The West End is turning into the latest front in the turf wars over residential land in Vancouver.

As city planners opt for allowing higher-density to deal with soaring prices for single-family homes, their solution can threaten existing, affordable housing that residents have come to love.

In the West End there has been a slew of recent, dizzying land sales, and some of the priciest new condo towers are going up there.

At the north end of the Burrard Bridge, eight brightly painted, Victorian-era homes sit in front of a seven-storey low-rise built in the 1980s. Together, they are known as the Pacific Heights Housing Co-op. Among its 200 residents who live in 91 units are 30 families with children. The co-op includes one of the largest stocks of three-bedroom units in the West End, according to Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert, who described it as a “model of affordable and community living.”

It’s a place where sense of community is very much alive, says co-op member Zak Mathis.

“Where else can you have your neighbour knock on your door, asking to get the ladders because another neighbour’s dog is on the roof and they aren’t home?” he asked.

For years, the co-op’s property had been valued in the mid $20-million range, but in 2016, it skyrocketed 95 per cent from $26 million to $51 million.

“It was shocking,” said Jon Breisnes, another resident. “A lot of our more experienced members said, ‘That’s got to be a mistake.’”

If not, they want to know if this new assessment is a foreboding sign the co-op could eventually lose its lease with the city, which expires in 9 years. For now, it at least means an accompanying hike in property taxes that will cost each unit an additional $75 a month. Unlike homeowners, co-op members don’t have equity in a property that is going up in tandem, said Mathis.

As a first response, the co-op is asking B.C. Assessment for an appeal. It is also taking its concerns about the future to the City and will meet with councillors Geoff Meggs and Raymond Louie on Monday.

The trigger for the higher assessment seems to be the co-op’s prime location at the very bottom corner of the West End Community Plan’s Burrard corridor, which runs one block wide down Burrard, from Haro to Pacific Streets, and specifically allows for taller, residential towers.

The idea was for shiny, new buildings with much higher density allowances to sit on the outside edges of the West End on Burrard and Georgia streets, leaving laneway housing, townhouses and other infill residences to be sprinkled behind existing buildings in the West End.

And so, a few blocks from the co-op, some of Vancouver’s most architecturally striking, high-end condos with all the fixings are in progress. Reliance and The Jim Pattison Group is building One Burrard Place, a 53-storey residence with concierge service for luxury buyers. Westbank’s Vancouver House on Howe Street will be a twisting, 59-storey building. And Grosvenor Canada is applying to rezone the site of the old Il Giardino restaurant on Hornby Street for a 39-storey residence.

More recently, there has been another string of land sales in the West End that have been attracting attention for achieving even higher prices than were paid for the above projects. Some haven’t closed yet, but real estate industry sources say a set of buildings on Alberni at Nicola sold for $160 million, about twice what they sold for in 2014; and, two buildings on Nelson Street assessed at $16 million went for $60 million. Two weeks ago, the buildings at 1070 and 1080 Barclay Street, assessed at $19.8 million in 2016, were sold to local developer Bosa Properties for $58.5 million.