Eileen Mosca uses words like bitterness and anger to describe sentiment about the Grandview-Woodland Community Plan. The city released a draft of the plan in early June creating a furor among residents concerned about subjects such as the prospect of towers around Broadway and Commercial — the Safeway site is envisioned for a tower up to 36 storeys, with other locations cited for future highrises between 22 to 28 storeys in the surrounding area.
Once adopted, the area plan will guide growth and change in Grandview-Woodland over the next 30 years.
Mosca, who's lived in Grandview-Woodland for more than three decades, has attended most of the workshops and open houses for the community plan.
The draft plan presented to the community includes some elements that were never discussed nor endorsed by community members who participated. Although there are some good elements included, the red flag items — 36 storeys at Broadway and Commercial, for example — are so egregious that people generally feel betrayed, she told the Courier.
The Grandview-Woodland Area Council is hosting a public meeting at 7 p.m., July 8, at Eastside Family Place (1655 William St.) to discuss the plan. It's also launched a petition at change.org, arguing the land use rezoning proposals in the draft document and map were never discussed in any workshops or open houses. The petition demands that consultation be expanded by at least six months.
The city has scheduled an additional workshop, specifically about plans for the Broadway and Commercial area, from 10 to 2 p.m. July 6. Spaces are limited and participants must sign up.
Matt Shillito, the city's assistant director of community planning, said the Grandview-Woodland draft document centres on zones where different heights might go rather than specific buildings at this point. City and regional policy is to locate higher density around transit.
Shillito said discussions about the Commercial-Broadway area of the Grandview-Woodland community plan, including the terms of reference, identified it as a higher density area.
"But I think the form of that and the scale of that, when we declared that as an emerging direction, has come as a surprise to people," he said.
When asked why it would come as a surprise to people who've been participating in workshops and open houses, he said: "Because it's not until you get the specifics of what we mean by higher-density development, and what form it might take at this emerging direction stage, that people understand what that might involve."
Shillito said one of the ways the city is trying to keep people engaged is through Saturday's workshop, which aims to explore different ways to deliver high-density development around the transit zone. We've heard very clearly from the community that there's a particular sensitivity around height or the number or the extent of the area suggested for tower forms of development," he said. "In response to that, we're going to explore with the community different forms of development that would achieve an appropriate density for this regionally important transit hub with different forms and different heights."
Shillito said there are opportunities to make changes to various aspects of the emerging directions. While the workshop on July 6 is focused on the Commercial-Broadway area, the city is also looking at feedback it's received on other aspects of the plan.
Residents have raised concerns about the idea of extending townhouse forms of development to the west of Nanaimo, around parks such as Garden Park, and about some of the development along Hastings Street. The city has extended the comment period on the draft plan to Aug. 2.
Mosca said the bitterness and anger she's hearing comes from people who bought into the community plan process and took hours out of their personal time to show up to meetings only to discover their input is not reflected in the city's response.
"Personally, after all these years, I am a bit of a cynic about these things. And although I fully subscribe to the theory that you have to get involved with civic processes that affect your neighbourhood, and I am delighted when getting involved can actually work, I am never really surprised when the mantra of civic engagement is used as a smokescreen for what is really going on. That is, the powers that be going ahead with whatever they were planning to do in the first place."
noconnor@vancourier.com
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