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THE CHALLENGE SERIES

Produced by Roger Bayley Inc., this online book will be released as a series of eight monthly chapters telling the story of the Olympic Village. (Note: the Challenge Series is not a City of Vancouver initiative. The link provided is for information only.)

OLYMPIC VILLAGE PUBLIC INFORMATION UPDATE

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SEFC Summary Sheet

View the summary sheet (PDF, 190KB) for further background information, a listing of key amenities and quick statistics about the SEFC site.

In 1991 City council issued a challenge to create a community that is sustainable: “on the south shore of false creek, develop a neighbourhood that is the model of sustainability, incorporating: forward-thinking infrastructure; strategic energy reduction; high-performance buildings; and high transit access”. This website highlights the responses to this direction and includes site information, guiding documents, and current planning initiatives.

The Southeast False Creek (SEFC) study area comprises a total of approximately 80 acres (32 hectares) of former industrial land near downtown Vancouver. The majority of the land north of 1st Avenue is City owned. The study area also includes over 30 acres (12.1 hectares) of privately owned land, between 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue, to the south, and between 1st Avenue, Quebec Street, Terminal Avenue, and Main Street to the east.

SEFC has been an industrial area since the late 1800’s. Its industrial uses have included sawmills, foundries, shipbuilding, metalworking, salt distribution, warehousing, and the city’s public works yard (Cambie Yard). The original shoreline was near 1st Avenue and the land area north of it is comprised of fill from many sources, including Grandview Railway Cut and ash from a former incinerator in the Cambie Yard.

Southeast False Creek (SEFC) is envisioned as a community in which people live, work, play and learn in a neighbourhood that has been designed to maintain and balance the highest possible levels of social equity, livability, ecological health and economic prosperity, so as to support their choices to live in a sustainable manner.

SEFC will be a mixed-use community, with a focus on residential use, developed at the highest density possible while meeting livability and sustainability objectives. This complete community will ensure goods and services within walking distance and housing that is linked by transit and in proximity to local jobs.

The public realm in SEFC, which includes open space, parks, streets, and pathways, will connect the entire site and link the adjacent neighbourhoods of South False Creek, Mt. Pleasant, the False Creek Flats, and CityGate. Movement within the site will be through a network of paths and streets designed for pedestrians, cyclists and transit.

Development will continue up to and beyond the Olympic Games. When fully built out, SEFC will have 6.5 million square feet of residential development, with family housing a priority. The housing stock will be comprised of approximately 6,200 units with an estimated total population ranging from 10,000 – 12,000 people.

The built form will celebrate the heritage of the SEFC site through the revitalization of the Salt Building and its designation for public use. The buildings will be designed to be healthy, livable, and efficient in their use of energy resources and water.

The SEFC neighbourhood will provide a wide range of parks and recreational experiences along the waterfront, and will include shoreline improvements and completion of the Seaside pedestrian-bicycle route. Parks and open space will be required to meet ecological objectives, including re-establishment of wildlife habitat, and private and community gardens will be encouraged.

In some areas of the site, demonstration projects in advanced environmental technologies, such as renewable energy supplies, water management, green building design and urban agriculture are being explored.