Vancouver now is in a difficult time. The last election was November 2011, and the next one November 2014. Developer-funded Vision Vancouver dominates council, with eight of eleven votes. For the next year or so, expect Council to ram through many community-opposed rezonings and policies. Then the politicians will try to patch and clean up their image in the lead-up to 2014. CityHallWatch is learning of more and more projects being opposed by neighbourhoods– and their voices being ignored. Here is an alert from KARA, Kitsilano Arbutus Residents Association. For background about an unwanted development at the current site of the Ridge Theatre and bowling alley. For background, see OpenFile article.
The moment to act is here! In our backyard we are going to see a building none of us want. UNLESS WE ACT NOW!
All summer we have written letters to Mayor and Council and every City bureaucrat we could think of. We attended the Urban Design Panel meeting in good numbers. Mostly they did everything possible to convince us that nothing could be done. The plans they had made without our input, as if the project stood on bare land with no neighbourhood around, were going ahead no matter what we did. Our heritage bowling alley, Ridge Theatre and family restaurant would all be demolished, expendable for the need for profit for the developer, more important than what we valued.
More than 200 of you came out to two public meetings and 8000 bowlers signed a petition to save the bowling alley.
But now Councillor Adrianne Carr has been denied permission to bring a resolution before Council to support the bowlers and the bowling alley!
By their silence City Councillors and City officials are saying that they don’t care what happens to the bowlers or the bowling alley.
ARE BOWLERS GOING TO ACCEPT THIS WITHOUT PROTEST?
Some of us spoke to the Mayor who said he would look into it.
But nothing has changed!
The proposal is going before the Development Permit Board for decision on October 9:
WHERE: Town Hall Meeting Room, 1st Floor, City Hall (main building)
DATE: Tuesday, October 9
TIME: Meeting begins at 3:00 p.m. If you can’t come for the beginning, come as soon as you can
We have the opportunity to show up, to stand up for our rights as citizens, to insist that the City pay attention to our concerns.
All over the City the developers and the bureaucrats who support them have been riding roughshod over the citizens in any C-2 development.
It may be that they have already given away the farm on the Ridge site:
- contributing City-owned land as a plaza for the building,
- giving back easements signed 50 years ago,
- allowing for extra height for luxury suites overlooking neighbour’s backyards,
- insisting that traffic be directed into the back lane and onto narrow neighbourhood streets,
- letting the bowling alley and Ridge Theatre be demolished by the developer.
However at the Development Permit Board meeting on October 9 we are allowed to speak and tell them what we think.
Let’s show up in numbers that will get their attention! That is the only thing that will get their attention!
Let’s speak up for a development more in keeping with our neighbourhood and the values of the Vision Council that citizens elected.
Let’s not let them get away with it because there are too few of us!
Come out to the meeting!
WHERE: Town Hall Meeting Room, 1st Floor, City Hall (main building)
DATE: Tuesday, October 9
TIME: Meeting begins at 3:00 p.m. If you can’t come for the beginning, come as soon as you can
WE NEED YOU TO COME AND SPEAK. You have 5 minutes to tell the Development Permit Board what you believe they should do to get a better development than the one that is before them.
To pre-register as a speaker call or e-mail Lorna Harvey at 604-873-7469 orlorna.harvey@vancouver.ca
This is your last chance to make a difference to the outcome on this proposal.
Please forward this flyer to others who would be concerned and ask them to come out.
If you need further information, contact me at desgerri [at] direct.ca.
I look forward to seeing you on October 9.
Sincerely,
Desmond Berghofer
(KARA, Kitsilano Arbutus Residents Association)
