Frequently asked questions

The identified Villages may have a small handful of retail spaces, but they lack the shops, services, and amenities to meet many of the residents’ daily needs. That means people who live in and near Villages often travel out of their neighbourhood to shop and access a variety services.  

Through public engagement on the Vancouver Plan, we heard from Vancouverites that they want neighbourhoods to be complete and connected. By building out Villages with more housing, retail, public spaces, amenities and transportation connections, we’re working to meet that goal, so people have more of what they need close to home.   

Vancouver Plan, adopted by Council in 2022, is the City’s unified land use framework, aiming to create a more livable, affordable, and sustainable city to 2050 and beyond. Vancouver Plan’s Land Use Strategy outlines six neighbourhood types, which together cover all areas of the city. Beyond the Villages planning program, there are currently 9 other projects underway to deliver on the Vancouver Plan’s Land Use Strategy and Three Big Ideas.

Learn more about the different land use types in the Vancouver Plan.   

Villages and Neighbourhood Centres are both intended to serve the daily needs of residents in the area. Villages will be located in areas with pre-existing clusters of retail spaces and will be built out by adding more low- to mid-rise housing, as well as small-scale commercial opportunities.  

Neighbourhood Centres are oriented around well-established local shopping streets with a higher density of retail spaces and housing around them. Villages will typically be 2-3 blocks from the Village centre, whereas Neighbourhood Centres can span many blocks or an entire street, for example Commercial Drive or Main Street.

We anticipate bringing the draft Villages plan to Council for consideration in spring 2026. This plan would include many areas in Villages for City-initiated rezoning, eliminating the need for individual rezonings on most sites.  

From that point, if a landowner or developer chooses to submit a development application, it would take at least another year to go through permitting process until construction could begin. 

Any redevelopment would be initiated by landowners/developers. Therefore, this change will likely be very gradual over the next 30 years. Depending on development interest, some Villages may see some redevelopment sooner, and others may not see change for a long time.

It should be noted that there is existing policy that continues to apply and could allow for redevelopment in Villages before the Villages plan is approved by Council. Examples of these existing policies include area plans such as the Cambie Corridor Plan (PDF, 110 MB), and the Secured Rental Policy (PDF, 0.5 MB).

We recognize that area distinctiveness is important to our community and part of what makes Vancouver special. Many Villages have the same or similar zoning today and yet they are distinct from one another. It is not land use itself that makes neighbourhoods unique, but the people and places within them.   

Through Villages planning, we will look for opportunities to enhance what is unique in the neighbourhoods and create the kind of vibrant and walkable communities that people enjoy around the city. Building out Villages will continue to create dynamic change over time and bring more opportunities to celebrate distinct neighbourhood character.