Vancouver’s planning department will grapple with subjects ranging from heritage buildings to policy statements for large parcels of land in 2015.
In a sit-down with the Courier earlier this month, Brian Jackson, the city’s manager of planning and development, outlined priorities for the coming year.
Finding more ways to protect heritage buildings remains a top concern. A series of reports related to the city’s Heritage Action Plan will be brought forward in stages in 2015.
Last June, council approved a one-year prohibition on demolishing pre-1940 homes in the First Shaughnessy District so the city could review the area’s official development plan and determine what steps can be taken to conserve heritage property in the district.
Jackson expects a report on that issue will be brought forward in March or April followed, in June, by recommendations on how to save more of the city’s character homes. In the fall, another report on additional heritage preservation techniques or methods, as well as how to finance them, will be unveiled, along with an update to heritage register — the first update in almost 30 years.
The Grandview-Woodland Citizens’ Assembly continues to attract interest, according to Jackson, who said about 100 people registered for a recent public meeting. After the assembly finishes its report mid-year, city staff will work with the broader community to turn the recommendations into a land use plan. Jackson stressed there’s no target date for the plan’s approval.
“The plan will come forward when it’s ready to come forward. We learned that time crunches can sometimes cause mistakes to be made, and the need to reset that, so we’re hoping people understand that we’re not operating under any time crunch. We will come forward when we believe there is enough consensus for moving forward in Grandview-Woodland,” he said.
Jackson hopes to address complaints from neighbourhood groups about consultation by revisiting plans for consultation on topics such as Northeast False Creek and False Creek Flats.
“In both these areas, we had outlined what the public consultation process was to be. I think it would be useful to have a second look at the type of consultation that we recommended, especially now with the results of the Engaged City Task Force report on innovative ways to reach out to communities and seek a broader input in terms of what we’re recommending,” he said. “So I would recommend that we would perhaps go back on the consultation side and come up with some new ideas. It responds to the concerns of the [Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods], as well as to others.”
A report kicking off phase three of the Cambie corridor plan will come forward in the spring.
“Moving forward from Marpole, we’re going to be looking very carefully at the boundaries of the study area to ensure that we encourage the stability of single-family neighbourhoods, while still looking for some development opportunities on what could be termed the shoulder areas of Cambie,” Jackson said.
A report on False Creek South, addressing the complex matter of what to do with leases that are running out, will be coming forward this spring as well. Jackson called it a “tough nut to crack.”
“This is being led by our real estate and housing staff with planning following,” he said.
Policy statements in the works include ones for Langara Gardens, a 20.8-acre site between 54th and 57th Avenue west of Cambie Street on the southeast edge of the Oakridge neighbourhood, and the TransLink-owned Oakridge Transit Centre (OTC) site, a 13.9-acre property at 949 West 41st.
There’s already been one set of consultations for both Langara Gardens and the OTC site. Staff will go out for another round in the spring, after which they’ll produce draft policy statements that will be released for further feedback.
Policy statements being initiated this year will be for the two sites announced by the federal government that are being transferred to Canada Lands — the RCMP site on Heather Street between West 33rd and 37th avenues and the 52-acre Jericho Lands.
Major development applications in Downtown South are expected in 2015, as well as for the West End. In the West End, the applications are directly as a result of the policies and the community plan council approved, Jackson said.
“And I think you’ll see some very interesting applications coming forward in the DTES to respond to the 60-40 split for affordable housing and rental housing in the DTES,” he added.
Meanwhile, Jackson is optimistic the overall quality of Vancouver architecture will improve.
“Architects are really getting it in terms of quality of buildings. Vancouver has this amazing urban design of streetscapes, buildings that relate well to each other, that relate well to the public street, that relate well to the public spaces, [that relate well to] open spaces and laneways,” he said. “But we don’t have a solid group of really good architecture in the city. I think that is going to be improve, [based on] the type of applications that I’m seeing, in the coming months and years.”
Jackson credits the city’s inaugural Urban Design Awards held in 2014 for helping stimulate architects and landowners into thinking “we really want to do something quite different.”
“So I think we’re really going to see some real head-turning architecture in the city. What I’m seeing on paper is very exciting for what’s coming forward in the future,” he said.
Although Vancouver faces a population growth of between 140,000 and 160,000 in the next 30 years, Jackson stresses that doesn’t mean all of Vancouver is going to be changing.
“The actual amount of the physical land that will be changing in Vancouver is actually a very small percentage of the overall land base,” he said. “I want to reassure people through applications and through policies that there are pockets where there’s going to be redevelopment opportunities, but the vast majority of Vancouver, 10, 20, 30 years from now is going to look exactly the same as it does now.”
noconnor@vancourier.com
