TEAM for a Livable Vancouver calls the "Villages" Plan a Sneak Attack on Residents and Their Neighbourhoods

TEAM would overturn the plan and ensure residents have a say in what happens in their neighbourhoods

VANCOUVER (July 10, 2026) -- The "Villages" Plan is a sneak attack on residents and their neighbourhoods that must be stopped, says TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.

A TEAM-majority City Council would rescind the plan and launch a neighbourhood consultation process that is fundamental to a democratic, well-functioning city.

“No wonder people are angry,” said TEAM mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick, referring to the rise of a citizens’ movement to halt the plan before the July 14 public hearing. “Residents didn’t ask for this.”

Hardwick said the information and consultation around the plan were pitiful. “The surveys and open houses were a joke. And now the Villages plan is being hurried through at the height of summer, when most people aren’t paying attention. They won’t know what’s happened until a six-storey apartment building goes up beside them.”

Such buildings can be built, without public hearings, in residential areas over some 13,000 properties in 550-600 city blocks – even more than the egregious Broadway Plan.

Even worse, about four percent of these properties can only be redeveloped as 4-to-6-storey apartments with ground-floor retail. This effectively freezes these properties, meaning owners can’t do what they want with them, as they can now.  

There are many other problems with this plan, as 28 respected experts have pointed out in a letter to Vancouver City Council. One of the most scathing critics is an internationally renowned urban planner, Larry Beasley, Vancouver’s former co-director of planning, who called the plan a “serious misdirection that will have profound negative unintended consequences to the whole city.” 

One unintended consequence is the body blow to existing high streets. Why not focus on helping them to expand and thrive, as TEAM would do, instead of mandating new retail not far away?

This one-size-fits-all plan will produce off-the-shelf developments lacking the unique qualities of neighbourhoods that make our city livable and enjoyable.

A TEAM council would consult those neighbourhoods, so that no resident of this city would first find out that a six-storey apartment building is going up next door when the bulldozers arrive.