Southeast False Creek Official Development Plan, Phase I and II
Vancouver, BC
The City-owned 50 acres at Southeast False Creek were the last undeveloped area of Vancouver’s False Creek Basin. In 1997, Vancouver City Council set in motion its redevelopment as a “model sustainable community” with 33% social housing, 25% family housing and a goal of creating a development model that would be transferable to other parts of the City or region.
VIA was architect and prime consultant for this complex multi-phase planning process, from policy planning to the 2005 approval of the Official Development Plan that included the 2010 Olympic Village. The challenge was to establish practices in sustainable urban development that could be implemented throughout the city and abroad.
Southeast False Creek’s planning emphasizes the need for conservation, restoration, management of energy, wastes, water, and transportation, and integration of opportunities to grow food in this urban neighborhood. Buildings will use less energy and create less waste.
The emphasis on learning and education in the planning of this community has already generated changes in the City’s corporate approach to development and the city as a place to live. Southeast False Creek is a community in which people live, work, play, and learn, in a neighborhood that supports their choices to live sustainably.