2015 Top10 Watch List

What is the threat to Marine Gardens?

While Marine Gardens is a high-profile example of this housing typology, similar complexes are also under threat across Vancouver. The townhouse cooperatives along Northeast False Creek created as a part of the Granville Island redevelopment in the late 1970s and early 1980s are reaching a critical period in their lifecycle.

Mortgages and building operations that were formally supported by the federal government are expiring and need to be renewed. Deferred maintenance concerns need to be addressed, and upgrades carried out, to preserve these unique experiments in housing and community living.

BC Housing’s recent decision to sell numerous affordable housing complexes to enterprising non-profits is another part of the problem. Of particular interest to Vancouverites are the townhouses and towers located in the Strathcona area including Stamps Place and Maclean Park complexes. These complexes were built in the 1970s and 1980s as a part of the redevelopment of Strathcona, and stand as both good and bad reminders of that time, while today providing affordable housing and community to lower income families.

The sale of these complexes may lead in the mid and long-term to their redevelopment; the DTES area plan recently passed by the City includes provisions for dramatically increased density on these sites that would only be possible through demolition and redevelopment.

 

Why is Marine Gardens significant?

The Marine Gardens complex was built as a private development by an enlightened developer, and represents a distinctly mid-1970s brand of optimism and utopianism.

Similar complexes were built across Vancouver and Canada starting in 1968, partially due to the support of the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation, which had at the time a city-oriented housing policy. Today these developments are still providing spacious, affordable homes for families in Vancouver and across Canada.

Housing complexes like Marine Gardens are not always charismatic heritage properties and due to deferred maintenance can appear run down. They sometimes have important histories, as is the case with Marine Gardens, but more frequently they have been witnesses to the ordinary lives of families and the communities they engender and as such are critical to establishing a feeling of place and security. In some cases, generous green spaces and community amenities are available that would not be possible given current pressures on land value and density targets.

Without immediate action by the residents and all three levels of government, these reminders of a more enlightened time will start to decay. This is particularly important in a city that is suffering from a housing affordability crisis, and that desperately needs senior levels of government policy assistance.

 

What you can do

1. Contact your local MLA or MP and express your concerns about the lack of supportive provincial and federal housing policies and funding.
   
   
2. Contact your local MLA and express your concerns about the sale of historic BC Housing complexes.
   
   
3. Contact Metro Vancouver and Mayor and Council to request the City of Vancouver provide incentives for the retention and upgrading of innovative mid-century complexes.
   
   
4. Research and share the history of your housing complex.