Doreen Braverman lives on Yew Street near where it runs up to the southern edge of the Arbutus Shopping Centre. Instead of going farther north, the road, as Nanton Avenue, bends east, bypassing the commercial property that has a Safeway, a government liquor outlet, and a few other stores all clustered in and around a two-storey mall on its west side.

On Tuesday (July 12), Vancouver city council will hold a public hearing on a rezoning application that proposes to extend Yew Street northward through the property, build a new road that cuts west to east across the site, and much more.

Property owner Larco Investments Ltd., a company controlled by the Lalji family, wants to build 500 housing units on the almost three-hectare shopping-centre property. It’s a plan that has Braverman and other residents of the Arbutus Ridge neighbourhood calling for a smaller-scale alternative.

“We would love to have this place redeveloped, but we’d like more shops, more services,” Braverman, chair of the Arbutus Ridge Concerned Citizens Association, told the Georgia Straight in an interview at the shopping centre.

She also said that the project, involving four residential buildings with heights ranging from six to eight storeys, is out of step with the neighbourhood’s vision of future developments limited to four storeys in height.

“That’s what’s supposed to be in this neighbourhood, because we have a city plan,” Braverman said. “This city plan was put together in the ’90s, and everybody in the area agreed to the plan and city hall agreed to the plan.”

The ARCCA is suggesting a more modest development of 200 residential units in four blocks that are comparable in size and height to the adjacent buildings in the nearby Arbutus Village area.

A City of Vancouver staff report recalled that council approved, in July 2008, a policy statement that supported significant residential development in the Arbutus Shopping Centre area. Council at that time was controlled by the Non-Partisan Association.

Of the 500 housing units proposed by Larco, 400 will be market condos. The developer is offering the city the remaining 100 units for social housing, a huge incentive for the Vision Vancouver–led council that has made addressing the city’s housing needs one of its key missions.

It is proposed to be a mixed-used development with 269,000 square feet of commercial development. More than half of this space will be at street level, and the remaining 120,000 square feet is proposed above grade. Safeway will continue as the anchor tenant.