Mt. Pleasant acquisition can help achieve Project Civil City objectives
Mayor Sam Sullivan & City Councillors use a custom-built shovel for a groundbreaking for new social housing at 1321 Richards St.
Mayor Sam Sullivan today welcomed a City of Vancouver purchase of land that could result in significant new social housing in Mount Pleasant. This purchase compliments Mayor Sullivan’s participation in a series of important announcements and events today, including:
- more than $14 million in traffic ticket revenue from the Province of BC to support community police services
- over $1.1 million for 2010 Legacies Now to develop an accessible tourism strategy in advance of the Olympics
- groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction of Kindred Place — a new 87 unit social housing development on Richards Street
“This announcement can help deliver on the objectives identified in Project Civil City,” said Mayor Sullivan. “We have a tremendous opportunity to use the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games as a catalyst to solve the social challenges facing our city. There is hope for an even better Vancouver — a more civil city. Together we can make it happen.”
Project Civil City sets ambitious targets regarding housing, curbing the open drug market, reducing aggressive panhandling and increasing satisfaction with how public nuisance complaints are handled. Earlier this week, Mayor Sullivan welcomed the appointment of former BC Attorney General Geoff Plant as Vancouver’s first Civil City Commissioner.
The 24,000 square foot Mount Pleasant purchase site is located at the corner of Fraser and Broadway. It is presently occupied by a one-storey 17,000 square foot commercial building that houses several retail units including a youth centre.
The future space could potentially deliver 50-100 social housing units for families, seniors, or singles and may also have other future uses, such as childcare. Possible future use of the ground floor commercial space would be a permanent home for the youth centre.
Redevelopment will commence after the Mt. Pleasant visioning process is complete. In the meantime, the City will operate the building as part of its commercial real estate portfolio. Future development will depend on the availability of funding for various uses.
