it takes a village: how vancouver plans to make its neighbourhoods feel more 'connected'
3 minute read
the city of vancouver has designated 17 areas in the city, including the commercial drive and east 20th street area here, as 'neighbourhood villages.'
jason payne
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the city of vancouver is drafting plans for the creation of 17 neighbourhood “villages,” where amenities can be reached within a five-minute walk or bike ride.
the plan envisions these local hubs would consist of a mix of housing types up to six storeys, a variety of small shops and services, including ground-floor retail in mixed-use buildings, more welcoming and greener public spaces, and wider sidewalks.
city staff have identified eight locations in vancouver’s west and southwest, three along 33rd avenue between oak and knight streets, and six in the east and southeast. each village is centred around an intersection of large arterial streets.
while these locations may already have a small handful of retail spaces, they “lack the shops, services and amenities to meet many of the residents’ daily needs,” says the city’s website.
“through public engagement on the vancouver plan, we heard from vancouverites that they want neighbourhoods to be complete and connected. by building out villages with more housing, retail, public spaces, amenities and transportation connections, we’re working to meet that goal, so people have more of what they need close to home.”
andy yan, director of the city program at simon fraser university, questions how the village concept would work within vancouver’s existing framework of neighbourhoods.
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“vancouver was supposedly a city of neighbourhoods for a very long time,” yan said. “now we have this ‘village’ idea. where did that come from?”
he said many of the proposed villages are in older neighbourhoods with well-established communities, and calls some of the locations “a little bit arbitrary.”
yan also worries that applying a uniform planning approach across swaths of the city puts individual neighbourhoods’ character at risk. he said he would prefer an approach that tailors plans to each neighbourhood.
“this kind of tries to bring in urban blandness, as opposed to the multiple flavours in the city,” he said.
the city says plan details will be informed by the results of public consultations, surveys and open houses that have been held over the last year and are continuing.
the timeline for the plan calls for council to vote on a draft plan in spring 2026 with development of the villages expected to happen gradually over the next few decades.
“any redevelopment would be initiated by landowners/developers. therefore, this change will likely be very gradual over the next 30 years,” the city’s website says. “depending on development interest, some villages may see some redevelopment sooner, and others may not see change for a long time.”
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the city’s website notes that planners are striving to retain neighbourhood character as areas densify.
“through villages planning, we will look for opportunities to enhance what is unique in the neighbourhoods and create the kind of vibrant and walkable communities that people enjoy around the city.”
the 17 proposed villages are the first of 25 being considered. planning for the other eight villages will be incorporated into other planning documents, such as the rupert and renfrew stations area plan, which lays out a framework for development around the rupert and renfrew skytrain stations.
illustration shows what a “village” could look like in 10 to 20 years, with a mix of building and housing types.
city of vancouver
the amount of commercial space that exists at each proposed village site varies dramatically, from 140,000 square feet around commercial street and east 20th avenue, where there’s a large supermarket and an eclectic mix of shops, to 650 square feet around heather street and west 33rd avenue, where there’s just one coffee shop.
only five of the 17 sites have large retail grocery stores within a five-minute walk/bike radius. nine have smaller, specialty grocers or convenience stores and three have no retail grocery options at all, according to a study conducted for the city.
“successful emerging models of neighbourhood-scale grocery operations suggest that a ‘community hub’ focus is a viable and attractive business model, whereby a grocery business is also a gathering place for the neighbourhood,” the study found.
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quick, easy access to essentials, like grocery stores, pharmacies and restaurants, were key components identified by the public during the 2024 engagement phase.
yan questioned what might happen once development starts and property values rise and expressed concern the plan feels disconnected from existing businesses.
“there are some pretty important ones that are anchors to the community,” he said. “how are you going to prevent this from nudging out these neighbourhood institutions?
“in one way, it denies the places that are already there for this kind of aspirational idea of a ‘village.’ ”
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