Vancouver developer pays $8.5M for 99-year lease of school property

The Vancouver School Board (VSB) has awarded a 99-year lease to a private developer, which is set to build a mixed-use commercial and rental building on school property after paying $8.5 million for the space.

It comes a little over two months after the board first moved to hand over 0.31 hectares of "surplus" land, just south of Sir Sandford Fleming Elementary School in East Vancouver, to Vittori Developments.

Vittori plans to build rental housing on the site, with space for retail on the ground floor, according to the VSB.

The board says the process to dispose of the surplus land was started by the previous school board, after a public consultation process, and the resulting rental building will see preference given to VSB employees.

But critics say the board's public consultation was rushed and limited in nature, and the move to issue the century-long lease was short-sighted.

"It's not best for the public, it's not best for children and it certainly is not best for education," Suzie Mah, a school board trustee from the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) slate, said.

"Because when you talk about $8.5 million, that's a drop in the bucket."

Mah said the fact that the lease was issued up front, with no opportunity to review it, prevents the board from using the land in a way that would better benefit Vancouver's increasing school-aged population.

She said the land, which currently houses a basketball court, was one of the few play areas in the community.

Mah was one of the trustees who voted against the motion earlier this year, along with OneCity trustee Jennifer Reddy.

However, the bylaws to dispose of the land passed after a majority of the trustees aligned with the A Better City (ABC) Vancouver slate voted in favour of them.

CBC News has reached out to Vittori for this story. In September, the developer said in a statement that a "portion of the housing" will be offered at below-market rental rates. The exact portion was not provided.

Vittori has more than 500 rental units in the Greater Vancouver area, according to its website. 

Due diligence conducted: board vice-chair

Joshua Zhang, VSB vice-chair and an ABC Vancouver trustee, has previously said the move was made for the benefit of the VSB's workforce, and followed a period of community engagement on the subject.

The board said in an information bulletin that VSB staff would receive "priority access to vacant units," though it did not specify how exactly that would occur.

"This lease agreement supports improving equity through the responsible stewardship of district resources," the bulletin reads.

Melanie Cheng, chair of the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council, said the previous school board had already moved to lease the land in 2019 — long before the issue came up for public consultation.

"Fleming Elementary School community does not want this development on their site," she told CBC News in September. "They made that really clear, and the VSB board has decided to proceed with it."

Cheng said the 99-year lease has set a dangerous precedent, as the VSB is the second-largest land owner in Vancouver and could move to subdivide other schools' land for private development.

LISTEN | Melanie Cheng, with the Parent Advisory Council, speaks about the lease in September: 

The Early Edition9:58Vancouver DPAC Chair reacts to VSB decision on Fleming Elementary lease

The Vancouver School Board is expected to approve a lease to a developer. Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council Chair Melanie Cheng weighs in.