Bike / Park Oriented Development (BPOD?) ! A motion from OneCity councilor @lucymaloney.bsky.social aims to end the apartment ban next to bike streets and parks! We need liveable density on quiet leafy streets. Don’t like arterial density? Want alternatives to towers? Speak in support sept 17
That street is *way* too big for those buildings, what's up with that?
It’s an ai rendering of a sketchup model and I didn’t have time to crop it out.
Oh okay, I thought it was a little tower painted onto a real street with odd proportions - never mind! =)
Yeah this was the version with the least amount of weird ai flotsam. Definitely a work in progress.
Having an apartment ban is the worst solution.
That’s the default for most of north America’s urban/suburban land.
Oh I know, and it needs to be changed!
What building is this? It's pretty!
It's a rendering of one of our single-stair prototypes
Do you have an open-access floorplan? (If it's proprietary, that's fine, no worries.)
Oh I’ve got lots of floor plans. This one is still fairly schematic. bsky.app/profile/lane...
Cool! Is there a reason why the front is narrower than the back? Why isn't it like this:
I've done a lot of iterations over the years as we've advocated for these housing options, but in this version I'm looking at stepping in the side yard setback where it is adjacent to single family front yards. It also provides a bit of transparency to the stair and entrance.
That makes sense! I'm in Washington, DC, where we mainly have zero-side-setback housing, which is why I was wondering if a "smooth-front" version existed!
Oh yes, all throughout europe and most of the rest of the world they allow party-wall single stair buildings. The best ones have shallow floor plates (~35' to 45' max) and adjacent green space / courtyards. Just follow @holz-bau.bsky.social and he'll talk your head off about it.
Bike Path Oriented Development (BPOD) was 1/4 of my Arch / Urb Planning thesis project. : )
Council Motion council.vancouver.ca/20250917/doc...
Why this motion when we just adopted Plexes citywide? 1. A lot of land is still too expensive. 1FSR plexes can’t outcompete ‘mansions’. 2. Plexes (like single family and townhouses) aren’t accessible. 3. Single-stair mini towers could have more green space than plexes or big single family.
4. Allow more people to live next to existing parks and schools on quiet streets (like in the West End) … where the air is much less polluted compared to only putting townhouses right on Oak St or apartments on Kingsway.
5. Density needs to scale up with land value. If your 50x122 lot is worth $3.5m, then you need 2 to 3 FSR for missing middle condos or rental units to pencil out. We’re happy to keep building higher end houses & duplexes on these lots, but the city should get more out of each tear down.
Here's where you can sign up to speak (in person, or via phone) Unfortunately I won't be in town, as I'll be in Connecticut for the YIMBYtown conference... vancouver.ca/your-governm...
6. Help save some of the weird little storefronts and independent businesses by shifting redevelopment pressure off the arterials
Many bike routes go through RT zones, close to the busiest arterials like Main and 10th.. no Plexes allowed yet.. or W 7th from arbutus to Alma. No plex zone
Nice looking addition to the neighborhood!
There actually is no ban It's words on a paper but if you look at the map, there's tons of development on side streets and opposite parks . We can't have pools because developers won't make big bucks. Developer applications are *never* declined