The City of Richmond has attracted $4 billion worth of planned projects, partly because its community plans are more detailed than other Metro Vancouver cities, according to Brian Jackson, Richmond’s director of development.
Jackson said those detailed plans provide more clarity for residents and developers and have helped the city attract proposals for:
- 16 hotels with 2,500 hotel rooms;
- 12,000 new residential units;
- 1.5 million square feet of office space; and
- 2.5 million square feet of retail space.
“It’s not fair for the community to have plans [that] are vague and do not specify heights and densities and uses,” he said. “[Developers] need that to make financial decisions, but also the community needs that to know what’s going to be around them in the future.”
Richmond’s city centre plan designates where highrises, mid-rises and even future retail streets are slated.
The City of Vancouver’s less-detailed plans for neighbourhoods have sparked heated debates over some new high-density projects.
Jackson noted that Richmond approved a new city centre plan for development along five villages along the Canada Line and at the Olympic Oval five years ago. He said it provides all of the details needed to buy and develop land in the area.
This article from the August 2012 Western Investor.
