West Southlands sits on the unceded ancestral territory of the Musqueam people. 

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"The Story of Dunbar: Voices of a Vancouver Neighbourhood"

 was published in 2007 and provides a great history of the area.

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Dunbar-Southlands profile 

 

Dunbar Village businesses

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The 1988 Southlands Plan set a framework for West Southlands, including:

• Semi-rural character

• Musqueam Marsh Nature Park

• Streets with unpaved shoulders and ditches for drainage & flood resistance

• Minimizing streets with through traffic

• Low density housing 

• Flood proofing of new housing 

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The Plan prohibits new curbs in order to maintain as much natural absorption of rainwater as possible. The ditches, which are significant holding areas for rainwater, discharge at low tide into the Fraser River. New building is encouraged to consider alternatives to concrete and asphalt in order to control run-off and maximize the surface available to absorb water.

 

West Southlands is currently zoned RS-5 and RS-6: residential character in the form of one-family dwellings, secondary suites, laneway houses, and two-family dwellings.

 

In 2022, a community development strategy for Vancouver as a whole was adopted. It is called the Vancouver Plan and has many elements relevant to our area (for example, see pages 92, 105, 112, 141). There's a fun short video outlining the plan and next steps. 

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