After decades of trying, can the new Granville Street plan succeed where others have failed?
Council unanimously passes plan for vehicle-free future and more housing and businesses — but over 20 years
"Through the years Granville has been the roughest main drag of any major city in Canada," declared the Vancouver Sun after renovations were done to provide beautification, remove cars, and revitalize the street in downtown Vancouver.
"It's the first time in nearly 40 years that it gives the appearance of going any place."
That column was published in 1974, more than 50 years and nine mayors ago.
Since then, there have been a number of attempts to breathe new life into Vancouver's main theatre district and nightclub area. Every decade or two, a new plan emerges to balance entertainment and pedestrian needs while reducing issues surrounding crime, housing and safety.
"It's probably the most complex urban space downtown," said Brent Toderian, who became Vancouver's city planner in 2006 just after the launch of a Granville Street redesign inspired by the 2010 Winter Olympics.
"When you have a higher degree of difficulty, it's easier to fail … we're talking about a particularly sophisticated and complex street, so that just means it's harder."
Plan unanimously passes
Now, Vancouver is trying again.
On Wednesday, city council unanimously approved a new strategy for Granville Street in its downtown blocks, a vision that will eventually involve the removal of vehicles (with buses diverted to Seymour and Howe streets), a destination public space at Robson Street, and the replacement of SROs with rental and social housing. The full plan can be read here.
"Granville Street has a long and storied history," said Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung.
"We want to build on that, but we also want to imagine a new, modernized, revitalized street that people want to go to not just for nightlife, but during the daytime, not just on the weekend, but during the weekdays."
The city estimates the plan will cost between $90 million and $140 million, not adjusted for inflation. It will also be stretched out over a 20-year period, with the removal of vehicles not happening for at least six years.
But what will make this attempt work better than previous plans?
'The city hasn't had a great track record'
Revitalizing Granville has been an ongoing priority for Vancouver, with the current plan in the works for two years and a community survey in February receiving nearly 3,000 responses.
So too has been creating a pedestrian-only commercial area, with pilot projects on Yew and Water streets the last two summers.
However, the Yew Street pilot ended after a little more than five weeks and the city dialed back its ambitions for Water Street this summer, showing the city's difficulty in implementing change for just a couple of blocks, let alone an entire downtown street.
"You have to have some humility in terms of how complex the challenge is. It's really hard. But we have to acknowledge that the city hasn't had a great track record of pulling off these kind of street transformations," Toderian said.
Kirby-Yung said the city had learned a few things over the past couple of years that gave her more confidence.
"I want to see change happen quickly … let's put the capital dollars into making really substantive changes that create a quality public realm," she said.
"But at the same time, we also need to invest in short-term solutions to the emergent problems. So more cleaning on the street, better street furniture …it's not a question of, you know, quickly slapping something up. It's about actually developing a public space."
What comes next?
In the first five years of the plan, the focus will be on supporting arts and cultural programming, bringing in new redevelopments, establishing funding, and having pilot projects for pedestrian zones.
Toderian said a possible problem with such a lengthy plan is that the city would lose the energy required to see the changes through.
"The longer it takes to get to the objective, the more likely that you're going to chicken out or you're going to cut the legs out from under the idea or backtrack," he said.
At the same time, he said a staged approach could work, but it was contingent on Vancouver approaching it the right way.
"Maybe if the first phase is such a success, you build in the nimbleness that allows you to advance it quicker because you can say, 'Hey, look, we did this,'" he said.
"But it's not about what you take away, like cars. It's about what you add … we have to have a really high standard for ourselves about creating a marvellous place."
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