Above: Map from Province's TOD Policy Manual for area around Renfrew Station in Vancouver. Colour coding shows all the parcels that are counted as TOD areas even if just a portion of the property is touched by the radius line. Note that the TOD policy exempts Industrial Areas (but this is not reflected in the diagram, as all parcels within a TOD area have been colour-coded)
The Government of British Columbia published a total of 52 Transit Oriented Development (TOD) maps on December 8, 2023, all of which were in effective immediately (see the published Transit Oriented Development Areas webpage).
The portal webpage for a raft of new provincial housing policies is "Local governments and housing" (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/local-governments-and-housing), and within that, the portal webpage for detailed regulations announced December 8 is "Local government housing initiatives" (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/local-governments-and-housing/housing-initiatives).
A TOD policy manual was also published that goes into the details of the provincial mandates for impacted municipalities. There's also a Provincial policy manual for multi-unit housing.
Above: Arbutus Station TOD Area (left), Stadium-Chinatown Station (right). TOD designations do not apply to federal lands (ports) or industrial land. The creation date on both of these maps was 2023-11-15.
The TOD areas around SkyTrain stations apply to properties with residential zoning; industrial areas are exempt (as are federal lands, ports, heritage designations, airport lands, floodplains and the ALR). There were also TOD areas designated around larger Bus Exchanges such as the Kootenay Loop Exchange in Vancouver Heights, with the same rules applying to West Coast Express stations.
The list of TOD area maps includes many of the SkyTrain stations in Vancouver; however, there are a few missing maps such as the Commercial-Broadway station that will have to be designated by the City by the end of June 2024. Parking requirements for new developments have been removed, apart for perhaps providing parking for disabled residents.
For residential properties around SkyTrain stations, the TOD outright zoning (called Minimum Allowable Density Framework by the Province) can be summarized as follows:
- within 200m, building heights of 20 storeys and a Floor Space Ratio of 5.0
- from 200m to 400m, building heights of 12 storeys and a FSR of 4.0
- between 400m and 800m, buildings heights of 8 storeys and a FSR of 3.0
Designated bus exchange TOD outright zoning (in Vancouver, the Kootenay Loop), can be summarized as:
- within 200m, building heights of 12 storeys and a Floor Space Ratio of 4.0
- between 200m and 400m, building heights of 8 storeys and a FSR of 3.0
One thing often missed in recent public discussions is that the Province has not indicated the dimensional height for what constitutes one "storey" and that leaves considerable vagueness regarding actual building height (CityHallWatch has covered cases where a "13-storey" tower actually has the dimensional height of a typical 17-storey tower). Presumably municipalities are expected to provide such guidance (such at the Broadway Plan's maximum 10 ft. floor to floor height above the first floor).
Another point is that the Province's interpretation of "transit-oriented development" is could actually be described as defaulting to "tower-oriented transit-oriented development." The "tower-oriented" part is not always necessary. Scot Hein (former senior urban designer at the City of Vancouver) has pointed out successful real examples of "transit-oriented development" at four and five storeys that are "context-sensitive" and very reasonable options -- that is, if the goal is to produce "affordable supply," not just "more supply."
Another important point not often covered so far is that if any part of a property lies within one of the circles radiating out from a TOD (200m, 400m or 800m), then the entire property is considered to have that designation. This means that the perfect circles drawn around transit stations in images can actually be jagged when it gets to physical buildings on the ground.
The policy manual provides no minimum frontage requirements; however, there is a vague reference about possible issues with individual sites (such as not being able to physically accommodate requested height and density).
The Transit Station TOD areas essentially cover a 1,600 meter (one mile) diameter. The Province has defined a single point to centre radiating circles around each of Transit Stations (as opposed to using the property line around the station).
The Province's TOD rules contain no tenant protection requirements or affordability requirements, although this is an upzoning initiative by the Province. The B.C. NDP government has given no consideration to local regulations, such as solar access to school playgrounds or parks (in the TOD zones, it appears that 20-storey towers could go directly to the south of parks, as in the case of the defined area around 29th Avenue SkyTrain Station).
Citizens have reason to be concerned that the TOD areas could follow the Metrotown development model in Burnaby, turning affordable rental buildings into expensive towers. While some might see this an opportunity to build a lot of density with less municipal red tape, could the TOD zones also have defined a required radius for affordable housing? In the absence of such guidance, in the future, will truly affordable housing be shifted outside of the TOD areas as a result of development pressures?
It's possible to create more accurate maps from information off the City of Vancouver's Open Data site. There are datasets describing property parcels and zoning districts (along with an API); this information could be combined to produce TOD maps showing residential properties. All impacted municipalities are now required to designate TOD areas around the identified transit stops by the end of June 2024.
Citizens in each of the affected communities (Burnaby, Chilliwack, Coquitlam, Kamloops, Kelowna, Maple Ridge, Mission, New Westminster, District of North Vancouver, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Richmond, Saanich, Surrey, Vancouver, Victoria) should have a look at what these TOD rules mean for them and engage actively with their elected mayors and councils, as well as their Members of Legislative Assembly to ask questions and tell them what they think of this (https://www.leg.bc.ca/learn-about-us/members).
Here below is a selection several of the Province's 20 official maps of TOD areas in Vancouver. Note that the colour coding of these maps by the Province do not show the parcels on the edges that are counted as TOD areas simply by being partially within the radius.
Note that the creation dates on many of the maps, including the VCC-Clark, Stadium-Chinatown and Arbutus Station maps, was 2023-11-15. This means that much of this information existed well before Housing Minister refused to provide details to the Legislature during debate on Bills 44 and 47, before he invoked closure (time limits) to shut down debate, and before that legislation was enacted (November 30).
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