Northeast False Creek | Proposed - Page 6

raggedy13 · #**101** Posted **Jun 1, 2009, 6:24 AM**

A False Creek beach would be awesome. People could swim across False Creek to the giant stone steps at the Olympic Village for fun... unless of course the beach had some sort of roped off boundary.

mr.x · #**102** Posted **Jun 1, 2009, 2:21 PM**

^ I don't think the waters of False Creek are swimmable....if that's a word...last i recalled it's a no swimming zone and it's heavily polluted with a ton of bacteria.

s211 · #**103** Posted **Jun 1, 2009, 2:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadian Mind

I'd put a small chunk of change down that any gallery or community development proposal would be scuttled by nimby's defending the quiet creekside ambience under those circumstances.

Quiet... right. Main and Quebec are anything but. For it to be quiet, you'd firstly have to have gone deaf from blasting your iPod.

raggedy13 · #**104** Posted **Jun 1, 2009, 6:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.x

^ I don't think the waters of False Creek are swimmable....if that's a word...last i recalled it's a no swimming zone and it's heavily polluted with a ton of bacteria.

I'm sure it wouldn't be too ideal now but I don't see why it couldn't improve with time as jlousa suggested. I don't think the bacteria thing is a huge issue normally but I remember there being some sort of issue last year with a high coliform count because of some sort of problem with sewage.

EDIT: Found an article from last year...

Quote:

False Creek coliform count soars
Polluted water prompts health authority warning

Nicole Tomlinson, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, July 05, 2008

VANCOUVER - Fecal coliform counts in False Creek are off the scale, prompting Vancouver health officials to issue an unprecedented warning to recreational boaters.

Concentrations of the bacteria are so high that rowers, kayakers and dragon boaters are urged to stay out of the water and avoid False Creek's eastern basin.

Vancouver beaches are normally closed when the coliform bacteria count reaches 200.

At False Creek's eastern basin last month, the average amount was 2,900 per 100 millilitres of water, almost six times higher than any other region monitored by Vancouver Coastal Health, according to data released Thursday.

Sunset Beach, the closest beach to False Creek, is reporting coliform counts of 118 per 100 ml of water.

Three sewer malfunctions near major construction projects, such as the Olympic village and the Canada Line construction, appear to be the main cause of the high counts, said Domenic Losito, VCH's regional director of health protection.

The micro-organism is an indicator of how sanitary the water is. Exposure to high concentrations can lead to infections in the eyes, ears and gastrointestinal tract, he added.

In one incident, a backwater valve that apparently got stuck in the open position on the south side of False Creek at the foot of Columbia Street was "allowing raw sewage into the water" before it was fixed on Friday, he said.
And in mid-June, city crews struggled to fix a sewer "plugged with granular debris or gravel" that may have been "from homeowner or bigger construction dumping," said David Desrochers, manager of sewer design for the City of Vancouver.

"If you look around you see all sorts of construction in the area ... it probably has something to do with it," Desrochers said. "Somehow debris that's heavier than normal got into our sewer system."

Development leading up to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver has put stress on infrastructure and urban aquatic systems, said Hans Schreier, a professor at the University of B.C. who specializes in storm water pollution.

"Construction creates sediment -- developers are supposed to retain it all [with structures such as sediment fences], but that's almost impossible," he said.

"There are also illegal connections -- a developer looks for the nearest pipe, and sometimes it's the storm water pipe and not the sewer pipe, then they just hook the new plumbing in."

Charlie Cuzzetto, director of the False Creek Community Centre, questioned why VCH waited more than a day after releasing the data to advise the public of possible health risks.

"I would issue an advisory as soon as I knew there was a health concern," said Cuzzetto, who informed kayakers at the centre after hearing the news on the radio.

"And you'd like to know it from the sources and not the media."
[email protected]

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

by Nicole Tomlinson, Vancouver Sun
http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news...?id=a82d460d-ec35-4f95-b49f-6c3c6d3ae968

Canadian Mind · #**105** Posted **Jun 1, 2009, 9:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlousa

Even with creekside extension and the new park space in the plan that area will be well below the city's own recommended ratio for park space. I posted the link with the info in it as I didn't have time to summarize it. But here's a direct quote.

So there you have it, I hardly doubt that the park space will be empty with so many people living there, not to mention it's already a destination spot and as false creek gets continuously cleaner people will start using the beach that's planned for the area.

Who is living there presently, and what kind of numbers are planned for the area?

agrant · #**106** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 12:19 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadian Mind

Who is living there presently, and what kind of numbers are planned for the area?

Well there's City Gate, the condo complex beside the Main St. station, and probably some hobos under the viaduct. I believe the planned numbers for the new developments for NEFC was posted a page back. It was something like 7 or 8 thousand. It's somewhere in the document jlousa posted. And remember there are also some areas just south of City Gate, around the McD's and Burger King, but I can't remember what is going in there.

hollywoodnorth · #**107** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 12:30 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadian Mind

Who is living there presently, and what kind of numbers are planned for the area?

maybe if you ummm read the report you would know. population figures for the areas are all included.....

Canadian Mind · #**108** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 1:01 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by s211

Quiet... right. Main and Quebec are anything but. For it to be quiet, you'd firstly have to have gone deaf from blasting your iPod.

Anything can happen. people moved down by the harbour expecting it to be quiet, only to bitch about the floatplanes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

maybe if you ummm read the report you would know. population figures for the areas are all included.....

I'll look it over in more detail, only ever really took the time to glance it over.

Agrant, if one were to include pop. figures from down by Mc-dicks, thats a bit of a trek to the west side of the proposed creekside park expansion, and are they not already served by the current park? And how busy is that park? I haven't taken a walk around science world since the last time I was in Vancouver, and thanks to all the snow the area was dead.

jlousa · #**109** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 1:34 AM**

The current creek side park is always busy on a sunny day, the expansion would make it even busier as it would be a more inviting place as opposed to the current abrupt end into pavement. The park will also have thousands of people walking thru it daily from SEFC and surrounding areas heading downtown and back again either walking or biking.
The water levels are expected to improve significantly once construction ends, of course that's probably close to a 10yr period. The levels should be similar to sunset beach with closures happening every now and again but not the norm.

Canadian Mind · #**110** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 2:30 AM**

Again reverting to winter, partially because of the snowstorm I arrived too, is there any plans for winter use should the weather become balmier than normal, say semi-permanent covered walkways along shoreline (can be dissasembled for spring summer and fall)?

agrant · #**111** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 3:38 PM**

FYI. While I was doing some half assed research, I discovered this Facebook group.

Keep the Creekside Park Promise

leftside · #**112** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 4:41 PM**

^^^ I just joined

djmk · #**113** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 6:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlousa

Okay the NEFC HLR is starting to wrap up, the project keeps getting larger and larger is size, as it stands now there is a minimum commercial density requirement of 1.8M sqft, and they will allow up to an additional 4.1M sqft of residential space (very safe to assume the max residential will be used up). So that's a total of 6M sqft, with 4300 new units housing 7500 new residents. All the stakeholders plan on proceeding once the review is complete. Concord isn't very happy with some aspects of the plan and has submitted a letter stating it's concerns (pretty valid ones in my opinion). Sounds like Concord has plans drawn up as they expect to move ahead in 2010. Anyways it's been a really long day and I don't have the time to summarize the 47page document, hopefully someone else can do it. Enjoy.

http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20090602/documents/p2.pdf

thats a whole lot of reading.

regarding the parks...

it seems there will be a strip of parks North to South from chinatown (sun yet sen) through Andy Livingston to Creekside and beyond. It would be nice if all these were somehow connected... (ie carral street greenway)

however, i seem to agree with many people here. That really is a lot of park space.

and the water will never be good here. there is nowhere for the yucky stuff to go. once inside false creek, it gets trapped and stays. its not like a regular beach were there are waves to break stuff down or strong rip tides to move it along

agrant · #**114** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 6:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by djmk

thats a whole lot of reading.

regarding the parks...

it seems there will be a strip of parks North to South from chinatown (sun yet sen) through Andy Livingston to Creekside and beyond. It would be nice if all these were somehow connected... (ie carral street greenway)

however, i seem to agree with many people here. That really is a lot of park space.

and the water will never be good here. there is nowhere for the yucky stuff to go. once inside false creek, it gets trapped and stays. its not like a regular beach were there are waves to break stuff down or strong rip tides to move it along

Yet the numbers show different. And I wouldn't call Sun Yat Sen a park - It's more like a little museum you have to pay to get in. Why the resistance to park space?

djmk · #**115** Posted **Jun 4, 2009, 10:36 PM**

Quote:

Vancouver Art Gallery move faces hurdles

Plan to build on shoreline landfill would add significantly to cost of relocation, in a time of difficult fundraising

Frances Bula

Vancouver — From Thursday's Globe and Mail, Thursday, Jun. 04, 2009 03:26AM EDT

The plan to shift the Vancouver Art Gallery to a dramatic new location on the shore of Vancouver's inner False Creek harbour is on shaky ground as reports have revealed that building on the shoreline landfill would add significant costs at a time when arts fundraising is a struggle.

The negative outlook led city councillors to press the gallery this week to confirm whether it's going to abandon the site, while city staff and local developers work on contingency plans for the distinctive area on Vancouver's former Expo lands.

People close to the project say the False Creek location is all but dead for the gallery, because of the landfill issue and other building difficulties, like loading and storage in an area with a high water table that makes going underground almost impossible. That's all on top of a poor climate for raising the money needed for a gallery estimated to cost anywhere from $200-million to $400-million.

“There are some very difficult issues for them to resolve,” David McLellan, the city's community services manager, told councillors as they pressed him for answers during a session this week aimed at trying to make decisions about the city's plan for Northeast False Creek, where the gallery would have been a major component. “We have the changing economy, the impact in terms of sponsorship … particularly for cultural opportunities. And there are some additional costs above and beyond other sites.”

The gallery's board chair, David Aisenstat, confirmed yesterday that geotechnical reports have indicated the site would require special construction.

“And if there's a very significant cost difference, that's going to make a difference to us. The art gallery is going to make a responsible decision.”

But Mr. Aisenstat said the gallery is still “considering both options” – referring also to the gallery's original plan to move to a site next to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Mr. Aisenstat also acknowledged that fundraising is difficult in the present climate.

“We're not oblivious to that.”

But that could change, he said.

“By the time we select a site and choose an architect, the fundraising climate may be very different.”

Mr. Aisenstat said both he and gallery director Kathleen Bartels, who received a call from Councillor Heather Deal this week asking about the gallery's plans while she was at the Venice Biennale, were startled to hear that city council thinks it needs an immediate decision. He said neither of them had been told previously there was an impending deadline.

“I'm a bit shocked they would take it to a public forum like this without a conversation with us.”

If the gallery turns down the site, as many are expecting, it would all be an anticlimactic end to the glowing kickoff Premier Gordon Campbell gave last May. Just over a year ago, he made the surprise announcement that the gallery would get the site as part of an agreement for that area, an agreement that also included a decision to refurbish rather than demolish BC Place stadium nearby. He had previously announced a $50-million provincial grant to the gallery for a new building.

Mr. Campbell's announcement generated huge controversy in the arts, development and city-planning worlds. Some said the site would bring Vancouver's passive shoreline to life.

But others were critical that the Premier appeared to be overriding the city's plans for the area, while people in the arts community wondered about the wisdom of locating the gallery so far from central downtown, amid a couple of sports stadiums and a casino.

Condo marketer Bob Rennie, also a prominent art collector in the city, had been critical of a Frank Gehry-style plan all along.

“It's very, very difficult today to raise that kind of money for ‘star-chitecture,' and it's not where the world is going,” said Mr. Rennie, also currently in Venice attending the Biennale. “I don't know if government or the patrons can give $300- [million] to $400-million.”

Special to The Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nati...llery-move-faces-hurdles/article1167921/

cornholio · #**116** Posted **Jun 4, 2009, 10:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by djmk

thats a whole lot of reading.

regarding the parks...

it seems there will be a strip of parks North to South from chinatown (sun yet sen) through Andy Livingston to Creekside and beyond. It would be nice if all these were somehow connected... (ie carral street greenway)

however, i seem to agree with many people here. That really is a lot of park space.

and the water will never be good here. there is nowhere for the yucky stuff to go. once inside false creek, it gets trapped and stays. its not like a regular beach were there are waves to break stuff down or strong rip tides to move it along

Well I remember there was talk a long time ago of connecting false creek to Burrard inlet via pipelines to allow False creek to flush. Not sure what hapend but it was probably to expensive, but now that all the industries are gone and the there literally thousands and thousands of residents living around it it could become viable. With the creek able to flush a bit and the storm drains improved so they dont allow crap to flow in to the creek, plus new parks and other measures to clean the creek up I could definitely see False creek able to be swam in safely in the not to distant future.

Not sure what the cost could be but maybe 50mill to get one or two huge pipelines linking False creek and Burrard inlet, lots of money but the benefits would be enormous...

*I dont think you can ever have enough parkspace in a city...the more the better.

mr.x · #**117** Posted **Jun 5, 2009, 2:06 AM**

I didn't think False Creek was an ideal site for the art gallery....a performing arts centre, the one the city wanted to build, would be more ideal for the location.

VicDuck · #**118** Posted **Jul 7, 2009, 7:27 AM**

When is this development supposed to begin?

jlousa · #**119** Posted **Jul 7, 2009, 2:14 PM**

Not till the ODP is completed. Probably start seeing some proposals around this time next year

s211 · #**120** Posted **Aug 21, 2009, 3:44 PM**

WRT the undeveloped Creekside park in NE False Creek, from very reliable sources I am told that Concord is trying to push the city to permit towers on the park site along the the park area's northern boundary. This proposal was presented to some working group at the City, or something along those lines.

The result? A narrower park along the waterfront which will likely end up being another dog-crap strip like the "parkland" in front of the Cooper buildings.

Also, instead of moving the contaminated fill off-site when they excavate for tower construction, they want to pile the fill on the parklands!

You can imagine how p!ssed the area residents are. And for all those people buying into the Olympic Village buildings: kiss your mountain views goodbye.

I wish it were April 1st, but unfortunately it isn't.