protect low-income residents. However, this is just the first step. Our elected leaders and Beedie need to get on with building what has been called for all along: 100 per cent low-income housing and a public and free community space,” said organizer Nat Lowe in a statement.
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