Time for Vancouver to Tear Down Its Viaducts?

[GenWhy?]

Neat and that's great to hear they're trying a more standard approach for infrastructure funding.

[jollyburger]

But White said the cost of the required infrastructure has now doubled, making it unrealistic to rely solely on development revenue to fund the work. “If we’re just expecting the development revenue to make up that massive cost escalation that we’ve experienced, we’re gonna be perpetually spinning our wheels,” said the City’s chief planner.

According to White, recent major City policy changes — especially the amendments to the protected mountain view cones to relax building height restrictions — have reopened conversations about increased density and development capacity, which could generate additional revenue to help finance infrastructure.

“They don’t have land to proceed on unless we remove the viaducts,” said White, adding that City staff have been meeting with Concord every two weeks for the past year and a half to resolve funding and phasing challenges. Discussions are also ongoing with the Government of British Columbia around a “participation mortgage,” which White described as a “key piece of revenue” needed to fund land remediation, infrastructure, and public amenities. This is in addition to potentially tapping into federal programs.

“We have to work collectively together, and creatively, and think of solutions that weren’t even on the table in 2018 in our previous iterations of the plan. Concord needs to be a participant to that. Plaza of Nations needs to be a participant to that,” said White.

Under such a scenario, a participation mortgage could theoretically be a financing arrangement in which the provincial government provides upfront funding for the viaducts demolition and new road network, in exchange for repayment plus a share of future development revenues generated once the land is built out. As a form of low-cost financing, this approach would allow the major upfront capital costs needed to kickstart the NEFC Plan to be deferred until high-density development projects are ready further down the road.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/dunsmuir...eek-plan-federal-provincial-loans-update

[Migrant_Coconut]

Could we also get an Infrastructure Bank loan for the Purple and Gold lines? That'd go a long way toward making this whole thing work.

[officedweller]

Even if the viaducts are gone, Concord will probably still wait until market conditions are right before building.

Originally Posted by logan5

Maximize the value of the viaduct lands by maximizing the density - around FSR 20/ 6 million buildable sq feet, gives you an average tower height of 65 floors/6500 sq ft floor plate, spread over 14 towers. You would have 8 towers on the east parcel, and 6 on the west, and still easily have at least 80 foot tower separation. At a conservate 400/buildable = 2.4 billion land value.

Now do the same the for the rest of NE False Creek, so you can generate a lot more CAC money for the viaduct removal, and new road network.

Trade off height restrictions so that we can save the DTES from rotting away and being permanently destroyed.

Remember that the NEFC park space will be the repository for contaminated soils for the area (just like David Lam Park, George Wainborn Park and Andy Livingstone Park), so there will have to be some open park space that won't be built on.
But that doesn't prevent them from buildinging higher where they do propose towers.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Even if the viaducts are gone, Concord will probably still wait until market conditions are right before building.

Remember that the NEFC park space will be the repository for contaminated soils for the area (just like David Lam Park, George Wainborn Park and Andy Livingstone Park), so there will have to be some open park space that won't be built on.
But that doesn't prevent them from buildinging higher where they do propose towers.

I think the ongoing negotiations are probably around forcing a schedule if the City ponies up to redo the infrastructure. But at the pace these things go, it will take a whole market cycle for them (the City) to do everything. Start now and it will be finishing up around the next market top.

[kikin]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

I think the ongoing negotiations are probably around forcing a schedule if the City ponies up to redo the infrastructure. But at the pace these things go, it will take a whole market cycle for them (the City) to do everything. Start now and it will be finishing up around the next market top.

how long is a typical cycle? it feels we are at the absolute bottom right now

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by kikin

how long is a typical cycle? it feels we are at the absolute bottom right now

Probably a year or two more of this, the market hasn't really tanked much in terms of selling prices. It depends but I'd say 8-10 years is enough to see a whole cycle again.