Will "Villages" Suck Remaining Life From Struggling Streets?

(The city’s plan to create 25 new “villages” raises concerns about their impact, especially on already-struggling retail streets. Here’s a look at Dunbar Street, and a question: Is it likely to survive if  four new retail areas spring up nearby?)

Is It Time to Fight for Dunbar Street?

by Carol Volkart

As the city moves ahead with plans to create new “villages” throughout Vancouver, including four in the Dunbar area, spare a thought for what residents have always considered their own village – Dunbar Street itself.

While a few brave and imaginative entrepreneurs continue to launch new businesses there, vacancies and underused lots have sapped the life out of many blocks once bustling with pedestrians and shoppers.

It’s not a new problem. In 2020, The Vancouver Sun’s Douglas Todd wrote a two-part series about the hollowing out of west side retail, especially in Dunbar and Point Grey. Officials he spoke to blamed skyrocketing commercial property values, taxes and rents; a shrinking and aging population; a high level of vacant or underused homes; a high degree of foreign ownership; unaffordable prices for families, and changes in shopping habits.

But Dunbar had already been declining for years, and things haven’t improved since 2020. The villages plan, by encouraging new retail areas within a short walk of Dunbar Street, is likely to make it worse. For a city officially dedicated to “complete neighbourhoods,” it’s an odd strategy to let existing retail areas die while promoting new ones elsewhere.

It’s true that the city does have longer-term plans for Dunbar. Under the Vancouver Plan, it’s slated to become a “neighbourhood centre,” allowing up to six-storey buildings on the main street and up to 12 within a block or two. But given the high land values in the area, experts have questioned who will be able to afford the new units – investors, absentee owners, or families who may actually shop locally?

Whatever happens, it’s clear that the main shopping street will be struggling along in uncertainty for years to come. Which raises the question: Is it time for citizens to start standing up for it?

Residents do elect city councillors who are supposed to represent them. Should councillors be pressed to hold off on the “villages” that are likely to undermine Dunbar Street?  Should there be vacancy taxes on commercial property, the same as for empty homes? Should new rules require retail spaces in new apartment buildings to include small businesses serving residents’ daily needs, instead of mainly chain operations? How about financial breaks, incentives, or even tax-structure changes to encourage mom and pop businesses?

A recent tour of Dunbar Street from 16th to 41st Avenues was a showcase of what’s dragging Dunbar’s  main drag down. Take a look, and imagine how a thriving streetscape would look instead: