Does Concord Pacific care about social housing the height of the building blocking views?
TIFFANY CRAWFORD
The Vancouver Sun
Vancouver developer Concord Pacific is suing the City of Vancouver, arguing the city plans to build highrise condos on land reserved for low-rise social housing in downtown’s Beach neighbourhood.
In 1988, Concord bought 200 acres of land that had been used for Expo 86, on the north shore of False Creek. A decade later, the area was subdivided and portions were handed over to the city, after community benefit negotiations, for the exclusive use as social housing, according to a civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court this week.
The legal dispute is over one of those lots, at 601 Beach Crescent on the northeast side of the Granville Street Bridge.
In 1999, half of the lot was transferred to the city, and the city designated it as a low-rise, non-profit housing site within the False Creek North development plan, according to the lawsuit.
But Concord alleges that the city later developed a plan to allow highrise commercial housing. In May, the city invited developers to bid on the lot “with a view to its development as a highrise commercial housing site,” according to the lawsuit.
The company claims the city intends to violate the Concord conveyance by allowing a 130-metre high condo tower with only 20-per-cent non-profit housing.
Concord alleges that selling the lot for commercial development would violate the charitable purpose trust created by the Concord conveyance. The company says the area has substantial commercial value and, if it was sold to a third party, Concord would suffer irreparable commercial harm.
Concord says that the city agreed to develop the lot “exclusively” for non-profit housing, and that the development of highrise market housing would compete with Concord’s development plans for other land in the area.
Concord says it has told the city it is willing to purchase the lot at a fair market price.
The company wants the court to prohibit sale of the lot or development of the lot for any purpose other than non-profit housing.
None of the allegations has been tested in court.
City of Vancouver spokesman Tobin Postma declined to comment as the case is before the courts.
Matt Mehan, Concord’s senior vice-president of planning, said in a statement that the lawsuit is a “stand-alone matter” among a large number of projects that Concord has completed with the city, and that it would continue to work with the city on other current projects.
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