Policy Announcement - TEAM announces "Respect for Neighbourhoods" Plan

Would replace top-down planning with neighbourhood-based community planning

VANCOUVER, July 16 -- Today, as part of its 2026 election platform, TEAM released its Respect for Neighbourhoods plan.

Vancouver has historically ranked as one of the most livable cities in the world. That was not an accident. It was a design choice. It was choosing to plant trees, build transit, protect view corridors, maintain sunlight, create parks, and plan complete communities. TEAM's Respect for Neighbourhoods plan will restore that approach and build a livable, affordable, and sustainable future for all local residents and businesses based on meaningful public participation.

A TEAM majority on City Council would implement the following three-part Respect for Neighbourhoods  plan.

1. Repeal the Official Development Plan (ODP), Vancouver Plan, Broadway Plan, Jericho Lands ODP, Rupert & Renfrew Plan and, if passed by the current Council, the Villages Plan.

2. Restore meaningful public participation in neighbourhood-based community planning

TEAM is committing to replacing the Official Development and other related plans with neighbourhood-based community planning that includes the following:

• Ensure meaningful involvement of local residents and businesses in community planning.

• Use transparent, verifiable, and publicly accessible data for planning purposes, including Vancouver’s existing zoning capacity, StatsCan Census, CMHC, regional / BC stats, and others.

• Revisit the previous neighbourhood plans discarded by the adoption of the 2022 Vancouver Plan.

• Re-establish neighbourhood planning offices.

• Ensure that growth occurs within infrastructure capacity that is planned in parallel with growth.

• Plan within the local context that complements neighbourhood character and prioritizes the kind of housing that residents need.

• Prioritize housing that is affordable to local incomes such as co-ops and other models, especially larger units for families.

Residents know their neighbourhoods best, so their input is valuable when planning where and how to accommodate new population growth for the future.

3. Ensure that multiplexes fit in the local context of each neighbourhood

TEAM supports multiplexes in principle, but not the recent new zoning for them which can allow them to overwhelm neighbourhoods. Provincial law requires local governments to permit multiplexes, but they have the right to impose reasonable restrictions.

To enhance livability, TEAM will require multiplexes to be more neighbourly in form.  Depending on the needs of each neighbourhood, restrictions may include: reducing the maximum number of units based on the size, frontage and lane access of the lot; requiring minimum onsite parking; reconsidering setbacks; providing design guidelines for better local streetscape context.

In Conclusion

City Hall has lost public trust by its approach to development that serves investors but not residents.  The results are:

• a large inventory of investor units that are too small for families and too expensive for local incomes;

• demoviction and displacement;

• speculative land inflation;

• demolition of older more affordable housing;

• loss of neighbourhood character, tree canopy and livability.

TEAM’s Respect for Neighbourhoods plan is a major change in direction.