Discussions about Grandview-Woodland’s community plan are well underway through the two-month-old citizens’ assembly, which is hosting a public roundtable about its work to date between 7 and 9 p.m., Nov. 26.
The citizens’ assembly’s effort is being complemented by city-run sub-area workshops that are open to the public. The first of the seven workshops, which focuses on the Cedar Cove neighbourhood, takes place Nov. 29.
The 48-member assembly began meeting near the end of September. Its job is to develop recommendations for the neighbourhood’s community plan and submit a report to city council next June. Feedback from the sub-area workshops will be included.
Members of assembly wrapped up the “learning phase” of job at their meeting last Saturday (Nov. 22), and are moving into the second of three phases in December, which involves discussing issues and options.
Rachel Magnusson, the assembly’s chair, said the learning phase was designed to give members a broad overview of planning topics such as housing and transportation, as well as to hear from community stakeholders and organizations.
“Starting in December, we’re switching to our second phase, which will be drilling down into what are the actual options and what directions do we want to head,” Magnusson said.
At the Nov. 26 public roundtable, the citizens’ assembly will present a draft set of values for discussion.
“The idea with that is the assembly has been working on a set of values to guide change in Grandview-Woodland and they’re going to be taking those out and getting feedback on them and also hear from community members what they’d like [the citizens’ assembly] to address in their final report,” explained Magnusson. The event is free and would-be participants can register at grandview-woodland.ca.
The City of Vancouver, meanwhile, is preparing for its Nov. 29 workshop dealing with the Cedar Cove sub-area, which is located north of Hastings Street between Clark Drive and Kamloops Street. (Sign up at vancouver.ca/gw)
Participants at the full-day event will look at the policies that were developed for the area, as well as the community feedback that was received, and refine the directions for the sub-area.
“Overall, the purpose of the sub-area workshops is to get input from the local community on the values, the vision and the options. And all of this feeds into the broader process involving the citizens’ assembly,” explained Susan Haid, the city’s assistant director of planning for Vancouver South, who’s filling in for Kent Munro who’s responsible for Grandview-Woodland.
Cedar Cove, which is a historic place name, encompasses a residential area and apartment zone, light industrial and heavy manufacturing.
City planner Andrew Pask said the workshop will involve a series of exercises that allow participants to look at issues such as character, housing, public space, built form and local economy.
“The starting point for the workshop is the emerging directions. We produced some ideas last July and [it’s about] how we can look at those again, how we can deal with the commentary that we received, advance the conversation and refine those directions and produce something tighter and more complete,” he said.
A second sub-area workshop dealing with Britannia-Woodland is set for Dec. 6. There will be two more workshops in January and another three in February. The assembly will also host more public roundtables.
Organizers for both the Grandview-Woodland citizens’ assembly and the city-run workshops encourage those interested to register because it helps with planning the events. More details are on the city’s website on the Grandview-Woodland Community Plan page.
Note: This story has been updated since first posted
