What Vancouver can do about Planning
City Conversation #72: A neighbourhood-based approach has added community benefits
August 20th—sixth in a series of eight conversations about homelessness, housing insecurity, affordability and planning.
Pot shop or Neighbourhood Planning Office—time to choose
“So what are the neighbourhood planning offices you mentioned previously, and how will they support the homeless and, presumably, others needing support and assistance?” We were continuing our conversation about what Vancouver can do about its many issues.
“There are currently 23 officially recognized neighbourhoods in the city,” I started. “There is talk that the real number is 50, but let’s just assume we have 23 to consider for the moment.” He shrugged his whatever you say shrug, so I carried on.
“Up until about a decade ago, when it seems everything moved to the city hall fortress, there were several urban design studios scattered about the city, mostly in storefronts. We need to bring those back with a vengeance, and beef them up with additional services.” He gave me his please proceed look so I did.
“As a foundational principle, each of Vancouver’s neighbourhoods should have its own storefront planning office, with permanent assigned staff to assist with neighbours’ upgrading, addition, renovation and replacement projects.”
“What exactly does that mean?” he asked.
“It means that whether you are a homeowner wanting to build or renovate at any scale from new deck to secondary suite to laneway home or duplex, you should be able to get the guidance you need at the planning studio in your neighbourhood. There should be permanently assigned staff there who can help with the details, provide planning and design advice, interpret the zoning and building bylaws—basically everything you need to make an application.”
“Sounds logical,” he added, “but when an applicant is then ready to apply for permits, aren’t they then at the back of the same long line for reviews and approvals?” I smiled at his thoughtfulness.
“Not if that same neighbourhood planning office is able to process and issue permits for these more straightforward improvements—it’s really not rocket science!” I explained. “And if a particular neighbourhood office got too busy, then and only then would the call go out for assistance from other, less busy neighbourhood offices. Believe me, in today’s technological world where complex building designs are created without the design team hardly ever meeting face to face, this is not that difficult! The foundational principle is that each neighbourhood team will be expected to resolve as many local issues as possible internally.”
“Remembering that we want services to be as much as possible in the neighbourhoods, our foundational principle around that would be that each of the neighbourhood planning offices should also include an assigned supportive team, trained to deal with urgent needs related to mental health, as well as staff trained and tasked with assisting with tenant needs.”
“What about the bigger projects in a neighbourhood, the ones that conform to existing zoning and stand a better chance of creating a bunch of homes, rather than adding in ones or twos?”
I responded after a moment to collect my thoughts. “It’s always bugged me that the design for, say, a four storey building, three storeys residential atop ground level commercial, or four to six storeys straight up residential, for example, needs to go through a detailed planning and building review at city hall.”
He interjected, “How else can citizens be assured that proposed projects conform, are safe, meet design guidelines, etc?”
“Remember my architect’s mantra, registered professionals, including architects and engineers, have perpetual, personal, unlimited liability for everything they design and an overarching requirement to protect the public.” He nodded, eyes rolling at the phrase he’s heard way too often. I pressed on.
“What really gets me is the huge delays associated with a city staffer who’s never seen my project before and has less education and experience than me, all of a sudden having to analyze it for conformance to planning and building bylaws, something I’ve had to do already before making my submission.” He nodded understanding.
“Given that planning and design professionals have this unlimited responsibility, why on earth don’t we just accept it?” He looked puzzled so I carried on.
“If an architect/engineer team presents a proposal with signed and sealed drawings, that already means they are assuring it meets all standards, codes and bylaws. Why not just hand over the permit?” He looked nonplussed, responded hesitantly.
“Are you seriously suggesting that city hall should not review designs prepared by registered professionals?”
“Exactly,” I answered. “In fact, the Vancouver Charter essentially holds all city staff harmless if they make a mistake, and there is no redress against them. But there is with professionals, so the public, and clients, are better protected with the professionals’ seals than by anything city hall does or doesn’t do.”
“Let’s back up for a moment,” he suggested. “I know you’re a Certified Professional (CP) and Building Envelope Professional (BEP) in addition to being an Architect, and you’ve told me of occasions where you’ve caught the design professionals making mistakes—how do we avoid that becoming rampant if there are no city checks?”
“You’ve perhaps forgotten I was also a Quality Director for a large construction company for several years. What I learned there were many principles of quality assurance, one of which is the importance of independent checking of work.” He waited for me to continue.
“The architectural profession in BC has not yet created a quality assurance system, although BC engineers have, possibly because, at least for structural engineers, if there is a design flaw, buildings may collapse. For the architects, there has been less incentive to improve,” I said with a frown. He nodded at the memory of my story about the Save on Foods building collapse that led to some rudimentary quality assurance improvements that remain in place in BC and Alberta.
“If city hall said to the registered professionals, “show us a quality assurance system and bring us signed/sealed documents and we will give you your permit,” I would bet everyone would have such a system developed on an urgent basis. And anyone not subscribing to it would soon find that, being at the back of the city hall lines, their clients would be taking their business elsewhere.”
I continued, anticipating his objections. “Just as now, most larger projects include CPs and BEPs as quality assurance guarantors, going forward most clients and architects would continue to use those specialized registered professionals as part of a comprehensive quality assurance program.”
“So,” I concluded, “the foundational principle here is that proposed buildings presented with application documents signed/sealed by registered professionals would be granted an immediate permit.”
He paused, mouth working but no sounds forthcoming. “I have no arguments against that. But you’ve not mentioned how the neighbourhood offices would support the homeless and those suffering housing insecurity. What’s that about?”
The Time for Action is Here and Now
The additional two What Vancouver can do about… conversations that follow are my continuing take on actionable homelessness, housing insecurity, neighbourhood planning and related policies that our next civic government should focus on—what we can actually achieve versus what we might aspire to (and waste taxpayer money on). They may or may not be the detailed policies of any civic party, but are most closely aligned to TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.
Vancouver’s civic election is October 15th of this year. Lots more damage can still be done to our city before that date—and it will continue, and worsen, unless TEAM elects the next Mayor and a majority (6 of 10) City Councillors—less than 6 and not much will change for the better. If you are concerned that the City Conversations you’ve been reading are examples of what’s wrong with our city, feel some affinity to my What Vancouver can do about… conversations and want to bring back Vancouver’s livability, join TEAM and work with us to restore Vancouver as a place we can all afford to call home.
And please let me know what other subjects you are passionate about so we can have that conversation before election day, October 15th.
Today’s questions: Do you think these foundational principles can work? Are they worth trying? What aspects do you like/dislike? Where do you think I have missed or hit the mark?
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I am a Vancouver-based architect, building envelope and building code consultant and LEED Accredited Professional (the first green building system). I am semi-retired for the moment, still teaching and writing, so not beholden to any client or city hall. City Conversations mix real discussion with research and observations based on my 40+ year career including the planning, design and construction of almost every type and scale of project. I am the author of the award winning Amazon best seller “An Architect’s Guide to Construction.” I am also a member of TEAM for a livable Vancouver, a new political party dedicated to restoring a livable Vancouver starting with the 2022 civic election. Although I am not a candidate for TEAM or any other civic party, City Conversations are generally congruent with TEAM policy, so if you like the ideas that I’m writing about, please consider joining TEAM.
I find this really disturbing.
“In fact, the Vancouver Charter essentially holds all city staff harmless if they make a mistake, and there is no redress against them. But there is with professionals, so the public, and clients, are better protected with the professionals’ seals than by anything city hall does or doesn’t do.”
Especially, since the so called chief planner says that it is junior entry level staff having to deal with such important things? Did she not say that at that "interesting"Grandview meet&greet? :-)
Israel has such a system. The Yemin Moshe neighbourhood in Jerusalem is a good example. They have an office with a design professional available, all plans, models, and a way for neighbours to make suggestions regarding any changes or developments.