A proposal to build 437 rental homes (27% of them renting at below market rates) at the intersection of Broadway and Commercial Drive will soon go to Vancouver City Council for approval.

Unfortunately, some wealthy homeowners are attempting to derail the project. 

These Grandview-Woodland homeowners have been so successful at fighting new housing that:

• From census years 1996-2016, their neighbourhood grew by an ASTOUNDING 0% (zero percent, yes) while the rest of metro Van grew by 600,000 residents (30%)
• More than 50% of low income households left the Grandview Woodland area in that time, due to rising prices and no new homes being built
• The median income of their neighbourhood SHOT UP 45% during the same period - increasingly (and by their design), only rich people can afford to live in their neighbourhood
• Non-native English speakers living in Grandview-Woodland decreased by 20% - a sad decline in diversity for a city that prides itself on it

For too long, these well-heeled established homeowners have gate-kept the beautiful Commercial Drive neighbourhood for their own use. Today their campaign to stop this development is as fact-free and vitriolic as ever, employing all the same tropes that have worked so well for decades to keep newcomers out of Grandview-Woodland.

They post "No Safeway Mega Towers" signs on the lawns of their $2M homes and claim to fight for affordability. 

They inflate building sizes, claiming a 29 storey building will actually be 40 storeys. 

They claim a 20,000 square foot proposed public plaza isn't a meaningful enough contribution to the streetscape.

The current housing proposal meets all the requirements of the official Grandview-Woodland plan.

But over the last two years, the proposed housing development has had to scale back in the face of opposition from this small, powerful group. Most critically, homeowner opposition has already succeeded in cutting 128 rental homes from the proposal.

Tell Mayor and Council that you want this critical rental housing built. And that Grandview-Woodland should be open to all residents of Vancouver, not just the moneyed few who got in early.