Background & History

Why did Council ask to review the View Corridors & Height Limits?

The downtown peninsula has a limited amount of land for development given its geographic boundaries. Downtown development is also limited by City policies governing building height, building size and protected public view corridors. The study intended to determine which views the public valued most and worked to preserve those views, while possibly altering others.

Background

The need to assess “benefit capacity” (i.e. the ability to accommodate additional residential floor space on the available development sites in the downtown area to allow for bonuses, rezonings, and transfers of density) was highlighted in two reports in July 2007 which led to this study: The Metro Core Jobs & Economy Study (2.13mb) and the Heritage Building Rehabilitation Program and Transfer of Density Bank Report (141kb). What these reports highlighted was a short term supply of “benefit capacity”, on identified development sites in the Downtown ODP area. The findings of these reports showed that there was approximately 3 million sq. ft. of “benefit capacity” assuming all potential development sites downtown built up to the view corridors. Based on this information City Council directed staff to complete a study to identify longer term development capacity in the Downtown.

This study reviewed existing height limits and view corridors to explore the ability to create additional development capacity, while being cognizant of the objectives of the view corridor and skyline policies previously adopted by Council. Basic building heights in the study area were regulated by Official Development Plans (ODP) and zoning adopted at various dates over the past 30 or more years.

View Protection Guidelines were approved in December 1989 and established a number of view corridors (also known as “view cones”) over the downtown peninsula to protect views of the North Shore Mountains from a variety of locations south of the downtown peninsula. In February 1997 Council endorsed policies resulting from the Downtown Vancouver Skyline Study intended to result in a “dome-like” skyline incorporating certain key principles. A result of this decision was the creation of a General Policies for Higher Buildings which outline where and under what conditions buildings higher than current maximums—up to 600 ft.—could be considered.

History

Vancouver has a spectacular natural setting. The location of the downtown on a peninsula with a mountain backdrop and an ocean setting creates signature views that define the image of Vancouver. Each composition balances three prominent horizontal features: the shoreline, the downtown skyline and the North Shore Mountains.

To this end, Vancouverites have long supported the beauty of this dynamic mixture of water, architecture and mountain scenery. Citizens identified the preservation of views as amongst their top priorities for the city in the Goals for Vancouver surveys of 1978-1979. In the late 1980s development was anticipated in the Downtown South and along the north shore of False Creek. Without a structured approach to building location and height limits it was conceivable that views of the downtown, the mountains and the waters of False Creek could be lost as these lands developed.

As a response the City initiated the Vancouver Views Study in 1988 which sought to understand how the public valued a variety of public views. The outcomes of this study resulted in a proposed view protection policy featuring a number of view corridors.

In 1989 the City of Vancouver approved the View Protection Guidelines containing 26 protected view corridors. The policy protects views of the North Shore Mountains, the downtown skyline and the waters of False Creek from a number of public view points located along the south shore of False Creek, arterial roadways, and from the Granville and Cambie bridges.

In the intervening years a significant number of new buildings have been added to the downtown skyline. These view corridors have had a visible effect on the site location and design of buildings, resulting in the retention of panoramic and narrow views in and around the downtown area.

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