It’s an ambitious plan for a sparkling new stadium that would transform the bleakness of the rail yard it would straddle. On Tuesday, Vancouver city council will decide whether Greg Kerfoot’s idea has any chance of succeeding
Mike Roberts
Province
If backers of the Whitecaps’ proposed stadium can clear the many obstacles they face, the thud of ball against boot and the roar of passionate crowds could become part of the downtown experience. Photograph by : Ric Ernst, The Province
Forget Cirque du Soleil and Bard on the Beach. The best theatre in Vancouver will play out Tuesday evening in council chambers when a pitched battle gets under way to decide the fate of the Whitecaps’ Waterfront Stadium.
The privately funded soccer stadium, which could cost as much as $120 million, would be built on stilts over the CPR rail yards east of Canada Place before 2010.
The 15,000-seat stadium would be an open-roofed facility hosting soccer matches, as well as rugby and tennis tournaments, community festivals and concerts.
If built, it would be the most significant and stunning addition to the city’s foreshore in 20 years. But it would also impact area businesses, traffic and the quality of life of Vancouverites living in the 3,000 residential units within a 350-metre radius of the site.
At the special council meeting Tuesday, Vancouver councillors will vote on a resolution on the Whitecaps’ current proposal for the
4.2-hectare arena site. If they vote “Yes” to this resolution, council will be agreeing to adopt an agenda to move forward with a modified proposal for the site, clearing the way for the necessary zoning application.
But if they vote “No,” that will be the end of the proposal for this site, and the Whitecaps will be forced to look elsewhere for a place to plop their stadium.
Now, you may well ask why the City of Vancouver is taking this particular gift horse to the dentist.
Here’s a local guy — software
multimillionaire Greg Kerfoot — who bought and rescued Vancouver’s flagging soccer team in 2003, and subsequently built a $4-million training centre. A guy now prepared to drop millions on a multi-use
stadium on land he himself owns.
Add to this the $165,000 Kerfoot paid the city for an initial review of his broad-strokes plan, and the fact the parcel in question will one day be developed anyway, and the word that comes to mind is, “Duh?”
Kerfoot may have a grand plan and bottomless pockets, says Larry Beasley, the city’s central-area planner, but that doesn’t buy a rubber stamp from city hall, no matter how “commendable” the project.
“We can’t just casually, just because somebody wants to do something, drop all those worries and concerns and issue a permit,” says Beasley. “That just wouldn’t be prudent.
“This city has never been expedient in the important decisions for our city, and that’s why we have a good city.”
Adds Beasley: “The proposal we have in front of us now, we can’t support.”
City staff have outlined five “fundamental issues” that need to be resolved:
n Provision of an adequate street network for access, emergency exiting and crowd marshalling.
n Resolution of the risks and liability associated with dangerous goods on the train tracks.
n Reconfiguration of the stadium structure/site to ensure a better “fit” with heritage Gastown.
n Resolution of impacts on
livability for residents in the area.
n Resolution of impacts on future port lands development.
Beasley says Kerfoot was warned the stadium proposition was “somewhat of a long shot” and that the concerns of citizens would be taken into account, including those of various Gastown groups expected to be out in force on Tuesday.
“If someone just NIMBY-ism comes in and says, ‘I don’t want it in my back yard!’ that’s not very influential,” explains Beasley. “But if someone comes in and says, ‘Look, I’m worried about noise, I’m worried about loss of business, I’m worried about overviewing and loss of my privacy, I’m worried about loss of views, I’m worried about traffic on my streets and having to close my streets 200 days of the year,’ those issues are tangible, real issues, and there’s no city that would prudently say to several thousand landowners and business people and residents, ‘We’re going to ignore you while we let one citizen do something on their land that affects them all.'”
But the Whitecaps argue the plan to date is little more than “basic renderings” and is completely changeable.
Whitecaps director of soccer operations Bob Lenarduzzi is confident the stadium will fly.
“We’re looking for the green light to move forward and that council make the project a priority,” he said at a flag-waving press conference earlier this week.
“I feel like we know what the obstacles are, what the issues are. All the stakeholders feel the issues can be resolved.”
High-profile supporters joined Lenarduzzi in a show of optimism.
“The stadium we’re talking about is something very vital to us,” said Dr. Godwin Eni, president of the Vancouver Multicultural Society.
“Economically, culturally, it’s obvious, there are too many pluses,” said music mogul Dan Fraser, president of Nettwerk Management.
“You go to the U.K., you see 25 of these stadiums in neighbourhoods and they respect the heritage there. They become part of the community.”
For his part, Beasley says if Kerfoot and his team can solve the problems outlined by the city, “they’re going to find us there wanting to help them make it happen.
“We’re not looking for A+ on everything,” he says. “We’re looking for decently good resolutions.”
© The Vancouver Province 2006