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They just greenlit a short-term rental on Columbia Street

Your city hall just approved a short-term rental

Alright, let's talk about what's been happening in the big glass tower downtown.

On April 21st, your Special Council had a meeting. They approved a business licence for a short-term rental at 1801-1788 Columbia Street. The decision, according to the voting records, was carried unanimously, with Councillors B. Montague, L. Zhou, and S. Orr voting in favour. Councillor R. Bligh was marked absent for this particular vote, though it didn't change the outcome. It's a small detail, maybe, but it’s interesting to see a short-term rental get approved so cleanly, given how much conversation there's been around them lately in the city.

### New Buildings and Old Problems

On a different note, we've seen a few building permits issued recently that speak to what's going up around us. A new low-density housing permit, DB-2026-00984, was issued on May 19th for 8063 Elliott Street for a cool one million dollars to construct a two-storey house. More notably, perhaps, BP-2025-04731, also issued May 19th, is for a "Multiplex" at 1585 W 58th Avenue, coming in at $351,410.

It’s a mix, isn’t it? The single detached home, the multiplex. Beautiful out here. Complicated in here. That's the coast. We're still seeing those million-dollar builds for single-family homes, even as the city tries to gently push for more density with things like multiplexes. It makes you wonder how quickly the landscape is actually shifting for the average person just trying to find a place. What will those new buildings mean for the fabric of those neighbourhoods in the long run?

Kenji Nakashima, MiTL Sports Desk.

You can catch all the morning insights on this and more, live at mornings.live.

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