Professor Patrick Condon was one of the keynote speakers at a forum on Densification Options in Grandview-Woodland held on September 10, 2014. The forum was well attended and there was a lively discussion about city planning, housing, transit and human scale architecture.
The second speaker, Richard Wozny shared his insights as a consultant to the real estate industry, to investors and to the governments. Wozny emphasized the role of infrastructure in shaping cities and future development. He noted that there’s a desire to “extract value” from infrastructure. This model of development may or may not take the form of towers clustered around major transit nodes.
Condon used the example of several European cities to illustrate that there are ways to spread density more evenly, and to integrate with the existing infrastructure. He notes that Vancouver is originally organized around the concept of a streetcar city, and he makes a compelling case for improving transit along key arterial roads. He maintains that this is a much better way to spend $3 billion than building a subway to UBC.
The full HD video of Professor Condon’s presentation is below (click on full screen mode to read the integrated slides):
The event was organized by the Grandview-Woodland local group Our Community, Our Plan (OCOP). This group of concerned citizens is keeping a close watch on the City’s ongoing plan for their neighbourhood. The introduction by Jak King outlines a number of key issues for local residents and there is an overview of the timeline for the current planning process:
In addition to residents of Grandview-Woodland and other Vancouver neighbourhoods, there were representatives from the Green Party, COPE and the Cedar Party.
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