OPINION I Vancouver council’s revised plan for the last substantial piece of waterfront land available for development is committed to all three aspects of sustainability — social, environmental and economic
Raymond Louie
Sun
CREDIT: Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun Councillor Raymond Louie envisions a vibrant community replacing industrial land at Southeast False Creek
COUNCILLOR, CITY OF VANCOUVER
Walk over the Cambie Street bridge on its west side and 30 years of planning sits right before your eyes. On both sides of False Creek, obsolete industrial areas have been transformed to mixed use, highly liveable neighbourhoods with very different flavours.
On the south side, the city of Vancouver created a new focal point for the city from abandoned industrial land. The South(west) False Creek project includes in equal amounts high, medium and low-income housing, Granville Island Market, Emily Carr College of Art, a community centre, parks and a concrete plant.
On the north side, Concord Pacific’s development on the Expo lands took a different direction, with towers that rise up with the backdrop of the North Shore mountains, a housing mix of 80 per cent market and 20 per cent non-market, community amenities and lively commercial enterprises like Urban Fare.
Both of these developments stand out today as visionary for their time and are a big part of Vancouver‘s reputation for planning excellence and innovation. They set a high bar for city council as it debated the official plan for our city’s next major development.
Southeast False Creek, spanning Cambie to Quebec streets and False Creek to Second Avenue, is the last substantial piece of urban waterfront available for re-development.
With it comes an opportunity to put to work all we’ve learned to create a community that future generations will come to see as even more visionary, liveable and sustainable than its predecessors.
Planning for Southeast False Creek has been going on for about eight years, always with the view to creating a sustainable community. There were repeated public consultations. But after countless meetings, hearings and reviews, citizens, planners, architects and developers were agreed: The conflict between maximizing profit and good planning made it impossible for this project to achieve its full potential.
On Tuesday, Vancouver council approved a revised plan that responds to public demand for a better vision.
This plan will come to life over the next 15 to 20 years, starting with the Olympic village.
What has changed to make this plan so much better than its predecessors? Commitment to all three aspects of sustainability — social, environmental and economic — and a willingness to invest in our future.
All the previous plans envisioned high-rise towers, like those of the north side of False Creek. This form of development has proven popular, but doesn’t fit the south shore. Towers on the south side would form a wall on the water for the neighbourhoods on the slopes above.
The approved plan, on the advice of residents and some of Vancouver‘s top architects, takes on a low to medium rise form of development that fits and respects adjacent neighbourhoods, while maintaining the originally planned density.
The approved plan proposes a mix of housing affordability, one-third low, one-third middle and one-third high income, on the city lands.
This follows in the tradition of the city’s developments at South False Creek and Champlain Heights in the 1970s. The low income sites will be developed using already committed federal and provincial social housing funds. The middle income sites will come through a variety of market mechanisms, such as market rental and modest ownership options, reduced parking requirements and other design adjustments. The end result will be a community accessible to all regardless of income.
All Vancouver’s residents will benefit from an active waterfront with a new street close to the water that will include retail, restaurants and community use, as well as increased wharfs, boardwalks and walk/bikeways. A full-sized community centre and non-motorized recreational boating facility, five childcare centres, and a K-7 school are also planned.
New parks will be created. Pedestrians and bikes are the focus with two east-west bike routes, a connection onto the Ontario Street Greenway and lots of walkways. It is estimated that 60 per cent of trips in SEFC will be by walking, biking or skateboarding.
Heritage buildings like the Salt Building will be retained and creatively reused in their original sites. A green building strategy, LEED Gold standard for city buildings, LEED silver on private lands, and the requirement for all development sites to reduce energy, greenhouse gases, water use and waste and promote urban agriculture are also incorporated.
Citizens have brought forward ideas for social enterprise, a kids’ museum, a multi-faith centre and innovative partnerships with First Nations, all of which are possible under this plan.
All of this will result in one of the most innovative communities in North America from an environmental and socially sustainable perspective. But to be successful, the plan must also be economically sustainable.
To achieve this goal, the city will invest all the expected $50 million return from the development back into enhancing the project instead of putting it into the city’s Property Endowment Fund, or PEF. The PEF includes hard assets of city-owned land and buildings (such as social housing), as well as cash.
At the end of 2003, the total fund sat at $1.2 billion with about $200 to $300 million in cash. It is expected to be much more in 2004 as property values have risen dramatically. The investment in SEFC is a small fraction of the fund’s total value, hardly the gutting forecast by Vancouver Sun columnists and editorialists.
It is also consistent with what previous councils, of all political leanings, have done when they used PEF to develop Champlain Heights, the south side of False Creek or invest in non-market housing.
These expenditures from the PEF will purchase city owned net capital assets, such as the 26 acre park, the 30,000 square foot community centre, 684 much needed childcare spaces. These are amenities that will be used by adults and kids from across the city. As Mayor Campbell asked during the council meeting, how do you put a price tag on a child learning to kayak or a single parent taking a job because she has childcare?
This approach and this plan have been hailed by the community, the architectural profession and even many in the development sector. Of course it has to be financially viable and sustainable. Of course there are risks. And of course, there will be review and refinements as the plan becomes reality over the next 15 to 20 years.
However, SEFC will be a model for how to create a truly sustainable community and will provide benefits to all Vancouverites for generations to come. I call this smart investment and a vision worth supporting.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005