BURST
A legal challenge asks the B.C. Supreme Court to quash the City of Vancouver’s approval to allow a 250-room floating hotel in front of the Vancouver Convention Centre.
The petition alleges the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre misrepresented how the development would affect public views before the public hearing held on April 14, 2026.
According to the petition, the renderings available to the public before the hearing depicted the floating hotel as positioned behind the Vancouver Convention Centre in a way that would not block public views from the waterfront.
However, at the April 14 public hearing, different renderings were presented, the petition alleges.
Michelle Travis, research director at Unite Here Local 40, a union that represents B.C.’s hospitality workers, said “a bait and switch would be the best way to characterize this,” and said it raised serious questions about the public consultation process.
Travis said the project must be paused so the public has all the information necessary, and that the city must hold a new public hearing to ensure “procedural fairness.”
The new renderings at the public hearing showed the floating hotel from the east walkway of the convention centre and the main entrance to the floating hotel, and depicted “significant impacts to the view,” according to the petition.
The petition also alleges that the renderings make the floating hotel appear smaller than it would actually be.
Approval for the floating hotel, a 131 metre by 18 metre, six-level vessel attached to the convention centre, required zoning changes that doubled maximum height allowances.
“We expected a fair hearing, and residents were denied that,” said Travis. “The public needs to be meaningfully informed.”
The court case cites a B.C. Court of Appeal precedent that says the public should have sufficient time to examine proposed bylaws, and any related reports and other documents, before a public hearing.
“What struck us is that they presented different information at the public hearing. That raised concerns. We expect a fair, transparent public process in which the city and the applicant ensure that all the materials relevant to the project be made available to the public, and that wasn’t the case,” said Travis.
She said residents were denied the opportunity to “meaningfully consider” all the information required to make an informed decision.
Travis said the project has been rushed and questions whether the public interest is being served by the floating hotel project.
City councils have been talking about a hotel room shortage in Vancouver for at least 15 years. The number of hotel rooms dropped by 12.8 per cent as older hotels were converted to housing during the pandemic. Industry groups have also raised the alarm and recently cited Vancouver’s lack of hotel rooms compared to similar-sized World Cup host cities as a reason hotel rates have been pushed higher here than in many other host cities.
Travis doesn’t buy it.
“Affordability is top of mind to everybody, particularly our members, and from what we’ve seen the city has pushed this narrative that we have a hotel room shortage. We don’t have a hotel room shortage. We have an affordability crisis.”
With files from Postmedia News