TEAM CONDEMNS MASS-REZONING VOTE THAT DOUBLES DOWN ON FAILED HOUSING STRATEGY

TEAM for a Livable Vancouver Will Rescind the Rezoning if it Wins a Council Majority in 2026

VANCOUVER (Oct. 7, 2025) -- TEAM for a Livable Vancouver strongly condemns City Council’s approval of a mass rezoning plan that will make Vancouver less livable and more expensive.

 TEAM pledges to rescind this sweeping proposal to reshape the city if it forms a majority after next October’s civic election.

“This plan ignores both the public good and the advice of 28 prominent urbanists who helped shape Vancouver into the livable city it is today,” said former TEAM City Councillor Colleen Hardwick. “It will forever damage neighbourhoods, and benefit only the development industry.” 

TEAM is appalled that the ABC-majority council, with the support of the Green party and OneCity councillors, has doubled down on a failed model that replaces affordable housing with tiny, costly units in towers while inflating land values. This makes the housing affordability crisis more acute. 

“The core problem is that upzoning inflates land values exponentially,” said Hardwick.  “We can’t build the affordable housing that we urgently need by speeding up land inflation. The good news is that there’s tons of existing zoned capacity to grow into. Efficiencies at the development permit level can produce affordable housing without the land inflation that goes with rezoning.”

TEAM campaigned on residents deserving a voice in what happens in their neighbourhoods,  and strongly opposes the exclusion of the public from both this rezoning process and from future input.  In this case, the rezoning process favoured developers and not residents, who were barely notified.  The 447-page referral report, released late in the game, was written in a way that made it impossible for most people to understand. 

Residents will be even more excluded from the consultation process in the future. This new plan virtually eliminates public hearings as well as requirements that residents be notified about developments – even towers – being built near them.

If elected in 2026, TEAM will follow the advice of the respected architects, urban planners, academics and developers who told Council that a reset is needed in how public policy is used to achieve affordability.