Realtor Gail Lepore can sell you this $3.7-million ‘sub-penthouse’ on the 24th floor of the Cascina tower, where you’ll have the view of Coal Harbour CREDIT: Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province   Realtor Gail Lepore can sell you this $3.7-million ‘sub-penthouse’ on the 24th floor of the Cascina tower, where you’ll have the view of Coal Harbour CREDIT: Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province

It’s becoming Vancouver on the Hudson.

With real-estate prices skyrocketing, the city’s priciest digs are nudging closer to the cost of New York‘s luxury living quarters.

And with Coal Harbour properties selling at record prices, real-estate experts say it may be just a matter of time before Burrard Inlet is vying with the Hudson River as a fashionable address.

“It’s going to get to the point where this strip is going to be like New York,” said Gail Lepore, who sells properties at Waterfront Place, a six-building development in Coal Harbour. “It’s all going to be owned and you’re going to have to wait for a resale. And when one comes up, there’s going to be many buyers going for that one unit.”

Lepore looks out of the windows of the 24th floor “sub-penthouse” at Cascina, on the trendy north end of Nicola Street.

It’s a 3,970-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment with a wrap-around balcony, listed for a cool $3.7 million.

The suite boasts milk-white carpets, three full bathrooms and a 600-square-foot gourmet kitchen, complete with custom-made Italian maple cabinets.

And it’s not even the most expensive piece of property in the neighbourhood.

Bob Rennie, Vancouver‘s top-selling realtor, says a 5,965-square-foot penthouse in the soon-to-be-built Shaw Tower on West Cordova Street sold on the first day of offering for $5.4 million.

But he cautions that comparisons with New York can be misleading.

“Remember, we’re comparing the best of Vancouver with the norm of New York,” he said.

Nonetheless, Vancouver‘s best is closing the gap with places like the Heritage Building, the sixth tower in Trump Place, in Manhattan.

John Kane, sales director at Trump Place, says his four-bedroom, 2,900-square-foot suites start at about $3.9 million US ($5.2 million Cdn).

“All have beautiful views,” he said. “The building is clad in limestone, has big windows and beautiful views of the Hudson River, George Washington Bridge and Riverside Park.”

Compare that to the views of Burrard Inlet, the Lions Gate Bridge and Stanley Park.

Coal Harbour is just a symptom of the real-estate boom that’s hitting the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley. Figures released yesterday by the Real Estate Board of Vancouver show the median price of a Greater Vancouver detached home at $461,000, with West Vancouver topping the heap at $863,000, up from $740,000 in January last year.

The figures show Port Moody as one of the hottest markets, where the price of detached homes increased a whopping 51.3 per cent from last year to $480,390.

JANUARY HOUSE PRICES

Median selling prices Detached homes Attached homes Apartments

Jan. 2004 Jan. 2003 change Jan. 2004 Jan. 2003 change Jan. 2004 Jan. 2003 change

Abbotsford $249,000 $225,000 10.7% $142,000 $146,000 -2.7% $101,500 $87,900 15.5%

Burnaby $421,000 $373,000 12.9% $272,000 $230,000 18.3% $174,500 $155,000 12.6%

Coquitlam $367,000 $321,000 14.3% $207,900 n/a $143,900 $143,500 0.3%

Delta North $287,500 $247,750 16.0% $145,000 $240,000 -39.6% n/a $65,000 n/a

Delta South $413,000 $323,000 27.9% n/a n/a n/a n/a

Langley $298,900 $275,000 8.7% $205,900 $189,600 8.6% $130,000 $120,800 7.6%

Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows $305,000 $265,000 15.1% $185,000 $150,000 23.3% n/a n/a

Mission $228,900 $199,000 15.0% $84,500 $132,000 -36.0% $78,000 $63,000 23.8%

New Westminster n/a $257,000 n/a n/a $119,900 $133,500 -10.2%

North Vancouver $510,000 $459,000 11.1% $337,000 n/a $229,000 $150,100 52.7%

Port Coquitlam $339,000 $244,900 38.4% n/a $191,000 $123,000 n/a

Port Moody/Belcarra * $480,390 $317,500 51.3% $223,450 $190,800 17.1% $176,920 $151,200 17%

Richmond $426,000 $326,000 30.7% $305,000 $234,500 30.1% $184,000 $128,000 43.8%

Squamish n/a $285,000 n/a n/a n/a n/a

Sunshine Coast $220,000 $186,000 18.3% n/a n/a n/a n/a

Surrey $328,000 $272,900 20.2% $194,000 $194,000 0.0% $116,913 $103,750 12.7%

Vancouver Eastside $384,000 $353,000 8.8% $258,000 n/a $136,000 $135,000 0.7%

Vancouver Westside $729,000 $594,000 22.7% $350,000 $351,500 -0.4% $272,000 $229,000 18.8%

West Vancouver/Howe Sound $863,000 $740,000 16.6% n/a n/a n/a n/a

White Rock $410,000 $410,000 0.0% $285,000 $247,000 15.4% $171,000 $137,000 24.8%

Sources: Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley Real Estate Board

* Indicates ‘benchmark’ prices

© The Vancouver Province 2004

Is bigger better? Most Canadian cities think so, but not the Lower Mainland.

Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina and Saskatoon all have a single civic government.

The Lower Mainland does not. It is composed of 21 cities and villages, including such communities as tiny Anmore (population 1,496), White Rock (19,593) and Langley City (24,577).

“We are the only metropolitan region in Canada which is not one uni-city,” says David Baxter of the Urban Futures Institute. “Around the world, big cities have 10 million people. Nothing seems to discourage size.”

Cities pick border fights: Surrey once tried to site a smelly garbage transfer station near a Langley neighbourhood; Langley Township and Langley City can’t agree on where to build a railway overpass so traffic doesn’t tie up.

Many borders don’t follow geographical lines.

“A change in government from one side of Boundary Road in Vancouver to the other in Burnaby doesn’t make sense,” says Baxter.

“You don’t need three cities in the Tri-Cities area. The White Rock-South Surrey distinction doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Experts say cities aren’t able to make effective regional decisions on homelessness, drugs and crime. The Surrey and Vancouver mayors, for example, fought a war of words over whether a safe injection site was a good idea.

“The city of Vancouver behaves as if the rest of the region doesn’t exist,” says Baxter.

“I find that appalling.”

Kennedy Stewart, a Simon Fraser University assistant professor who has researched amalgamation extensively, says the provincial government should start a study about what to do with the Lower Mainland.

“It’s so important to the whole province,” says Stewart.

“Getting money is much easier to negotiate. If foreign dignitaries come to Vancouver, who do they speak to?”

But the region already acts as one in a number of major ways.

Water, sewer and garbage disposal are all handled regionally through the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

Transportation, the No. 1 issue according to opinion polls, is under one umbrella through TransLink.

And there are moves to bring the police forces together through the sharing of services such as dog squads and identification. It has already started with the creation of the Integrated Homicide Investigative Team.

Stewart says the reasons for cities to amalgamate differ across the country.

“In Toronto, there was outrage initially because it was done by the Mike Harris provincial government in three weeks,” he says.

“Harris thought the smaller city units were arguing and not thinking as a region.

“Later, 70 per cent of Torontonians polled said it was the best thing that ever happened. There was a very strong spokesperson for the city. They made more effective regional decisions.”

Baxter says Montreal was forced into amalgamation by the Parti Quebecois for political reasons, in order to dilute the Anglo vote.

Out West, he says, cities evolved differently.

“Calgary and Edmonton started with a single core. They didn’t begin with a New Westminster, Ladner and a downtown,” Baxter says, adding that London and Paris are run by central governments.

There is support for partial consolidation from Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum, providing it is done about 20 years hence.

“If I were looking into a crystal ball, I would see four cities in the Lower Mainland, each [with] about 500,000 [people],” McCallum says.

“One city would be too big.”

McCallum sees the split along geographical lines, following natural boundaries: One city would be on what he called Burrard peninsula (composed of Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster); another in the Northeast (Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows); south of the Fraser (Richmond, Delta, Surrey, White Rock, Langley Township and Langley City); and on the North Shore (West Van, North Van District and North Van City).

“Each has its own landscape. Burrard has heavy, urban density. The suburbs are more rural,” says McCallum.

“The natural setting would be more efficient government-wise. Each area would have, say, 15 councillors. The public would look at it as more accountable, economic and efficient.”

Stewart says one city is the way to go.

“The sooner we start thinking of the GVRD as a mega-city, the better we can think about regional planning,” he says.

TWO LANGLEYS ALREADY PRICKLY ON SUBJECT OF AMALGAMATION

Langley Township Coun. Muriel Arnason may have started more than she realized when she said the two Langleys should be merged.

Arnason, a 25-year council veteran, says services are duplicated in parks departments, city managers’ offices and engineering.

“Council thinks I’m a damned nuisance, but it’s the people that count,” she says.

“The reasons are economic. It’s expensive. We should have a referendum.”

Glen Tomblin advocated amalgamation in an unsuccessful bid for Langley City mayor.

“For some reason, politicians on both sides are afraid to ask the question in a referendum,” says Tomblin. “The winners are council and the bureaucrats. The losers are the taxpayers.”

Not only are staffs and city halls duplicated, says Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum, but there are also too many politicians throughout the region.

“There are four levels of government — civic, regional, provincial and federal,” McCallum says. “We’re way over-governed.”

The number of mayors, councillors, MLAs and MPs in the GVRD is 213.

Salaries are sometimes small, but they add up, and so do city halls.

Six Langley City councillors receive $18,333 each. The city built a new city hall and library complex for $4.6 million in 2000.

According to the Langley mayors, the Lower Mainland’s amalgamation won’t start with them.

“It would only make sense if both cities supported a referendum,” says Township Mayor Kurt Alberts.

“The city has never wanted to go near that discussion.”

Says City Mayor Marlene Grinnell: “I have no reason to believe it would be in the city’s best interest to be a larger city. We’re a large regional town centre.

“We’ve won the local government awareness award. People understand where the money is being spent.”

© The Vancouver Province 2004

The city’s proposals on illegal suites are one more session of the eastside-westside tango that defines Vancouver politics. Cutting up city hall’s policy dance floor is our power couple, those fellow fedora-adorers Jim Green from the east, and Larry Campbell from the west.

Eastsiders agreed in 1998 to legitimize what city planners call “secondary suites” in single family homes. But it is the west side that has long needed seduction, loudly protesting its suite-less virtue. West side neighbourhoods were wallflowers for the 1998 changes, worried, as most professional virgins are, about their reputations.

“What would the neighbours say?” they opined, convinced that waves of garlic-frying immigrant basement-dwellers and coach-house-minding miscreant mechanics might shave a couple points off their astronomical property values. What about those non-related kids living downstairs? Oh, that’s just the au-pair and, um, yes, we did help out some of those nice exchange students.

Far more University of B.C. students rent suites in Point Grey houses than are accommodated in on-campus residences, and it was ever so. For that diminishing proportion of westsiders who did not inherit their homes or the fat fortunes needed to purchase them (average house prices west of Granville now approach $700,000), renters with monthly cash are essential “mortgage-helpers.”

The new city policy produced from the Green-Campbell dance macabre will only recognize the obvious, grandfather the existing. The city estimates there are 4,800 illegal suites now on the west side, homes to nearly 12,000 residents, more than the entire population of Coal Harbour or Saltspring Island.

Campbell and Green’s regulatory swooning and bureaucratic deep bends will soften building regulations, hoping remaining landlords will join the party, paying $425 each for the privilege of going legit. If all 14,000 of Vancouver‘s illegal suites go for it, it will generate millions for the city, over and above the cost of inspection. I hope this goes directly to social housing, distributed city-wide.

The illegal suites policy change is a good one, and I support it, but not the overreaching claims for its impact made by Councillor Jim Green and others. He calls this bureaucratic adjustment “one of the most important things we have done,” a characteristic but forgivable burst of hyperbole from a politician who marks epochal breakthroughs every half hour.

Where Green and Campbell are vastly overstating things is that that their amendment will much advance the “densification” of the city, as they have stated.

The simple fact is the city long ago “densified” this way. Campbell and Green hugely overestimate Vancouver‘s population of potential landlords willing to lay out $425 each to have their single family house “cherry popped,” just to enjoy the presence of strangers inside for the first time. The residual virtue Green and Campbell imply is simply not there: most of us have been living in charnel houses for a long, long, time.

If Green and Campbell really want densification and not just more revenue, they should take a look at some creative ideas from Wellington, New Zealand. A quiet miniature of Vancouver, this pleasant port city is hemmed in by hills and resplendent nature, and like us, is newly attractive to talented young people.

Wellington is best known for its hobbit-like famous son, film director Peter Jackson, and his dwarf-like army labouring away in the mines of his Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, responsible for the superb production values and digital effects in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

While hobbits burrow deep into the ground, Wellington is home to a wave of new homes built on top of the roofs of existing office blocks, commercial buildings, industrial shops–even parking garages. The results are some of the most intriguing “densification without disruption” to be found anywhere, low-cost residential development that literally builds upon existing infrastructure–without displacing jobs or demolishing heritage structures.

The rooftop houses are concentrated in the Te Aro Electoral District, a zone that includes parts of the small city’s downtown, and a lower density area to the south, chock-an-urban-block with repair shops, small industries, bulk retailers, and service industries. Te Aro directly compares to Vancouver‘s similarly underperforming area between Main and Cambie, False Creek to Broadway.

Vancouver developers have long wanted the industrial zoning changed here, but previous Vancouver city councils rightly resisted, knowing the importance of downtown-related services and employment in a city that is leaking jobs quickly. I know dozens of buildings here (some that store bumpers on their roofs!) suitable for Wellington-style, new, lightweight-steel apartment blocks on their roofs — at Vancouver‘s best location with its most spectacular panoramas.

Gordon Holden is new head of Victoria University Wellington’s school of architecture, and has made a study of these rooftop houses. Recently arrived from Australia, he now promotes them as an idea that might spread across the rooftops of the Antipodes, and beyond. In a recent interview, Holden says New Zealand‘s late 1980s deregulation mania reformed planning and building codes, “but you do not need that kind of revolution to get rooftop houses going.” Instead he suggests what Vancouver needs is “more generous assessments of the possible, plus a lot of dialogue between inspectors, planners, politicians, developers and architects.” Sorry, Gordo, this is revolutionary in Vancouver.

The Wellington rooftop apartments range between four and 30 units. Some of these have structural supports discreetly cut through existing buildings below them, others have steel feet planted astride them on sidewalks and back lanes, leaving the Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco buildings they loom over virtually untouched. This idea also directly applies to the densification of character buildings along our arterials like Main, Broadway, Commercial and others.

Holden showed me this photograph of this 24-suite apartment building constructed on top of what passes in Kiwi-land for Big Box retail, a project named The Gallerias-On-Tory. Speaking of tory, Vancouver‘s prescriptive building codes and conservative building inspectors would never permit this, but Wellington has a performance-based system — equivalencies preserving public safety can be, and are, approved.

Instead, Vancouver blows away extant urban character, fine heritage buildings and existing jobs, then brings in its tired squad of high-rise developers, as in Downtown South. Worse, with Vancouver‘s civic bureaucracy held on loose reins by current city manager Judy Rogers, our city inspectors are currently on a reign of terror, closing live music venues, stymieing new DTES investment, and fiddling with fire alarms while Rome burns.

Holden’s research indicates that rooftop dwellings have increased population in the area by 23 per cent in the few years they have been permitted in this mixed-use area, and many more are currently being proposed and constructed. Something for the dance cards of Jim Green and Larry Campbell: Next time you do the “densification tango,” why not put on your Wellingtons?

© The Vancouver Sun 2004