By Glen Korstrom
Activists who oppose taller buildings in Vancouver’s downtown core and say public consultation has been a sham thus far doubt that city council’s decision to defer a vote on the issue will change much.
Council voted on December 14 to defer until January 20 a vote on whether to raise maximum allowable building heights and revise view corridor rules.
They claim that city processes are skewed against genuine public input and that Vision Vancouver councillors exhibit the same disregard for public opinion as Mayor Gregor Robertson did in July when he accidentally spoke into an open microphone and called public speakers “NPA hacks.”
Fast-forward to mid-December and city hall critics were blasting Vancouver’s planning department for releasing late on a Friday afternoon a 40-page, bureaucratese-laden document that council was supposed to vote on six days later.
The document contained new height restrictions that could forever change the city’s skyline.
Not only would the proposed December 16 vote have taken place in the week before Christmas when most citizens would have had issues other than local politics on their minds, it would also have been held during the afternoon and not the evening, when more working people would be able to voice their opinion.
“The level of mistrust [between city hall and residents] is enormous,” said West End Neighbours Association member Randy Helton.
“Every new action coming out of city hall regarding major policies and rezoning and development applications is reinforcing that level of mistrust.”
He added that because councillors can accept campaign donations from developers the perception that developers have undue influence at city hall is compounded.
Had council members genuinely consulted the public, Helton said they would have had discussions about the impact of taller buildings on schools, parks, community centres and traffic flow.
Councillor Geoff Meggs agreed with Helton that the time for public input on the issue of maximum building heights was truncated, which is in part why he supported deferring the vote.
“It would be good to get the information in front of council and have a staff briefing, which is what they normally start with,” Meggs said.
There were three public open houses on the issue in October, but Helton criticized them for being held only in the downtown area during the day.
He added that they were presented as education sessions on proposed changes for attendees rather than venues seeking their feedback.
Meggs has taken a strong position to protect the city’s view corridors, as has most of council.
“The flip side of that coin, for me, is to be sympathetic to higher buildings where there is no view corridor as a quid pro quo,” Meggs said.
Council is considering raising the existing maximum height limit for one building at the corner of Burrard and Alberni streets to 700 feet.
Business in Vancouver recently reported (see “Rezoning key to $500 million city tower project” – issue 1097; November 2-8) that two local developers propose to spend $500 million to build a 775,000-square-foot mixed-use complex, including a 48-storey tower, at the corner of Hornby and Drake streets and that the project relies on Vancouver city council approving a higher height limit for the Jim Pattison Toyota site.
Current zoning limits development on the site to a tower 350 feet tall. That’s 116 feet shorter than one of the three structures that Jim Pattison Developments Ltd. and Reliance Properties Ltd. executives envision.
The other two proposed structures are a 36-storey, 355-foot-tall tower on Hornby Street and a 13-storey 184-foot-tall office tower on Burrard Street.
Council is considering raising building height limits on five other downtown sites:
- Seymour Street between Beach Avenue and Pacific Boulevard;
- Howe Street between Beach Avenue and Pacific Boulevard;
- Burrard Street between Alberni Street and Georgia Street, where there’s a Bell store and a Tiffany and Co. jewelry store;
- Burrard Street between Alberni Street and a lane, where there’s a Hermes boutique; and
- next to the Loden Hotel, between Bute and Thurlow streets on Melville Street.
Thus far, no development projects have been proposed for any of the five sites.