Colleen Hardwick says TEAM For A Livable Vancouver would restrict rezoning around qualifying affordable rental buildings and tailor new housing planning to neighbourhoods.
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Colleen Hardwick, a former Vancouver city councillor and the mayoral candidate for TEAM For A Livable Vancouver, is calling for a new approach to housing development that prioritizes affordability and the protection of existing secured purpose-built rental buildings. In a campaign announcement, Hardwick argued that Vancouver’s housing challenge is fundamentally a shortage of affordable homes, rather than a simple shortage of units.
Hardwick said TEAM wants governments to take a more direct role in creating homes middle-income residents can afford by working with private developers while changing how the City of Vancouver plans and regulates new building development. She also positioned TEAM as continuing its criticism of redevelopment pressure on older rental properties that often have lower rents and a higher degree of affordability.
A central element of TEAM’s proposal is what Hardwick described as an “upzoning” moratorium—an interruption of zoning changes that would permit larger developments on sites currently occupied by qualifying affordable rental buildings. Hardwick’s proposal would apply to buildings with at least 10 units that are in “adequate” condition, with the rent level defined by whether rents cost a median-income earner less than 30 per cent of their income.
Hardwick said TEAM’s affordability focus is aimed at reducing the risk that rezoning increases land values and encourages speculation, with higher land costs later reflected in the affordability of housing that is built. She argued that city policies should avoid “unnecessary land-value escalation” and should look for ways to “capture increases in land value for public benefit” while also reducing the portion of land costs that ultimately shapes housing prices.
Beyond the moratorium idea, Hardwick highlighted planning changes that would tailor development rules to individual neighbourhoods rather than applying uniform rule changes across the city. She said TEAM would use neighbourhood input to identify areas where additional housing could be added, with the goal of fitting new development into local conditions and priorities.
TEAM also proposed that the City review how land is used in search of overlooked housing sites, including idle properties or developments that no longer serve their original purpose. Hardwick said the results of that work would be collected in a map identifying potential opportunities for housing development.
Hardwick said TEAM would also tie zoning decisions to public infrastructure requirements to help curb land speculation and would streamline approvals while maintaining neighbourhood input and technical reviews. She argued that planning should be evaluated not only on the number of units approved, but on who can afford them, for how long affordability is maintained, and who would actually live in them.
The announcement comes amid longer-running criticism from Hardwick and TEAM about high-density development proposals and the City’s reliance on market residential development-driven revenue. Hardwick has also argued that top-down planning from municipal and provincial governments has not involved adequate consultation from local communities, including in the context of provincial housing-related legislation.
If elected, TEAM previously said it would repeal multiple development plans created by the municipal government, including the new Vancouver Official Development Plan, Vancouver Plan, Broadway Plan, Jericho Lands Official Development Plan, and the Rupert & Renfrew Villages Plan. The party has also opposed the proposed Villages Plan, which Hardwick said was rejected by the current makeup of City Council during the past summer.
Hardwick’s announcement further indicated that TEAM would revise neighbourhood planning through a return to previous neighbourhood plans, paired with additional design prescriptions. TEAM said it would introduce requirements for multiplex building forms to be “more neighbourly in form,” reflecting an effort to influence new housing built under any expanded or changed development framework.
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