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Veronica Yakoleff's avatar

Mr. Palmquist,

For the City Council sessions (July 6 & 22), I sent in a comment in which I noted that the Vancouver Plan does not indicate "Cambie Village" on any of their maps.

Cambie Village, as defined and described in Section 4.1 (pages 38 through 47) in the Cambie Corridor Plan (May 2018), extends along Cambie from 16th to 25th (King Edward Avenue).

In an email (which failed to go through), I attempted to send three screenshots taken of pages 38, 40, and 44 of the CCP document. Because I could not attach them to this comment, I simply refer you to those pages in the CCP document. Please note that, for the apartment buildings that line Cambie between 19th and 24th Avenues, the CCP states the following:

The existing RM-3A zoning will be retained to preserve this stable rental housing.

The proponents of the Vancouver Plan either are ignorant of, or chose to ignore, what is in this City document.

If Council or Staff members are ignorant of the contents of the CCP, then they should be alerted to this discrepancy (as I attempted to do in my comment to Council).

If Council or Staff members chose to ignore the contents of the CCP, then when can residents rely on any City-issued document?

Thank you.

Regards,

Veronica Yakoleff

• Member of the Riley Park—South Cambie Community Group

• South Cambie Resident (Renter at 21st and Cambie)

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Brian Palmquist's avatar

Veronica, thanks for your diligent pursuit of this situation. My son used to live along Cambie, around 23rd, so I am personally familiar with the area. A few comments, if I may:

1. The Vancouver Plan's relationship to the Cambie Corridor Plan is unclear. Notwithstanding that the CCP is fairly recent, the Broadway Plan has repealed even more recent work in Mount Pleasant, so the CCP cannot be relied on going forward; the Broadway Plan changes much of the pre-existing Mt. Pleasant plans, much to the chagrin of neighbourhood residents.

2. The recent practice of the planning department has been to set aside at their sole discretion community work such as in Marpole, Kits, Fairview, South Granville & Mount Pleasant (so far), in favour of their own new work supported not by neighbourhood liaison or consultation, rather by surveys of unknown provenance which purport to support significant changes from previous community-based documents. That's what the Vancouver Plan (VP) is.

3. The VP establishes most of Cambie between 16th & 25th as a Rapid Transit Area—the exact boundaries are vague, smudgy colour changes. The VP describes this as " Low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise multi-unit buildings generally up to 12–18 storeys. 25+ storeys in strategic locations. Corridor: 35-80 Jobs + People/hectare Station Area: 60-350 Jobs + People/hectare."

I am sad to say, at the moment, #3 is the future of the area you are talking about. The only way to avoid such a future will be to change municipal government on October 15th. TEAM Mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick is the only Councillor who voted against the Vancouver Plan. Those running under the TEAM banner for Mayor and Council agree with the need to base community change on community consultation. TEAM is the only political party that has said that if elected, it will repeal the Vancouver Plan (and the Broadway Plan).

As to your concluding question about trusting city-issued documents, my answer would be "you can trust the documents when you can trust who's issuing them."

Take care, stay safe and thanks for reading.

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Marie Cocking's avatar

I appreciate your analysis - can't get this level of detail anywhere else, certainly not from media. Question, however. You urge support for TEAM Vancouver in the municipal election. You say that TEAM will not carry through with the Broadway or Vancouver Plans. What would TEAM do instead, to address housing affordability and climate change?

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Brian Palmquist's avatar

great questions, Marie. TEAM's affordable housing policy directions are at https://www.voteteam.ca/affordable-housing and climate info at https://www.voteteam.ca/climate-emergency . Let me know if that helps, and thanks for reading.

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Raz's avatar

Thank you for your insights and detailed analysis.

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Brian Palmquist's avatar

Thanks! What neighbourhood do you live on, so I can make sure I cover it sooner rather than later

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Raz's avatar

Point Grey!

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Brian Palmquist's avatar

and thank you for your kind words of support

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