Your City Hall just approved a short-term rental.

There was a quiet moment at City Hall this week, one that might have slipped by if you weren't looking closely at the Special Council votes. On April 21st, our city councillors approved a business license for a short-term rental at 1801-1788 Columbia Street. It passed unanimously, with Councillor R. Bligh marked absent.

Now, a single short-term rental might not sound like much. But given the ongoing, shall we say, *complicated* conversation we're having in Vancouver about housing, it's interesting to see council green-light another one. Especially when you consider the City's own regulations, which are supposed to limit these.

* **Date:** April 21, 2026

* **Location:** 1801-1788 Columbia Street

* **Vote:** Carried Unanimously (Councillor R. Bligh absent)

* **Item:** Business Licence Application No. AL0188353 (Short Term Rental)

It feels a bit like one step forward, two steps back sometimes, doesn't it? Beautiful out here. Complicated in here. That's the coast. We’ll be watching to see if this unanimous decision signals a shift in how the city approaches these applications moving forward, or if it was just an outlier.

Kenji Nakashima, MiTL Sports Desk.

You can hear more on this, and what it means for our city, every morning at mornings.live.