The City of Vancouver is presenting community plans in Marpole, Norquay, Mount Pleasant, and Grandview-Woodland. There is a common theme to each of these. The affected stakeholders (i.e. home and business owners) remain largely unaware of, and upset about, the radical changes proposed to their neighbourhoods.
Yet in each case the City claims that a lengthy consultation process was used.
In my neighbourhood, Garden Park, which is a real treasure that has a true sense of community and heritage, will be seriously affected by the proposed zoning changes. Here, the city is proposing to destroy 341 single-family residential homes in favour of four-storey townhomes and eight storey apartments.
They also propose to box in the few parks and schoolyards in the area with similar building types.
Additionally, a 36-storey mixed use building is proposed for the Safeway site, and a cluster of 22 storey buildings adjacent to the Broadway-Commercial Drive SkyTrain station.
Those who attended earlier workshops on a variety of topics such as social issues, housing, parks, arts, transportation and heritage say that the radical transformation proposed was never mentioned or explored.
It appears the city has an agenda it wishes to force upon its residents that favours unnatural development under the cause of densification. Some of us think that the transit oriented community proposed around Safeway is an attempt by the city to secure funding for a subway on Broadway ahead of promoting mass transit improvements south of the Fraser.
I encourage the Vancouver Courier to focus deeper on these plans in order to inform the community at large about the unexpected changes their elected leaders are thinking of imposing on them.
Phillip Hall, Vancouver
