What’s at stake in the Neighbourhoods

City Conversation #75: the Vancouver Plan does away with neighbourhoods. Here’s what that means

September 1st 2022—First in a series about what the recently approved Vancouver Plan means for each of the city’s 23 existing neighbourhoods. 

The Vancouver Plan with our existing 23 Neighbourhoods superimposed by me in red—why should I have to do that?

“It’s all so very confusing,” mused my son, looking at the muddy Vancouver Plan (the Plan) on my computer screen. “How can anybody make sense of what this means for Vancouverites?”

“I agree,” I responded. “That’s why I plan to dissect what the Plan means for each of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods, hopefully before the upcoming October 15th election.” He continued to look at the Plan diagram and my caption.

“Why have you superimposed the neighbourhood boundaries in red on the map? Isn’t that a natural part of the Plan?”

“You would think so,” I answered. “But although the Vancouver Plan’s Acknowledgements (pp. 163-4) include thanking every community in the city, including many I know for a fact were completely ignored, the actual Plan eliminates all discussion of the city’s existing 23 neighbourhoods. Instead it proposes just five neighbourhood types and some neighbourhood/village centres.” I showed him Page 55 of the Plan.

He continued. “Why bother reinventing the wheel when we already have 23 existing neighbourhoods—I’m assuming each has its own character—certainly where we live is different than Downtown, the West End, or Southlands, for example?”

“Excellent question,” I said, “but there’s actually no explanation for that swap. Since 23 neighbourhoods are transformed into just five neighbourhood types, I’m guessing the Plan’s creators either got tired of listening to too many annoying citizens, or wanted to experiment with the entire city.” I paused for a moment.

“Actually,” I continued, “I see more devious thinking at work here.” He gave me his continue look so I did.

“By eliminating existing neighbourhoods from the discussion, it becomes much easier to propose changes that, if considered at a neighbourhood level by local residents, would result in major protests and objections—you can’t fight what you can’s see!”

“So how can you help neighbours identify what’s proposed for their ‘hoods (he smiled at his contraction),” he interjected, “and whether that’s good or not?”

I did a bit of mental math. “Well, there are only 45 calendar days until the election. If I do a neighbourhood-based analysis of the Vancouver Plan every second day until then, I should just about be able to fit them all in—phew! What an order! Especially as I am out of town for 10 days in September!”

“What order do you propose tacking them in? Alphabetical? North to south? East to west?”

I paused again to consider. “There are events happening throughout the city before election day—car free days, street festivals and the like. If possible, I’ll tackle this so that citizens can be made aware of what’s at stake for their neighbourhood before an event in their ‘hood.”

“That sounds sensible, if ambitious,” he added. “How do you propose to do this?”

Methodology

“Well, we have two things to work from.” I responded. “The first is the Vancouver Plan itself, all 160+ pages of it. It lays out in somewhat muddy fashion,” I gestured to the overall Plan diagram, “what’s proposed. If I enlarge each neighbourhood’s boundaries and context, I can perhaps make sense of the mud and describe what it really means for that ‘hood’s residents. And of course, I have my secret weapon.” He gave me a what on earth is that look so I continued.

“By now you’re sick and tired of me talking about my Homes for Whom database—you know, the one I developed to include the 380+ spot rezonings started by this Council.” He interrupted me. “I just read today that there have been 287, apparently seven times more than the city average over the past 65 years. That’s more than 100 fewer than your 380+ number—what gives?”

“Great question,” I answered with a smile. “The remaining 100+ have not yet been approved—they’re in the so-called development pipeline, haven’t gone to a public hearing yet.”

He nodded, adding, “So you’re talking about the Jericho Lands, the Broadway Plan, that kind of project.” 

I shook my head. “No, those projects have not even advanced to formal rezoning submissions yet. There are more than 100 other projects for which spot rezoning has been applied for, but they have yet to be considered by Council.” He looked askance so I continued.

“I’ve been tracking those 100+ projects because the Planning Dept. hides them in plain sight, with a separate website for each and ever one. And none of them identifies the neighbourhood affected.”

I continued. “So it works like this: CityHallWatch publishes a monthly list of new rezonings, because city hall doesn’t. I visit each of the new proposal’s website and copy key details like how much housing of what types, when scheduled for public hearing or close of public comment. My database gives me a reminder 3 days before any key date.” I took a breath.

“To further complicate things, the city’s project websites don’t identify which neighbourhood a project is proposed for—goes, I guess, to their thinking about Neighbourhoods.” He raised his eyebrows at that. “So I next visit VanMap, which fortunately still includes neighbourhoods. I search the address and identify the ‘hood in my database.”

“So in this analysis,” I concluded, “I’ll first draw a border around each neighbourhood, like a did on the big diagram. Then I can comment on what the smudgy Plan says about that neighbourhood. I’ll add in a list of the spot rezonings proposed and approved in that neighbourhood—less than 1% of what’s been proposed or approved has actually been built, so I expect there will be many surprises for residents. Then I’ll leave it up to the neighbours to decide what they think of what’s proposed for the place they call home.”

“I’m glad somebody is taking this on,” he said rising to give me one of his patented hugs. “Folks need to know what’s at stake in their neighbourhood.”

The Time for Action will soon be too late

Please let me know what pre-election activities are happening in your neighbourhood—I will try to order my neighbourhood-based analyses to have maximum impact.

 TEAM for a Livable Vancouver is the only political party pledged to set aside the Vancouver Plan and the related Broadway Plan. 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. A majority TEAM Park Board (4 of 7) will ensure our open spaces are integrated with the city rather than ignoring or fighting it. If you are concerned that the City Conversations you’ve been reading are examples of what’s wrong with our city 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 question: Do you like what’s proposed for your neighbourhood? Why or why not? 

I read and respond to all comments made below. If you enjoyed this post, consider becoming a free subscriber to City Conversations at

 

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 for the moment, still teaching and writing, so not beholden to any client or city hall. These conversations mix real discussion with research and observations based on a 40+ 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 “An Architect’s Guide to Construction.” He is 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. City Conversations are generally congruent with TEAM policy, so if you like the ideas that I’m writing about, please consider joining TEAM.