The Casa Mia public hearing won’t take place until sometime in 2015. A hearing date was set for March 13, but it was postponed the night before because “staff and the applicant were unable to finalize the legal agreement securing heritage in time for the public hearing.”
Brian Jackson, the city’s manager of planning and development, said now it won’t happen until next year.
“As we’ve explained to the residents previously, the delay is as a result of the negotiations associated with the Heritage Restoration Agreement (HRA). The negotiations have taken so long because this is an unusual circumstance,” Jackson told the Courier in an emailed statement.
“Usually, when we negotiate an HRA it is to protect the outside of the building. In this case, the applicant will not only be preserving a significant component of the inside of the building, but the public will be able to access the main floor of the old house. This hasn’t been done before and so we are working with the applicant to balance the needs of the care facility with the desire to have public access to the main floor of the interior, so all residents of Vancouver can experience this amazing heritage resource.”
The Care Group wants the Casa Mia site at 1920 Southwest Marine Dr. rezoned from single-family residential to comprehensive development so it can build a care facility on the property. The Spanish Revival-style heritage home, designed by architect Ross Anthony Lort, was built in 1932 for George Reifel, a liquor magnate and rumrunner during the Prohibition era. The 20,700-square-foot mansion includes a ballroom where Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Count Basie performed.
The development proposal, submitted on behalf of the Care Group by Stuart Howard Architects, would save the house and designate the exterior, while an addition would be built. The facility would house 62 beds — less than an earlier proposal for 92 beds. The building height for the addition is lower than initially proposed.
The Southlands Community Association, which is critical of the project, is fed up with the delays, arguing it means the community will have had no access to council for at least 11 months, if not more.
The group had also filed a Freedom of Information request about the development proposal in 2013, but the city asked for a 30-day extension last February, followed by a request for a 120-day extension in March. The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner issued a deadline of July 14, according to the association, but the city missed that deadline and indicated it won’t respond to the FOI until Aug. 20.
Joe McDermid, a spokesperson for Southlands Community Association, said the city shouldn’t be able to ignore deadlines.
The association sent a letter to council and staff Aug. 13 outlining its concerns about Casa Mia, as well as the future neighbourhood, and asked that the hearing be cancelled. If the response to its letter is not “productive,” the group plans review all other options, including legal action.
McDermid says the association has asked on least four occasions to meet with council and staff to talk about a more collaborative approach to planning decisions about the neighbourhood, but it either doesn’t get a response or if it does, the answer is simply there’s a pending public hearing so the matter can’t be discussed.
McDermid says their concerns aren’t just about Casa Mia — they’re also about other heritage estates along Southwest Marine Drive, which are vulnerable to development. He said if the city can’t talk about Casa Mia, it should be able to talk about what else is happening in the community.
“We’re just completely disenfranchised, completely ignored. And I know we’re not the only community in the city by far that feels that way, but certainly that’s how we feel about it at this point. There’s just no consultation process.”
