Last Tuesday evening during a “telephone town hall” Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was asked about saving the Hollywood Theatre.
Here is what he said about the 77-year-old art deco structure on West Broadway: “We’re working on a solution to keep the Hollywood intact. We have to make sure we don’t lose some of our great heritage sites that the community values.”
The key word here is “intact.” It means “untouched” and it is certainly a long way from what we heard about the developer’s latest proposal during a council committee meeting Nov. 6.
The meeting was to consider a motion proposing a moratorium on development going ahead on the site. The motion, galling for the Vision majority to be sure, was introduced by Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr.
The city’s heritage staff reported that after two years of discussion with owner Dino Bonnis, there was a plan to save the building’s façade. But the interior of the 650-seat movie theatre would be gutted, another floor would be added and it would all be opened as a health club.
Throughout the meeting Vision councillors Heather Deal, Andrea Reimer and Geoff Meggs spent time attempting to shift the blame for their dilemma away from themselves.
They pointed to provincial legislation requiring compensation for developers should their rights be curtailed; the developers’ need to support their families; and the community — in this case the recently assembled “Save the Hollywood Coalition” — for not blowing the whistle on this issue sooner.
This is the third time in recent months we have watched this council scramble in the face of threats to heritage structures that the community values.
Last summer it was the Waldorf Hotel on East Hastings. By the time Vision got its act in gear the valued cultural components had decamped to other parts of the city leaving only the building.
Then there was the Ridge Theatre and the bowling alley on Arbutus north of 16th. Vision simply threw up its hands. The building housing those valued community venues has since been reduced to rubble.
Now the Hollywood and we are no closer to having effective tools to preserve some of our great heritage sites.
There have been a number of factors at play that have left council so frequently feckless in matters of heritage conservation.
The heritage registry, an assessment and listing of valued structures, hasn’t been updated since it was created in 1986. The Waldorf, for example, was not on the register.
The tools available to staff to protect heritage sites are quite limited.
One tool, a “density bank,” designed to reward developers for restoring heritage buildings by giving them extra density, has proven ineffective because developers have found they can’t sell that density to recover their costs.
There has also been a dramatic acceleration of development in the past several years putting pressure on potential heritage sites.
And there is one more point. Heritage assessments are based on the building itself. There is no measure that reflects the community value or the social value of a building.
Next week a council committee will consider a staff report they asked for six months ago titled “Heritage Action Plan Update.”
It will propose several “Quick start Actions including regulatory changes, process improvements, proactive outreach to senior levels of government and updates to the City’s Heritage Register.”
We do not know whether that will help save the Hollywood.
As for long term-solutions, they will have to wait for a report back next year.
Meanwhile the coalition spokesperson Mel Lehan says people are tripping over themselves in a rush to come forward with money and proposals to buy the building from Bonnis.
Bonnis bought the theatre in 2011 from the Farleigh family, which built it and owned and operated it from the very beginning. He paid a reported $2.85 million.
Lehan says the proposals all include keeping the theatre as a multi-use cultural space, possibly run by a non-profit society. But they also include adding a second floor to house for-profit enterprises.
Lehan and his crew have yet to speak with Bonnis. Given Robertson’s pledge, you would think Vision has an interest in helping that happen. Although Bonnis last reported saying he has “no interest in selling.”
