April 1973_The Agriculural Land Reserve is created to limit urban sprawl. Prior to the 1970s, some 6,000 hectares of farmland were lost annually to urbanization.
May 1988_Shaugnessy residents fight a proposal to convert 3.2 hectares of neighbourhood parkland into multi-family housing.
December 1991_City Council approves the rezoning of eight million square feet of downtown commercial space to residential; the buildout of fomer Expo lands, now known as Yaletown, soon follows.
January 1992 _Arbutus residents protest the development of the Molson Brewery site. The condominiums and apartment towers go ahead, but with fewer units than planned.
June 1995_City Council adopts CityPlan to help define future growth, create or expand neighbourhood centres, and add density and variety in “neighbouhoods that have little variety right now”
September 1996_SFU formally approces UniverCity, a new residential community that’s to add 10,000 residents to Burnaby Mountain; 10 months later, UBC approves University Town, which will double UBC’s population to 20,900 by 2021.
May2002 Over 500 residents from Dundarave amd Ambleside pack a public meeting to protest a proposed density increase. Many wear funeral black.
July 2004_Mackenzie Heights goes to war with former MLA Art Cowie over his application to build a three-unit rowhouse. City planners receive over 100 messages protesting the project; council rejects the application.
January 2006 A Vancouver city staff report reveals the growing scarcity of affordable housing in Downtown Eastside, with rooms for rent declining from 900 in 1992 to under 600 in 2005.
July 2006_ALR commissioners reject a proposal to turn Barnston Island into an industrial park.
August2006_Concord Pacific purchases CBC’s staff parking lot for $34 million and begins construction on two highrises; studio suites start at a compact 566 sq. ft.
October 2006_NPA Councillor Kim Capri suggests shrinking the size of new SRO units to 100 sq.ft. “cruise ship cabins”
January 2007_CMHC figures for Greater Vancouver indicate multi-family units made up 70% of total housing starts in 2005-06, up from 40% in the 1980s.
February 2007_“The Aerie” becomes the British Properties’ first townhouse development, with units starting at $2 million.
February 2007_The GVRD tables a report calling for residential “intensification” in the region; only 11% of Vancouver land has multi-family units.
February 2007_Suspicious fires damage newly built Dunbar townhouses. The two units had been opposed by neighbours because they were built on two 25-foot-wide subdivided parcels.
February 2007_Vancouver begins a series of public workshops on Mayor Sam Sullivan’s EcoDensity initiative. The plan, approved by council in July 2006, adds a green dimension to the decades-old density debate; Brent Toderian, the city’s new director of planning, tells the media, “We are not a sustainable city and we can no longer pretend we are one.”
This synopsis was compiled by Rosemary Poole in the April 2007 edition of “Vancouver.”
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