Apartment, office buildings proposed at Central Steam plant next to B.C. Place

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      Rental apartments, offices, and commercial spaces are being eyed at the current location of an energy utility that supplies heat to buildings in Downtown Vancouver.

      It’s not clear whether Central Steam Site at 720 Beatty Street will remain at its present address adjacent to B.C. Place.

      Creative Energy Vancouver Platforms Inc., which owns the facility, has made an inquiry with the City of Vancouver for a potential rezoning of the nearly 74,000-square-foot plant.

      The company proposes putting in 300,000 to 400,000 square feet of residential development, and 300,000 to 350,000 square feet of office and commercial spaces.

      In turn, the redevelopment will enable Creative Energy, which currently uses natural gas, to switch to a low-carbon fuel by 2020.

      At present, the steam plant is the biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions in the city, generating 70,000 tonnes per year.

      Creative Energy has yet to make a rezoning application.

      In a meeting today (July 8), council gave the go-ahead for staff to work with the company in preparing a potential application.

      The move doesn’t bind council to approve a future application by Creative Energy.

      Green councillor Adriane Carr cast the sole dissenting vote on a staff recommendation to indicate that council is willing to consider a rezoning application for the utility.

      “We had a choice about who would operate the district energy. And it could have been the city,” Carr said.

      Carr added that had the city operated the utility, it could have had the opportunity to switch to a low-carbon fuel without having to rezone the site.

      The Green councillor also said that there was no consideration before that if Creative Energy changes its fuel supply, the move would have to be supported by a rezoning of the plant site.

      Carr likewise pointed out that there is no clarity about the new technology that will be used to do away with the plant’s current GHG emissions.

      She emphasized that she agrees with the concept of reducing carbon emissions.

      Mayor Gregor Robertson moved the motion to allow staff to work with the company on how to proceed with the preparation of a rezoning application.

      Robertson emphasized that the proposal presents a huge opportunity for the city to achieve its environmental goals, particularly the reduction of GHG emissions.

      Robertson’s Vision colleagues and councillors Heather Deal, Geoff Meggs, and Kerry Jang, as well as Non-Partisan Association councillors George Affleck, Elizabeth Ball, and Melissa De Genova voted in favour of the mayor’s motion.

      City staff member Chris Baber of engineering services told council that one possibility is that a new plant may be established at another location, and energy it produces will be transported through a pipeline to the present steam site.

      Comments

      4 Comments

      Arachides

      Jul 8, 2015 at 9:47pm

      Any bets the COV want's to enable their friends to move East to the future St. Pauls' Hospital area and dramatically upzone the current site?

      Steamy Steam

      Jul 9, 2015 at 8:07am

      Can we just be honest about who "Creative Energy Vancouver" is? It's Ian Gillespie of Westbank. He and his architects will propose some of the commercial space and the maximum 400,000 square feet of expensive and lucrative residential space (contravening the city's policy regarding additional residential floor area in the Central Business District). The rezoning application will be shoved through the city process and Vision Vancouver will fall all over themselves to approve it because it "provides much needed rental housing" and (somehow) helps to "greenify Vancouver" by pouring concrete and welding re-bar. There's not much question that "Creative Energy" will get whatever they want out of this.

      RE: Steamy Steam

      Jul 9, 2015 at 2:54pm

      you're one of those wood-frame highrise weirdo's aren't you?
      The Westbank developments are some of my personal favorites in this city.

      reasonable head

      Jul 9, 2015 at 3:25pm

      there are hundreds of km of unsettled land between prince george and vancouver, and between prince george and prince rupert. is it that people have no sense of proportion? why are we being warehoused in filthy cities?