Vancouver
city council approved redevelopment last May
, Vancouver Courier,
Nov. 24, 2011
A UBC researcher says the public
process involved with the approval of rezoning and redevelopment of property at
Granville Street and West 70th Avenue was flawed.
The project, approved by city
council May 3, will see Safeway and its developer Westbank Properties proceed
with the building of the new 50,000-square-foot supermarket and a 16-storey
residential tower.
The report by Tate Francesca White
concluded that: "The implementation of compact development proposals in
southern Vancouver is encountering serious resistance. Local government actions
in pursuit of higher densities are causing extreme feelings of distress and
mistrust among citizens, ultimately proving detrimental to resulting
development and alienating the public from underlying motivations regarding
sustainability."
White wrote the report, entitled
"Searching for Ecological Democracy: A Case Study of the Marpole Safeway Rezoning Process," for her masters of
arts degree in the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning. "From my
research, I found there were many who supported the development," she
later told the Courier. "However, that does not invalidate the strong
opposition."
The complex and contentious process
of urban planning is itself under scrutiny. Some critics complained that
renters were not fully notified of meetings, and that city planners are
generally too friendly with developers.
"Of most common interest was
negotiating to gain community amenities out of the significant increase in
allowable density," White wrote. "Many were doubtful of how much
power they carried as a community and felt distrustful of city staff, the
developer and architect. Others countered this with examples from neighbourhoods in the city who mobilized their local
communities and demanded amenities in return for increased density."
City director of planning Brent Toderian doesn't accept all the conclusions. "The
public engagement process was a very challenging exercise, and we had more
input here than usual" he said in an interview. "Many people said our
process had made the project better, and they were happy with the major changes
that had been made to the Safeway plan."
The report noted issues such as
traffic and greenery: "Despite the involvement of the traffic specialist,
many were still displeased with traffic and parking accommodations and did not
think the city fully comprehended the heightened levels of congestion that will
accompany such increased residential densities... The greenery added in the
revised design upset attending community members more than appeased them
because it is not publicly accessible."
Toderian replied that some people were happy that private greenery
was added because it took pressure off public park space in the area.
Claudia Laroye,
director of the Marpole Business Association and a
Safeway project supporter, partially echoed the report. "This recent
flurry of activity, after 30 years of very little or no major development, has
caught many citizens off guard, and has made many people apprehensive about the
future possible changes to the Marpole
community," she wrote to the Courier. "It is clear that there is a
need for greater and more intensive public discourse, community engagement, and
balancing the needs of all stakeholder groups."
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