The university is constructing a new private housing complex at the gateway to UBC's campus.
The area being developed, known as Site B, is beside the bus loop and across from Shoppers Drug Mart, Boulevard Coffee and Mahoney’s. The housing will be part of what Michael White, associate vice-president of Campus and Community Planning, calls an active mixed-use precinct.
“The first plans were created for the area around 2004 and articulated a mixed-use academic gateway to the university,” said White. “That’s all the properties [along] University Boulevard and so it was always envisioned to be a place that had a mix of uses including academic-residential services.”
Known as Village Centre Academic or, to members of the university administration, the “student neighbourhood,” the area includes Walter H. Gage Residence, the Aquatic Centre and where MacInnes field used to be.
The building on Site B will be rented at or close to market prices, but tenants will need to be an affiliate of the university to live there. Because one needs to work at or attend UBC to be considered an affiliate, the housing is technically university housing — and not market housing — despite its prices. AMS VP Academic and University Affairs Jenna Omassi believes that having the housing restricted to either employees or students of the university is a step in the right direction.
“The people this housing is for are members of the UBC community so they have an understanding of the student population, of their colleagues [and] what this community is,” said Omassi. “We don’t want to run into another situation where … [people] come in expecting to be living in a quiet neighbourhood when they actually are in the heart of campus.”
However, both Omassi and her predecessor, Anne Kessler, expressed that there are still potential drawbacks to having this type of housing in the student hub of campus.
“A concern around there being housing here is noise…. The new MacInnes field was going to be right there and what about when students want to have concerts there?” said Kessler. “We don’t want this to become a situation where those people are really frustrated that this noise is happening there when really the students were there first.”
The rooms of the building may be more appealing to students rather than families who would likely take issue with the noise. According to Paul Young, director of Planning and Design for UBC Properties, approximately 60 of over 90 units are either going to be micro units or studio units.
“They tend to be on the smaller side. So it provides another option for students, but also for others who are affiliated with the university,” said Young.
Nonetheless, speaking to the concerns about the effects of living in a student neighbourhood, Kessler said, “I think the university maybe didn’t think through that so much.”
However, according to White, Campus and Community Planning (CC+P) has acknowledged the adjacency issues. They’ve recommended that tenants be made aware of the nearby student recreation through a note in their leases. CC+P also suggested that the university, AMS and the University Neighbourhood Association and Properties Trust look into a letter of understanding to acknowledge the area’s activity in anticipation of residents.
According to Kessler, it’s difficult to address some of these potential issues since the decision to have this type of housing in this location was made so long ago. The consultation process dealt more with what the building would offer or look like rather than the decision of whether to construct it at all.
“That stage of consultation [wasn’t] ‘what’s going go here,’” said Kessler. “[It was] more about what kind of shops and ... how this building looks, which is really a different conversation than, ‘Should there be housing here?’”
White confirmed that the consultation process that campus and community planning engaged the AMS for Site B specifically was about “the overall principles for the neighbourhood.”
Speaking to the consultation, Omassi said the AMS and Graduate Student Society were consulted and — as always — there were extents to which the feedback from those student groups was and was not taken into consideration. In addition to these parties, “there’s also the desires of UBC Properties Trust and the board taken into it — and UBC Properties Trust specifically really did want to see Site B be housing,” said Omassi.
According to White, the original 2004 plans for the precinct were updated and confirmed by the Board of Governors last June.
So how is the project being funded? According to Young, a lease from the university allows for a mortgage against the site to cover the cost of construction.
“What we do is we borrow money for the construction of the building and then we get a mortgage at the end, and that mortgage gets paid off over time through the rental revenues,” said Young. “It doesn’t use any university funds. The university doesn’t loan us any money, we get that from third parties like banks.”
As for going forward, Omassi believes the best thing to do is establish reasonable expectations to be shared by people who plan to live in the area.
“Understanding where they’re moving in to and what place on campus they’re moving in to is really important,” she said. “Setting reasonable expectations is really important because every year we run into issues with the neighbourhoods and people living on this campus who have expectations for noise and the campus community that can’t be fulfilled because this is a student population here.”