The Vancouver Sun

British Columbia

Vancouver Making Room for More Apartments

As a response to rising rental prices and low vacancy rates, Vancouver planners have created a package of zoning and process changes to provide incentives for new multi-family developments.

November 25, 2019 - The Vancouver Sun

Hong Kong High Rises

Asian, Australian Property Markets Begin to Cool

Markets for residential property income of East Asia's most expensive cities are slowing down. The U.S.-China trade war is one factor, along with local controls and a mainland Chinese economy applying the brakes.

January 11, 2019 - The Vancouver Sun

Vancouver

Op-Ed: Treat Vancouver Election as a Referendum on Zoning Decisions

The decision to rezone most of Vancouver to allow for duplexes could have consequences in this weekend's municipal election.

October 18, 2018 - The Vancouver Sun

British Columbia residential Neighborhoods

Duplexes Approved for 99 Percent of Vancouver Single-Family Neighborhoods

The city of Vancouver's new density regulations will be the envy of many a YIMBY.

September 21, 2018 - The Vancouver Sun

Vancouver

Op-Ed: Vancouver Needs a Land Value Tax

Labor leaders argue that curbing real estate speculation is Vancouver's best chance at lowering housing costs.

October 25, 2017 - The Vancouver Sun

Car2Go

Vancouver Sees Positive Benefits from Car Sharing

As car sharing services like Car2Go have infiltrated cities including Vancouver, B.C., benefits of reduced car ownership and greenhouse gas emissions are being realized, a new study finds.

July 31, 2016 - The Vancouver Sun

Vancouver and Toronto Lead Big Increases in Canadian Housing Prices

The bloated cost of housing in Vancouver and Toronto has raised concerns among market analysts about a potential correction. Presumably, people in Canada are also worried about the price of housing.

February 19, 2016 - The Vancouver Sun

TOD Sign

Op-Ed: Transit-Oriented Gentrification Should Be Taxed

This piece from the Vancouver Sun advocates using land value capture taxes to fund transit and related improvements. Such a tax would target speculation, the author writes, rather than productive activity.

August 1, 2015 - The Vancouver Sun

Paradox: Congestion May Signify Better Accessibility and Economic Productivity

Although transport planners consider traffic congestion economically harmful, economic productivity tends to increase with congestion and decline with increased road supply. This paradox can be explained by more nuanced analysis of accessibility.

June 24, 2014 - The Vancouver Sun

Should Planners Encourage Diverse Neighborhoods?

In an opinion piece for the Vancouver Sun, a trio of academics argue that, contrary to popular belief, socially mixed neighborhoods can be damaging to the supposed beneficiaries: low-income groups.

January 4, 2014 - The Vancouver Sun

Techniques for Bridging the Activist-Developer Divide

A frank discussion about growth and development at a recent Vancouver forum revealed the extensive common ground shared developers and neighborhood activists, and promising techniques for bridging their traditional divide.

December 2, 2013 - The Vancouver Sun

Does Vancouver Ban Herald the Death of the Doorknob?

Amendments to Vancouver's building code adopted in September will require lever handles on all doors in newly built housing beginning next March. Could such code changes soon be adopted far and wide?

November 19, 2013 - The Vancouver Sun

Photo of Calgary skyline from Edworthy Park

Despite Urban Building Binge, Canada Remains a Country of Suburbs

A high-rise residential building boom has transformed the skylines of Vancouver and Toronto over the past two decades. But despite the evident rise in the popularity of urban living, Canada's suburbs and exurbs continue to dominate growth trends.

September 9, 2013 - The Vancouver Sun

Vancouver's Popular Laneway Housing Program Gets a Redesign

Vancouver's efforts to facilitate accessory dwellings has proven to be popular - perhaps too popular for some residents. As officials prepare to expand the program citywide, they're tweaking it to address concerns with privacy and parking.

May 15, 2013 - The Vancouver Sun

Are Developer Fees Responsible for Vancouver's High Housing Costs?

The Vancouver Sun looks at the fees that the city charges developers, such as the community amenity contribution, and finds them much higher than neighboring areas. Even though costs are higher, so are developer profits.

May 11, 2013 - The Vancouver Sun

Solving Our Urban Challenges Requires Speaking Openly About Density

With cities such as Vancouver struggling with housing affordability, limited developable land, and residents resistant to change, Bob Ransford suggests we need open and honest debate about density and the big picture of development.

September 21, 2012 - The Vancouver Sun

Is the Success of Vancouver's Urbanism Just a Facade?

Bob Ransford argues that the policies that have shaped Vancouver's streets and skyline over the last decades into a global icon of planning and design are an accomplishment of style over substance that fail to look at how people inhabit buildings.

August 30, 2012 - The Vancouver Sun

In the Face of Climate Change, Vancouver Plans to Adapt

Kelly Sinoski and Michael Vinkin Lee detail the strategies identified in Vancouver's new plan to deal with expected increases in the effects of climate change, from street flooding and damaged forests to heat-related illnesses.

July 23, 2012 - The Vancouver Sun

Undersea-Oriented Development

Expo 2012 is happening now in Korea, and features a panorama of a futuristic underwater city as part of a focus on future sustainability.

June 26, 2012 - The Vancouver Sun

Parking Garage to be Topped with Urban Farm

The City of Vancouver is building a 6,000 sq. ft. greenhouse atop a downtown parking garage as part of its goal to become the greenest city in the world by 2020.

December 19, 2011 - The Vancouver Sun

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