Work on a plan that will guide redevelopment of the new St. Paul’s Hospital and health-care site gets underway at a City of Vancouver open house March 8.
The public meeting launches a process that will culminate in a policy statement for the 18.5-acre Station Street property. City staff will introduce the broad principles for the site around issues such as transportation access, emergency preparedness and urban design, and participants will learn how than can provide input.
Although it’s a city-led process, staff from Providence Health Care, which runs St. Paul’s, will be on hand to explain the vision for the redevelopment, to listen to comments and gather feedback, according to spokesperson Shaf Hussain.
Providence is also in the midst of a parallel process involving health care delivery for the new St. Paul’s. It’s already held several community forums and three more are scheduled for March.
When Providence announced last April that St. Paul’s would move from Burrard Street to False Creek Flats, it released a preliminary rendering but that was meant to be an early concept “to get people thinking,” according to Kevin McNaney, the city’s assistant director of planning for the downtown region.
“We haven’t landed on a basic structure in terms of roads or what’s going to occur on the site in general in terms of form or heights and all that,” he said. “That’s what we’re working through over the next six months essentially, with the community.”
The site can’t have residential use, but it can have a mixture of non-residential uses such as the hospital or hotels for patients’ families, research or other medical facilities or doctors’ offices.
“Anything non-residential can be considered on the site. We have talked about having medical residential care — thinking of the elderly or addictions [services] or longer-term care. That’s something we can consider on the site as well,” McNaney said.
Heights across the site are limited to between 150 and 200 feet, which translates roughly to between 10 to 12 storeys.
“But we haven’t landed on where they need height or if they need height on the site,” McNaney said. “It’s still very early in the planning process.”
McNaney said the city will consult with residents in the area, including those from Strathcona, Chinatown, Mount Pleasant, CityGate and the north area of False Creek, as well as the broader public such as low income residents in the Downtown Eastside, Chinese seniors and others interested in the hospital plans.
“This is the chance to really shape [the site], so it’s a very exciting time,” he said.
“The biggest issue now they’re grappling with is what they need to provide in terms of medical facilities on the site, which they’re working through with their clinical planning process. Then, we have to see what that means physically on the site and, of course, that site needs a careful look for things like sea level rise, seismic safety — all those are going to have to be considered right up front in order to make that site a success.”
The policy statement must be brought to council by September because Providence needs to go to the provincial government with their business plan and the policy statement by October.
McNaney acknowledged it’s a tight schedule.
“It is fast, but because the False Creek Flats plan has advanced the conversation so much over the last number of years in the area, it does give us the opportunity to move a little bit more quickly because we know the relationship between this site and the broader area,” he said.
As the planning moves forward, city staff will work with Providence staff to develop several options for the site and bring that information back to the public for feedback, after which a preferred option will be selected and eventually finalized in the policy statement.
Once council adopts a policy statement, Providence can file a rezoning application. That process will also include public consultation.
The goal is to open the hospital by 2023. The cost for the hospital and health-care facility is estimated at $1.2 billion. The provincial government has already committed $500 million towards the project. Providence will leverage some of its land — it owns the current St. Paul’s site and other sites around the city — to cover the bulk of the remaining $700 million, while also raising some funds from donors through St. Paul’s Foundation.
The open house runs from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Creekside Community Recreation Centre at 1 Athletes Way, March 8.
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