Quote:
Originally Posted by J.OT13
I find Vancouver, with its compact CBD and dense Downtown Peninsula has done the best job proving a mix of uses in its core (affordability issues aside). I can only think of one residential building in Toronto's CBD that has been built over the last decade, or maybe century, but the surroundings have densified significantly.
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There are actually very few residential buildings within Vancouver's designated CBD, and unless there's a rewrite of policy, very few opportunities to add any more. The
Downtown ODP identifies a series of subzones, with differing densities 'as of right' and different schedules of permitted uses. The core CBD only allows residential uses to cover retention of heritage, and replacement of existing non-market housing (and there's almost none of that in the CBD). The base commercial zoning also has to be provided, so the bottom floors of the Residences at the Hotel Georgia are office space, (replacing the hotel's parkade) and the tower above paid for the seismic upgrading of the hotel.
Developers can propose a rezoning to a higher density, but so far no Council has contemplated allowing those proposals to alter the policy itself, only the density of space permitted, so there are no residential only projects in the CBD. Policy was tightened about 20 years ago after a detailed study confirmed the need to retain a commercial only core was needed, as higher residential values were undermining the viability of hotel or office uses.
Beyond the core CBD are 'shoulder' zones that require a base density of commercial, then permit residential above. It's generally around 3 FSR of commercial, and recent projects have proposed boutique hotels, as small scale office space is less easy to lease in the current market. Most of the residential density has been added in the zones that allow almost 100% residential, and because it's a constrained area those are all still walk or bike accessible to the CBD.
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