The Broadway Plan is playing out in a way many residents never imagined. Rezoning signs are popping up like mushrooms, good affordable housing is threatened with demolition and tenants are getting eviction notices. Residents are seeing 18 and 20 story tower proposals on quiet residential streets some distance from rapid transit. This is not about stopping the Broadway Plan, but about taking a breath and reassessing the rapid pace of change going on and making sure we are doing it right.

Whereas:

• Most people thought the Broadway Plan (“The Plan”) as adopted in 2022 would mean towers near transit hubs, but the actual Plan implementation goes much further with  Vancouver City Council preparing to “turbocharge” the Plan in November 2024, allowing up to double the number of possible towers than originally proposed. 
• Public consultation on the 500 page Broadway Plan was limited and held largely during the pandemic. Many were not able to take in the considerable details of the proposal.
• Much of affected areas under threat of demolition, include the most densely populated areas of Vancouver with a wide range of existing affordable rental housing, with typically larger sized units than the new market rentals.
• Despite assurances of "enhanced tenant protections”, thousands of tenants face the prospect of eviction and stressful personal disruptions. Tenants are expected to find temporary housing elsewhere for 3-5 years and then move back again to units, in some cases, half the size of what they had.
• Our existing affordable rental housing is our most precious asset and should not be first on the block to be demolished before suitable replacement buildings exist for evicted tenants to move into.
• Evicting thousands of tenants to compete in an already very low vacancy rental market puts even more stress on affordable housing.
• Residents are generally supportive of new ways to densify and build new housing, but feel that massive towers should not be the only option. 
• The character and unique quality of neighbourhoods is being swept away in a one-size-fits-all plan which does not consider many aspects of what we value about our city and neighbourhoods.
• The Broadway Plan promised that "New development should include architecture and building forms that respond to the evolving local context, including topography and elements of neighbourhood character”, but 20 storey towers on quiet residential streets undermines that promise.
• The anticipated build out of 30,000 units over 30 years is being undermined by a frenzy of 22,000 units already in the pipeline or being built, including over 100 tower rezonings in just two years of this plan. This is causing much uncertainty and disruption.
• The Broadway Plan is set to produce many towers of mostly small, expensive units with only a small amount of slightly below market housing and so fail to provide the affordable, missing middle, and family-oriented housing these communities need.
• The Broadway Plan seriously fails to consider the infrastructure and amenities (schools, parks, recreational facilities) that would be needed for such a massive increase on population.
• The Broadway Plan covers the area from 1st to 16th and Clark to Vine and is considered as a model for expansion all the way to UBC.
• Numerous ex-planners and housing professionals have serious concerns about the pace and nature of the Broadway Plan and are calling for change and a moratorium.

In consideration of the above, we, the undersigned, call on the municipal and provincial governments to put a moratorium on new rezoning applications and instead rethink the Broadway Plan.  

We ask that the City return to the community for meaningful engagement with residents about the way the Broadway Plan is playing out, how it can evolve, build much needed housing and welcome new residents, while avoiding the demolition of existing affordable housing and unwelcome changes to the quality and character that makes our city such a desirable place to live for people of all income levels, ages and backgrounds.