Vancouver created its MX zone as a solution to a persistent challenge for planners—how to retain industrial jobs and affordable housing in downtowns.
An article by Frances Bula examines an unusual Vancouver development: "the city’s first effort to combine industrial and residential space in a single building in an industrial zone near the port."
The development is the first to take advantage of a new "MX" zone, namely: "[Vancouver] has designated only a small strip along East Hastings, bordering the port industrial zone a few kilometres east of the central business district, for this new combination of condos with a sector of industrial called PDR – production, design and repair."
The concept of weaving industrial and residential together has been practiced in San Francisco and is also under consideration in New York. According to Bula "[the] tricky part in Vancouver, where land and housing prices have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels, is to ensure that any new zoning doesn’t set off a frenzy of land speculation, as developers bet on the possibility of industrial land being converted to residential."
FULL STORY: Industrial grit meets residential glass in Vancouver
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