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Vancouver developer Concord Pacific is suing the City of Vancouver, arguing the city plans to build highrise condos on land reserved for low-rise social housing in downtown’s Beach neighbourhood.

In 1988, Concord bought 200 acres of land that had been used for Expo 86, on the north shore of False Creek. A decade later, the area was subdivided and portions were handed over to the city, after community benefit negotiations, for the exclusive use as social housing, according to a civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court this week.

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The legal dispute is over one of those lots, at 601 Beach Crescent on the northeast side of the Granville Street Bridge.

In 1999, half of the lot was transferred to the city, and the city designated it as a low-rise, non-profit housing site within the False Creek North development plan, according to the lawsuit.

But Concord alleges that the city later developed a plan to allow highrise commercial housing. In May, the city invited developers to bid on the lot “with a view to its development as a highrise commercial housing site,” according to the lawsuit.