We are weeks away from the anticipated “report back” to Vancouver City Council on the clumsily worded Councillor motion to “modernize” the City’s View Protection Guidelines.
In late September the ABC party majority of City of Vancouver Council approved a council motion that was reflective of a downtown tower developer bias. The Council motion which emphasized “Modernizing” the City View Protection Guidelines was code word for allowing a handful of downtown developers to build tall towers blocking the views, privatizing an outstanding amenity, the views which have been maintained for every citizen and visitor.
The motion also contradicts itself: “Although the City seeks to protect Vancouver’s spectacular ocean and mountain views, it also promotes density in the downtown area to reduce urban sprawl in alignment with sustainability goals“.
Is promoting development and density that is not in the downtown unsustainable? Is development in the 95 percent of land area NOT in the downtown of Vancouver contributing to sprawl? Or is this what downtown tower developers are saying?
Why is there a reluctance for Council to focus off the postage stamp sized five percent of land in the downtown peninsula of Vancouver? Density and families are badly needed in neighbourhoods, that already have transit, parks, schools, shops and services.
There is also no mention in that Council motion that the developers downtown bought and optioned the properties at prices that recognized achievable height was capped. Those developers would have also known that any density that could not be achieved because of the View Protection Policy could be simply transferred to another site, resulting in a cash payment.
As past co-director Larry Beasley said to Kerry Gold in this article in the Globe and Mail,
“I find our developers, by and large, are very responsible. But I have always said, ‘if you find yourself in that view corridor, No. 1, you knew it was there when you bought the property…And No. 2, you’ve had a lot of prewarning to shape your building, to design around it. I still think that holds true.“
You can take a look at the Council video of this item, where Mr. Meizner quotes verbatim the wording of the City’s different view guidelines, and makes some unfortunate remarks about views being “from a car” or “from city hall” (where there is a high point of land and a park) or from “Cambie Bridge”.
The City Councillor is wrong. The View Protection Policy was put in place for people walking and cycling, and just being on the public streets, which is also a major policy for moving sustainably in Vancouver. The views are also two ways, there is not a “dead end” view for one location. And Vancouver’s View Protection Policy is the envy of many cities.
If you would like to find out more how the Vancouver View Protection Policy was developed and how it was implemented, Larry Beasley and Architect Peter Busby will be talking about this on Wednesday December 6 at Simon Fraser University. You can register for this event either on line or in person by clicking this link.
Larry Beasley/Peter Busby
images:SFU sandyjames
The View From Vancouver 