Embrace, Enhance and Evolve KitsPlan
City Conversation #127: KitsPlan is Vancouver citizens doing what their city government refuses to
KitsPlan slogan - words by Larry Benge
“It’s been at least five years since Vancouver city government had a meaningful face to face meeting with citizens where they entertained questions and listened to our thoughts, concerns and recommendations.”
Our spontaneous organizing group was in the final throes of planning Thursday’s sold out KitsPlan neighbourhood Town Hall, following on the heels of our initial meeting two weeks ago. The $600 venue fee was paid by CityHallWatch’s Randy Helten, reimbursed by donations at the event—no government grants sought.
I’m not sure which of us made the comment above, but it sure gave us pause. None of us could remember when the last meaningful meeting between the general public and city staff or management took place, but we all knew it was well before COVID.
In the past several years, Vancouver has moved to the following dystopian public engagement process:
Citywide plans such as the Vancouver Plan (destined to become Vancouver’s Official Community Plan or OCP1) move forward inexorably with staff-curated Zoom meetings, ShapeYourCity.ca Q&A sessions and surveys open to the world, with equal weight given to city residents and folks who live anywhere else in the world but might like to someday live in Vancouver2;
Area Plans (also known as Official Development Plans or ODPs) for areas such as the Cambie Corridor, the Jericho Lands, the Heather Lands and Skeena Terrace move forward similarly, but include in-person input from project proponents and the real estate industry but few others3;
Individual rezonings are submitted to staff, sometimes years before they become public knowledge4. The immediate neighbourhoods—typically a two block radius— are notified as little as ten days before a public hearing. CityHallWatch reviews many rezoning proposals and finds them replete with serious errors—e.g., a current high-rise proposal on the border between Kitsilano and Fairview will shade the only new park contemplated by Council in the past decade, contrary to the Broadway Plan policies that apparently allow it to be 21 storeys of view-rich strata development;
At these public hearings, sometimes with several major projects on one evening, the actual public are discouraged from attending and speaking by airport-style security frisking, a three-minute time limit on public presentations and a prohibition from Council members asking any questions of public presenters.
In addition, recent provincial government legislation5 ends all public hearings that are consistent with an OCP (Vancouver Plan, which includes all the Area Plans noted above), unless an applicant seeks more than the maximum development permitted.
There are other public disengagement tactics at play, but these are the key ones that are destroying our democracy and will destroy our city. In summary, citizens are not informed, not listened to at Council and ignored by staff and Council when they point out the most basic errors in applications. There are no face-to-face meetings6 or presentations and all communications such as Q&As and surveys are curated by staff, such that it may be reported to Council that “some residents (80% for Jericho) oppose the proposal, but some others (20%) think it’s good or really good,” without telling Council the actual percentages.
How to oppose this madness? How to inject hope, thoughtfulness and neighbourhood expertise into the planning and development processes?
KitsPlan is one answer for Kitsilano. The Thursday meeting combined basic presentation of the challenges with possible solutions, all in a community town hall where each affected portion of the large Kits neighbourhood had its own table to engage with the ‘hood and collect contact information from people7. If you are interested but missed the meeting, here is the link to a recording of the evening. There are enough experienced, talented and passionate players already involved that we are comfortable we will be able to facilitate the creation of plans that will enable growth without sacrificing what makes every city neighbourhood unique and precious. But we need broad neighbourhood participation to make it all work.
Since the Broadway Plan was adopted 20 months ago, there have been 61 high-rise proposals in the affected Kits, Fairview and Mount Pleasant neighbourhoods8.
Another way forward is for every concerned Vancouverite to let us know whenever you see such activity. We will check it out9, tell you what we find and keep you apprised of its status. The City typically only tells citizens in a two block radius and at the last possible moment about proposals. As you walk your dog, or stroll with friends, tell us what you find. Best is a photo of the sales sign, the survey markers or the site sign.
A typical rezoning sign, photo courtesy of CityHallWatch
This is guerrilla resistance. Did I ever think this would be necessary to prevent the destruction of my city? Never. Do I think we have been left no other ways? Yes, I do for the moment.
The End of the Beginning? How to move forward?
Embrace new neighbours who choose to live and work in Vancouver and Kitsilano rather than simply investing;
Enhance the neighbourhoods we live in and make them better by adding thoughtfully planned density that enriches the community; and
Evolve Kitsilano and every other Vancouver neighbourhood by either participating in KitsPlan or future citizen planning in your neighbourhood.
Kits Kount numbers
With a lot of background work by colleague Stephen Bohus, I have started tracking Broadway Plan related developments in the three affected neighbourhoods. I will update them as I receive new information, and append any updates to future CCs regardless of their other content. Herewith the latest Kitsilano numbers:
Kits Kount—10 Broadway Plan projects identified so far
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Brian Palmquist is a Vancouver-based architect, building envelope and building code consultant and LEED Accredited Professional (the first green building system). He is semi-retired, still teaching, writing and consulting a bit, but not beholden to any client or city hall. These conversations mix real discussion with research and observations based on a 45+ year career including the planning, design and construction of almost every type and scale of project. He is the author of the Amazon best seller and AIBC Construction Administration course text, “An Architect’s Guide to Construction.” and hoping to start in 2024 a book about how we can accommodate a growing population in the cities we love.
Council has yet to make the Vancouver Plan our OCP, but as all neighbourhood plans have been repealed, it seems highly probable—and soon.
Lest this sound alarmist, know that many engaged citizens were unable to participate in city staff organized Zoom meetings, but there always seemed room for folks from away.
We are advised some of these area plans have included consultation with DEI, First Nations and other groups, which is laudable—everybody but the affected neighbours.
If you visit the city’s ShapeYourCity.ca, when a project appears on their site, it usually includes a date when the submission was first made, so easy to calculate.
Bills 44, 46 and 47 were introduced and passed in November 2023.
To be clear, there have been a few face to face meetings with the public around each of various major initiatives. I’ve attended a few (Vancouver Plan, Broadway Plan, Multiplex zoning) and found the vast majority of staff present has no knowledge of or briefing about the subject matter—and they never have notebooks to record citizen questions of comments.
City staff and management were invited, but declined; some developers active in the neighbourhood were invited, but declined.
A journalist whose writing and objectivity I admire contacted me just before the meeting, noting that the 61 Broadway Plan high-rise projects we have identified so far (see also CC #125) were somewhat more than the 36 that city staff advised. Our larger number includes: formal proposals on ShapeYourCity.ca (SYC)—I suspect that’s where the 36 come from; projects announced through real estate media but not yet on SYC, for whatever reason; and—this is most important—projects identified by ordinary citizens based on sales signs, survey markers, building grades and similar indicators.
May involve a drive by visit.
Brian,
This is a helpful summary of the woes of the last five years of COV policy to Not involve citizens in Kitsilano (and other established neighborhoods) by Not providing meaningful information or a meaningful process to consider neighborhoods' and experts' opinions on zoning and development. You should be including the arbitrary, discretionary decision by COV to make all decisions in secret and to Not disclose pertinent information to citizens on Canada's most dense development, Senakw.
In the the Arbutus Walk area, I sat on a bench this afternoon next to a grandmother with a white cane. She knew that I had a baby with me, which sparked a conversation. She told me a bit about herself: From a now-shuttered mining town in the far north, she started her career as a librarian in Toronto but found herself lost in that big city after growing up in a place where the whole town was family. Why Vancouver, I asked? How did you make yourself a home here? She told me that Vancouver has neighborhoods, and that has made all the difference for her over the years. Thanks for your work - Brian and all the other speakers and neighbors - at the meeting last week.