Homes will be part of the redevelopment of the Britannia Community Services Centre in East Vancouver.

According to Coun. Geoff Meggs, the city is interested in working with a nonprofit to deliver social housing at the site just west of Commercial Drive and Napier Street.

Meggs isn’t sure whether or not private developers will be involved in the housing component of the redevelopment of the community hub.

“I’m not certain there would be a private role for it; it’s hard to say,” Meggs told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview.

Built in the 1970s, Britannia is host to several programs and services. It has a gym, ice rink, and pool. The complex also has a library and elementary and secondary schools. (The secondary school was built in 1908 and is the oldest surviving such edifice in Vancouver.)

“A lot of those buildings now are at the end of their useful lives, and lots of work needs to be done,” Meggs said.
Seventy percent of the seven-hectare site is owned by the Vancouver school board. The city owns the remaining 30 percent.

The Britannia Community Services Centre Society manages the complex in cooperation with the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver public-library board, and Vancouver board of education.

The development of social housing at the Britannia site will likely follow the model used by the city in two earlier projects.

One is the new Vancouver public-library branch in Strathcona. Scheduled to open this fall, the six-storey facility will have 21 units of supportive housing for low-income mothers and their children. YWCA Metro Vancouver partnered in the development and will manage the social housing on the four floors above the library.

YWCA is also working with the city in the development of a new firehall in the Champlain Heights neighbourhood. When completed sometime in 2017 or 2018, there will be four storeys of social housing. According to the plan, single mothers and their children will be housed in 31 units above the two-level firehall.

In the case of Britannia, the buildings in the complex will be located in a single multipurpose facility. This will not include the elementary and secondary schools.

On July 28, city council approved a new community plan for the neighbourhood of Grandview-Woodland, where Britannia is located. The plan classifies Britannia as a special site.

One of the directions suggested by city staff for Britannia in the plan’s draft called for “mixed‐income non‐market rental housing as part of its redevelopment and replacement over the long term”.

This particular point was replaced by an amendment put forward by Meggs. The final plan approved by council reads: “Seek ways to mobilize air space parcels in the Britannia site to achieve plan objectives for social housing through co-location with other public facilities, provided there is no loss of green space.”

In the interview, Meggs indicated that he wanted more flexibility in options for the Britannia renewal.

“If the language had been too restrictive, my concern was that we would lose those opportunities to put in social housing at the Britannia site as we rebuild,” Meggs explained.

When asked about private developers, Meggs pointed to the Strathcona library and Champlain Heights firehall as examples of projects where nonprofits are better suited to serve as partners of the city.

In 2011, the Straight reported that there were concerns about the inclusion of housing in the revitalization of the community centre, particularly private homes.

Housing was not included in a master plan drawn up by the Britannia Community Services Centre Society in 2011.

The city has allocated $500,000 for public consultations in 2016 regarding the redevelopment of Britannia. A preliminary design is expected next year.

“We like to cost-share, obviously,” Meggs said about the funding for Britannia’s renewal. “It’s complicated there by the existence of the school sites and things like that.”

Although the project can be financed out of the city’s capital plan, Meggs said outside help will be valuable.

“We’d also look to try and get other senior governments involved and nonprofits for that as much as possible,” Meggs said.