Today, the Jericho Lands is a pretty sleepy place. Read More
The Indegenous-led Jericho Lands development, which city council will consider this week, has been praised as a ‘blueprint for our future’ by proponents and decried as ‘monstrous’ by opponents. Both sides agree on one thing: It’s a big deal
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Today, the Jericho Lands is a pretty sleepy place.
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Wedged on a 36-hectare plot of land between an oceanfront park and one of Vancouver’s least-populated and most-expensive neighbourhoods, the property — previously owned by Canada’s National Department of Defence — contains about 50 small houses that housed military families, and other assorted small buildings.
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The future could look very different.
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Informed Opinion
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Unlike the hundreds of more standard real estate projects considered by Vancouver city hall every year, the local First Nations who own the Jericho Lands are proposing a megaproject to transform the West Point Grey area into a downtown-style neighbourhood and become the single-largest real estate development in Vancouver’s recent history.
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The project envisions 60 buildings, with towers as high as 49 storeys, adding rental and strata leasehold homes for around 24,000 residents — greater than the population of the City of White Rock or the District of Squamish. It would also include a new road network, a community centre, a public school, parks, and retail, office and cultural spaces. There’s also a plan for a rapid transit station at Jericho, if the Broadway subway line is extended to the University of B.C.
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A half-decade of planning comes to a head on Tuesday with a public hearing at Vancouver city hall, where dozens of people have registered to address council. The project is being advanced by the MST Development Corporation, a joint venture of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, with several other major real estate projects in the pipeline.
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Proponents see Jericho as a “blueprint for our future,” a dense, transit-oriented, walkable, car-light and mixed-use community they want to see reflected across the rest of the city. Opponents look at the same plan and see something “monstrous” in its skyscrapers and a population influx that would more than double the surrounding West Point Grey neighbourhood’s present population.
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Susan Fisher is a 45-year resident of West Point Grey and speaks for the Jericho Coalition, a neighbourhood group opposing MST Development’s proposal. Like many of her neighbours, she is alarmed about huge numbers of people and cars in the neighbourhood, and tall towers blocking views.
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Fisher said when she spoke at a January 2024 council meeting for an earlier phase of the Jericho Lands planning process, she noticed the “striking” contrast between how the proposal was described by its opponents and supporters.
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“I could imagine what I would feel like if I were in my 30s, and had a decent job … and I saw so much money going out every month in rent and daycare, that we’ll never save for a down payment,” said Fisher, a grandmother and retired professor. “Being locked out of the housing market, that’s just so wrong.”