Zoning hurdles, property-tax hikes, and endless development mean many Vancouver artists can’t find a space to create

On a sweltering late-summer afternoon, Naomi Singer, artistic director of the Secret Lantern Society, sat nursing a cup of iced mint tea and fought off tears as she outlined her struggle to find new studio space. After she had spent three years on the third storey of 750 Terminal Avenue, the entire building was converted into storage bunkers. Construction workers were closing in and she desperately needed to move. But to where?

“I must have looked at 50 places in the last couple of months or more,” she said, “places that are expensive, places that are mildewy, places that are cramped, places that are completely crazy and not just inconvenient—you go downstairs and it’s a 3,000-square-foot mildew pit.”

Singer, whose organization is behind the city’s Winter Solstice Lantern Festival, had always known that a move was inevitable. The space had been too good to be true: she paid what she acknowledges was a “ridiculous” rent of $530 for about 1,300 square feet in a building shared, at one time, by Brussels Chocolates, a sound recording studio, a ballet-slipper factory, and a couple of visual artists. But as Storage on Terminal expanded from floor to floor, each tenant moved out, with Singer the last to go.

It’s never been easy for artists in urban areas to find studio space, but in the past couple of years, increasing property taxes, widespread development, and gentrification have brought the issue to a crisis point in Vancouver. The wake-up call came in November 2007, when 30 studio artists at 190 Prior Street (formerly 901 Main Street) learned the building had been sold to Amacon, and was scheduled to be converted into high-end apartments.

A tentative compromise was reached in March 2008, when the city stepped in and helped negotiate an agreement with Amacon: the artists would get first dibs on a minimum of 5,000 square feet of studio space in Amacon’s planned redevelopment project of an old brewery site at 299 East 7th Avenue. But the honeymoon quickly faded when the parties clashed over prices. The artists formed a cooperative in October 2008, and a battle with the developer ensued. Today, the site is a non-option. “It’s kind of ironic that they [Amacon] have to build artist studios [according to an agreement with the city] and we can’t afford it,” noted artist Eri Ishii, chairperson of the artists’ co-op, in a conversation at her studio.

To make matters worse, the lease at 190 Prior expired in May 2009. Amacon proposed a new lease that included common-area fees, effectively raising the rent by 70 percent. “At that point we just said, ”˜Can’t do it. It’s too much,’ ” recalled Ishii. “We just live in uncertainty.”¦We could be booted out with 30 days’ notice. We’re asking for 60 days’ notice, but we haven’t got an answer to that.”

The artists are seeking new digs but, noted Ishii, city bylaws are making it difficult: “Because we’re a legal organization [a co-op], we have to be in the right zoning, otherwise the directors on the board will be liable.” There are plenty of empty buildings on the East Side, she said, but few are properly zoned for artist studios, and just applying for change of use can cost thousands of dollars: “We are looking at about $4,000 to $5,000.”

Peter Pierobon, a furniture designer who owns a set of studios at 716 East Hastings, noted in a phone interview that the current regulatory system is filled with hurdles. “If one has to follow all of the zoning and use requirements, and then pay the commercial costs both for borrowing money to buy buildings and the tax rate, it makes it so onerous that no one can actually afford, legally, to have a studio space,” he pointed out, noting that his property taxes have increased annually since he purchased the building three years ago. “What you create is this underground economy,” he continued. “You get artists in spaces that are overlooked, that don’t have safety built into them—the exit signage, the emergency lighting, egress out the rear in case of fire, that type of stuff. That’s unfortunately the reality for most artists.”

The city is not unaware of the situation. In June 2008, it created a Culture Plan outlining priorities for the next 15 years, and it included a Facilities Priorities Plan. Measures to be undertaken include adding an artist to the Urban Design Panel; involving cultural-services staff in city planning; reviewing development and zoning bylaws; and looking into developing two pilot projects for nonmarket and market studio spaces.

“People say, ”˜Well, where’s the studios?’ ” noted senior cultural planner Jacquie Gijssen, by phone. “I don’t think they understand there’s about 10 different approaches that need to be taken over a short and a long period of time.”¦It’s not going to happen overnight.” As for the pilot projects? “The last council approved $20,000 for the feasibility studies.”¦Unfortunately, with the economic downfall, we lost those monies. So those projects are no longer available to us.”

A hiring freeze at the city also put some of the plan on hold, but Gijssen was quick to assert that there have been changes made, notably the creation of a cultural-facilities implementation team. And with the go-ahead finally given last month to hire two new staff, Gijssen says come mid-September, the review of bylaws can begin.

For members of the arts community, however, change can’t come soon enough. “In the last couple of years I personally know about six to eight artists that have moved out of town,” observed Valerie Arntzen, artist and executive director of the Eastside Culture Crawl, over a cup of coffee in Strathcona. “Then there’s lots of artists that have downsized.”¦Some used to have 600 square feet; now they’ve rented it out to two other people, so they have 200 square feet.”

As for Singer, in early August she finally managed to find space on Industrial Avenue. It’s narrower and has lower ceilings than her previous studio, but it’s comparable in size. And even though her rent will more than double, she is pleased. “I feel fortunate at the moment,” she said, laughing with relief, when reached by phone days after having secured the lease. “It’s heartbreaking how many people I know who aren’t able to function at their full capacity as artists, just because there aren’t the affordable spaces.”