The Metro Core

Vancouver’s Metro Core is an important area that includes the downtown peninsula and extends to 16th Avenue on the south and Clark Drive on the east – about 15% of the city’s land area.

In 2006, it had just over a quarter of the city’s residents (152,000) and contained around 246,000 jobs, almost two-thirds of all jobs in the city. (It has had two-thirds of the city’s jobs since the early 1980s). With twice as many jobs as any other single municipality in the region, the Metro Core plays an important role as a centre for business both on a regional and provincial scale. It is the dominant office location in the region - more than half the region’s office space is located on the downtown peninsula.

Source: Statistics Canada, 2006

In 2006, the City of Vancouver’s Planning Department initiated the “Metropolitan Core Jobs and Economy Land Use Plan” which was put into place to ensure there is adequate job space for future job growth, while meeting other city objectives for heritage, cultural amenities and affordable housing. The city has completed the downtown section of the plan and work is underway on defining new policy for the remainder of the Metro Core.

New downtown policy resulting from the Metro Core study increases the base permitted commercial density of the downtown’s Central Business District (CBD), removes residential as a permitted use in a large part of the CBD, and requires a minimum commercial density in the CBD ‘shoulder’ area on the southern edge of the CBD and in the Yaletown heritage area. New Metro Core policy also facilitates commercial rezonings to higher densities in the CBD and establishes an office conversion policy downtown. For more information on this study, visit Metropolitan Core Jobs and Economy Land Use Plan.

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