Housing journalist Frances Bula outlines what should follow the Villages Plan

The Story

Vancouver City Council’s decision to kill the “Villages Plan” has left residents with competing interpretations of what the city’s next housing steps should be, and longtime civic affairs reporter Frances Bula is arguing that the original intent—adding homes around established commercial corridors—should guide what comes next.

Bula, who is running for Vancouver City Council under the OneCity party in the October 2026 civic election, describes the public response to the plan’s concept map as divided along generational and neighbourhood lines. She says some young families she knows saw the proposed “Villages” as potential places to live without having to commute from far outside the city or settle in basement suites, while other homeowners saw the map’s large “blobs” as a sign that much of Vancouver could eventually be cleared and rebuilt in ways they found unclear or threatening.

In her view, questions raised during the debate were not only about where density would occur, but also about how existing homeowners could be affected by future zoning rules. She points to notices that, under the Villages Plan approach, property owners seeking renovations or additions would have to build according to new zoning that could potentially allow multi-storey apartments with ground-level retail.

Bula contrasts her reading of the Villages Plan’s outcome with what she says was the earlier trajectory of the Vancouver Plan: increasing housing supply first around neighbourhood centres, described as the city’s “neighbourhood high streets.” She lists Dunbar Street (between 16th Avenue and 32nd Avenue), Fraser Street and Victoria Street (between 33rd Avenue and 43rd Avenue), and similar corridors as examples of commercial strips she argues are central to residential districts.

To illustrate what she considers a workable balance between growth and preservation, Bula cites Kerrisdale. She says the area retains a main street with small shops that, in her description, have not been rezoned for higher density that would wipe them out, while also having nearby low-rise apartments and roughly a dozen 13-storey towers on side streets. She also says residents in those buildings help support local stores and that higher-end housing exists in the surrounding neighbourhood, while new development remains present.

Bula also addresses political context around the Villages Plan’s rise and end. She says she had questions after Ken Sim and the ABC Vancouver party “went all in” on a large Villages Plan about three years ago, and she claims opposition—primarily but not only on Vancouver’s Westside—emerged later. She further says the plan was ultimately halted and that City staff were not pursued through a longer path of options and resident consultation.

Along with her party colleague, councillor Lucy Maloney, Bula says Maloney tried to salvage elements of the plan based on City staff suggestions, including modifications and improved consultation around each designated village area. Bula’s argument is that simply cancelling the Villages Plan does not solve the underlying housing-access issues, and she contends that detached homes in many neighbourhoods will become less accessible to all but the highest-income households.

In practical terms, Bula says what she wants a new City Council to do next is to reorient efforts toward housing along the city’s neighbourhood high streets without rezoning those main streets in a way that would push out small businesses. She also calls for new “area plans” that she says would take places like Dunbar Street or Victoria Street as anchors, focusing on those corridors for additional low-rise and “modest tower” clusters.

Bula says these area plans should also look for nearby nodes within the same areas that could absorb growth in smaller increments, including examples she gives such as two or three new low-rise buildings at 33rd Avenue and Mackenzie Street and additional development around Victoria Street and 61st Avenue, which she describes as a food desert. She links her approach to ensuring a mix of housing types, including townhouses and four- to six-storey apartment buildings.

Bula’s central policy message is that Vancouver should build a housing future that keeps neighbourhoods distinctive while still expanding options for younger and older residents who cannot afford what she characterizes as the city’s detached-house reserve. She argues that shaping zoning so development does not default entirely to the highest density could help maintain the city’s existing variety while increasing supply toward a longer-term target of “Vancouver 2055.”