It would be hard to underestimate the impact removing the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts will have on the city.
That impact may not be easily appreciated, given the deliberate and slow approach council and city staff have chosen to take with this project. But it will certainly dwarf the most recent Athletes Village development on the south shore of False Creek. And its effect will radiate well beyond the approximately five city blocks these cement structures occupy. This is easily the most significant event since the redevelopment of the Expo 86 lands that ultimately created Yaletown.
Unlike the Expo lands, which were essentially an abandoned industrial strip, a blank slate in a way, those viaducts and their removal have a political and ethical dimension that have formed part of the citys consciousness.
In his introductory note to his report to council this week Brian Jackson, the citys general manager of planning and development, noted: In every citys evolution there are rare opportunities to take bold city-building steps to advance the citys goals and livability or correct a past planning wrong.
That past planning wrong was the desire by the civic administration of the day more than 40 years ago to build a crosstown freeway. As many of you may recall, it would have destroyed the neighbourhoods of Chinatown and adjacent Strathcona. It created such public uproar the project was stopped when the federal government removed its support, but not before the viaducts were built. As a result, Chinatown was fractured, the small black community of Hogans Alley was obliterated and Strathcona was flooded with traffic.
But in the process a new civic group, The Electors Action Movement (TEAM) grew up around that issue to eject and replace the citys long governing business party of the Non-Partisan Association with a more transparent and responsive governance model.
Shirley Chan was a relative youngster back then, campaigning along with her mother to oppose the freeway. This week she appeared before council among the dozens of folks in support of removing the viaducts; she reflected on how Chinatown paid the price, and how the citys plans now will begin a process of healing.
And she expressed her impatience with getting this done: Six years is a long time for someone my age to wait.
When the matter was first raised in 2009 by the person who should be credited as the main driver of this project, Coun. Geoff Meggs, it was openly ridiculed: a wacky idea that would disrupt the flow in commuter traffic.
The break point in opinion inside and outside city hall came in 2011. In a city-sponsored ideas competition, former councillor Jim Green, along with former city planner Larry Beasley and architects Norman Hotson and Margot Long, presented a plan that was popular with the public and the competition judges. They figured out a roadway design that would allow for traffic flow and eliminate the viaducts.
That provided the impetus to task city staff to bring us to the point we were at this week. A turning point as Meggs called it. It took us from the question of if the viaducts should be removed to how and what that would mean in Jacksons words when we eliminate a physical and psychological barrier and erase an urban scar.
The motion to proceed with planning was passed unanimously, which will make it politically bulletproof. If there was one difference, it was whether the removal of the viaducts should be approved in principle. It was not, much to the disappointment of Meggs among the minority on this point. It was felt holding back on that would give the city more bargaining leverage. And there is considerable bargaining to do with developers like Concord Pacific, which is already knocking at the door asking the city for more density in exchange for funds that would help pay for the demolition of the viaducts. Jackson told council: We will not be held to ransom by any developer or agency.
Staff will be back with a plan of action two years from now after extensive consultation with all stakeholders. None of this will be quick. But it is well under way and worth being patient as it moves forward and history is made.
