PROPOSAL: Some in favour want their views heard
Andy Ivens
Province
John Kostiuk says the Whitecaps’ proposed soccer stadium for Gastown is getting a raw deal.
The Gastown resident is striking back at the campaign to sink the 15,000-seat stadium with a new website, www.stadiumnow.org.
“I thought it would be good to get the word out that there are people in the neighbourhood [who] are not being represented by the other coalitions and their own business society.”
Lower Mainland and Vancouver residents are strongly in favour of the stadium — scheduled to open 2009 if city council gives the idea a thumbs-up votes in a vote next month.
But among Gastown residents and businesses, surveys reveal a slight edge to the No forces.
The stadium would be funded by Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot, a software multi-millionaire who owns waterfront land east of the proposed stadium.
Kostiuk said, “I think the main organizer for the No side has his own property development interests involved.”
Jon Stovell, spokesman for the Gastown Neighbourhood Coalition, has interest in two properties in the unit-block of Water Street, noted Kostiuk.
“Those buildings back onto Kerfoot’s property,” Kostiuk said. “Various people who are opposed have their own financial interests.”
Stovell, a developer in Gastown who has won awards for his buildings, denied he would gain financially if the stadium proposal fails.
“We should be given other options,” he said.
“If they could find a way to get the stadium farther away and less bulky . . . I believe a stadium could be quite nicely incorporated into the waterfront. But they’re going to have to get together with other property owners and get a larger footprint.”
© The Vancouver Province 2006