Because of your active support, the 6,000+ signatures on our petition, and your thoughtful presence at the Public Hearing, our collective voice was heard. On March 12 (2026), Vancouver City Council made the decision to defer the rezoning application for 2030 Barclay Street. We want to extend our sincere thanks to Vancouver City Council for their diligence and for listening to the concerns of West End residents. By sending the application back to the developer with a directive to consider significant adjustments, Council has shown a commitment to ensuring that new developments truly respect the character and safety of our neighbourhood. This is a win for community engagement, and it reinforces that the West End is a vibrant, resident-focused community.
Please find the information below of our efforts and arguments prior to the March 12 hearing. We will be updating this page and our website as Marcon withdraws the application and starts over.
The City of Vancouver has received an application to rezone the 2030 address of Barclay Street, located in the heart of the West End neighbourhood, west of Denman, which is a quiet residential neighbourhood of low and mid-rise apartments. Rosellen Suites currently occupies 2030 Barclay Street, a small hotel on the narrow, tree-lined block in the West End, steps from the southern entrance to Stanley Park. This calm, residential setting is part of what defines Barclay Street. If the rezoning is approved, it would put a 25-storey, 248-room hotel, complete with an outdoor restaurant, into the midst of our quiet residential neighbourhood. The towering hotel proposed west of Denman represents a grave threat to the neighbourhood’s peaceful character and quiet enjoyment. This rezoning would set a precedent that dismantles crucial residential safeguards, opening the floodgates to a wave of unwanted high-rise development across the West End.
The hotel would be as high as the Coast Plaza Hotel, which towers over Denman. This is nearly 50% more than allowed by zoning (289’ vs 190’) and 450% more floor space than allowed. Such a project would certainly jeopardize the privacy of the neighbourhood residents. Every day, guests arriving and leaving the 248-room hotel mean more tour buses, taxis, cars, and ride-shares on already congested Robson and Denman. Current daily truck traffic will multiply to meet the hotel’s need for supplies, laundry, and garbage collection. This development will exacerbate traffic congestion and compromise pedestrian safety, particularly with increased hotel traffic coinciding with school drop-off and pick-up times, thereby endangering children.
The traffic chaos will transform a quiet neighbourhood into a de facto noisy commercial zone.
The City of Vancouver’s Seismic Risk Report (November 2024) identifies the West End, particularly west of Denman, as the neighbourhood facing the highest risk of earthquake damage and resident displacement. The 25-storey hotel’s weight and four levels of underground parking pose a serious threat to the structural integrity of older adjacent buildings, especially given the area’s high seismic risk. It is alarming that the rezoning application makes no mention of the extraordinary risk to the foundations of neighbouring buildings in Vancouver’s most vulnerable seismic area.
The developer ignores the ecological risk to the iconic Stanley Park Heron nesting colony from a sudden change in their environment due to large-scale property development.
The construction site is inside the government’s 260m development buffer zone and well within the 1000 m excessive noise zone established by the Province of BC’s Development Guidelines. This will be the first major construction project in the buffer zone since the herons started nesting here in 2001. The herons have become habituated to human activity below but critically not above their nests. That will end beginning with the construction cranes and then a building that will tower above their nests.
This unprecedented disruption could cause the herons to abandon one of the largest urban Heron colonies in North America.
A detailed record of key decisions, policy changes, and developer actions that shaped the shift from an approved condominium to a controversial hotel proposal.
Marcon applies to develop a 10-storey condominium at 2030 Barclay St. The proposal complies with existing zoning, the West End Community Development Plan (WECDP), and the neighbourhood’s character. No record of public opposition can be found. The City´s Development Permit Board approves it in Nov. 26th, 2018.
Presales are advertised (e.g., Mike Stewart Real Estate website, later updated). Still no records of public opposition.
ABC Vancouver wins municipal election securing a majority on Council.
Marcon abandons the approved condo project and presales without public explanation.
Marcon submits a rezoning application for a 29-storey hotel, despite the RM5B low-rise residential zoning and absence of any hotel policy permitting such a proposal.
The West End Rezoning Policy is amended, but without reference to hotels or applicability to 2030 Barclay.
Marcon distributes a letter to nearby residents describing a “redevelopment proposal,” that “falls under the West End Development Plan” and implying early-stage dialogue with neighbours. Those statements contradict facts in the official rezoning application, which acknowledges non-conformity, and the letter downplays (by omission) that this is a major rezoning request.
Council approves a new Hotel Development Policy, nearly one year after Marcon’s rezoning application was filed. The policy creates, for the first time, a framework that could support Marcon’s otherwise non-conforming proposal.
Marcon refiles the same proposal with a marginally reduced tower (27 storeys).
The City amends the Hotel Development Policy again, without publishing clear redlined changes or explaining the rationale.
Through the Shape Your City Q&A, the City asserts that the Hotel Development Policy — a new, untested, and recently amended policy — supersedes long-standing zoning rules and the WECDP, without clarifying the legal or policy basis. The answers indicate it will be the policy used to assess Marcon’s proposal.
The proposal is redefined again, going from 27-stories to 25-stories, 270 rooms to 248 rooms, and 88m to 83m.
