Council approves tower that will spell end for all but facade of Maxine’s Hideaway
Tiffany Crawford
Sun
A heritage building will be torn down to make way for a highrise rental tower in Vancouver’s West End, despite concerns from residents that the city has no plan for the neighbourhood.
City council voted 6-2 on Tuesday to approve the 20-storey tower on Bidwell Street that will see the demolition of all but the facade of Maxine’s Hideaway, a 1930s style heritage building. The new apartments will be rental units for 60 years or the life of the building.
The project, proposed under the city’s Short Term Incentives for Rental (STIR) program, was approved by city staff to provide more rental housing in the city.
Councillors Ellen Woodsworth and Suzanne Anton opposed the motion.
“I cannot support this,” said Anton. “I cannot support it because I think the public benefit would be better spent in a public way in the West End and if this money is determined to be used for housing it should go where it’s most needed.”
Anton suggested that instead of rental units, the city should have looked at approving condominiums, which would have brought the city up to $7 million from the developer. She said that money could have gone to building a gay and lesbian centre for the area or saving the Stanley Park petting zoo, which has been axed because of a budget shortfall.
Anton also voiced concern that the rental units contained mostly units for single people and not for families with children.
Woodsworth’s concern was the neighbourhood had not been properly consulted and she wanted to see community consultation before moving the project forward.
“They want real affordability in the rental projects and this isn’t going to create that,” said Woodsworth.
“I think what we need is that community consultation and we need to listen to the neighbours in this community and find out what they want…. We’re driving something that we hope will create rentability with its 49 units but it’s not creating the kind of rentability that we need in the city.”
Tim Stevenson, who voted for the project, said the West End is desperate for affordable rental housing.
“We have waited a long time for someone to do something about housing,” he said. “We don’t have any rental units in the West End. There’s nothing.”
Deputy Mayor George Chow, who was acting for Mayor Gregor Robertson while he is away, was also in favour of going ahead with the project
Residents packed two public hearings about the Bidwell project earlier this month, arguing the neighbourhood should retain its current zoning until the city comes up with a neighbourhood plan. However, the city later altered the zoning to allow for the development. Many residents were upset about the tower blocking view corridors and that the development would not include the entire heritage building.
The development, by Millennium English Bay Properties, calls for retaining the Maxine’s heritage facade and building the 20-storey towerwith49rentalhousingunits behind it. There has been no rental housing built in the West End for at least a decade.
The heritage building, at 1215 Bidwell St., is now a nightclub called Maxine’s Hideaway, named after Maxine McGillvary, who opened a beauty school at the location in the early 1900s. The school later became a brothel with secret tunnels to bootleg liquor during prohibition.
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We have waited a long time for someone to do something about
housing. We don’t have any rental units in the West End. There’s nothing.
COUN. TIM STEPHENSON
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