The lands surrounding the University of British Columbia were set aside to support the University within the municipality of Point Grey in 1910, expanded in 1920, then removed from the municipality’s control by the province in 1925 (after a spat over road funding). They have remained separate ever since, including after Point Grey’s amalgamation with the City of Vancouver in 1929. So it is that the western borders for our first historical map for the City of Vancouver’s zoning in 1931 end well before they reach UBC, stopping at the University Endowment Lands (UEL), which remain under provincial control. But moving forward in time, a variety of small parcels has been cut out of the UEL and added to the City of Vancouver. The biggest such parcel was a triangle added to the City of Vancouver as RS-1 zoned land, appearing on our maps between 1963 and 1974, just west of Camosun between King Edward and 29th. What happened?
It appears that St. George’s Senior School happened. According to their histories, St. George’s bought the land in the UEL from the Jesuits in 1944, who had earlier received permission from the Province to build a church on the land, but built somewhere else instead. After repeated lobbying efforts, St. George’s finally received provincial permission to build their Senior School on the property in 1964, and immediately set to work. Under the premiership of W.A.C. Bennett, the Province also sold off other land nearby for development, filling out the triangle (which also includes a BC Hydro substation) around that time. Annexation by the City of Vancouver occurred shortly thereafter, with all the land being zoned in as RS-1, the same as the neighbouring parcels, before switching to RS-5, where it remains today. Both RS zones enable schools as a conditional use, and RS is the most common zoning for schools across the City of Vancouver. Apparently St. George’s also kept trying to buy out the acreage south of their Senior school, but were rebuffed, and it eventually became part of Pacific Spirit Park (only established in 1989).
The School’s relationship with City Council was not especially good in its early days, and they initially built some of their first buildings without a permit (with neighbours in opposition) in 1933. They had regular difficulties with their Dunbar neighbours and getting around municipal regulations meant to keep out boarding houses, culminating in minor city showdowns in 1969 and again in 1974, but ultimately managed to get around these regulations by buying the convent at what’s now the (heritage protected) Junior school in 1979.