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Insights from June 14, 2017's UDP meeting
So the NEFC Plan went to UDP last week for suggestions (not a vote though). I, being the curious person that I am, spent 5 hours listening down at City Hall because.... I apparently have far too much free time on my hands 😉
Regardless of that fact, I figure my suffering is the forum's gain as you won't have to wait until the notes are made public! A disclaimer: this was a 5 hour meeting, I was sitting in the back and couldn't always hear things clearly. As one might expect, that means I might have missed details or have recorded them incorrectly. In short, expect as much accuracy as one can from someone that wasn't paid to be there.
Edgewater Lands
Something interesting about this design is that it's being built with the opportunity for different architects to design different sections of the complex. The Southwestern corner of the site received the most criticism. That said, it was explained that the current design of that area was meant only as a placeholder, and the "small tower" will likely end up laid on it's side. The site will sport a hotel, a new community centre, a 69 slot daycare, and a public ice rink, that will also be used as a practice arena for the Canucks. The biggest concerns from members of the UDP had to do with the portion of the building being built over the new roadway (which will be more of a private road). Other members felt that the project was too separated from it's surroundings and should be designed to embrace the downtown area better.
Concord Lands
With traffic patterns, there's still debate over whether the new Carral street will be a throughway to Pat Quin Way, or only allow for right hand turns. While there's a desire to have the new Georgia Wharf road allow car traffic (like Granville Island), there will be no through way intersection permitting traffic from Georgia St to continue to the Wharf road. As part of the CAC, funding will be provided for the new Dunsmuir elevated pathway, and for an additional 69 space daycare. Some of the concerns expressed by individual members were whether there was too much activity in the narrow water area in front of the plaza, and whether the buildings should step up from the park/waterfront instead of the current uniform height. The members also felt that a diversity of retail needs to be ensured.
10C
This project was generally well received. The reason that there is phases listed is because of the need to keep access to BC Place for major services while the Georgia St realignment takes place. From what I recall, the First Phase will therefore likely be finished before the Viaducts come down. The podium will be a retail/office mix use. I made sure to ask one of the project team members after the meeting whether the units will be rental or strata. Despite a grueling session, the person was kind enough to tell me that this element was still undecided. It's important to note that if a building is rejected because of it's height, it will be resubmitted as a shorter tower with more girth, and retain the same FSR. The plan is for BC Place to eventually recraft it's Pacific Street frontage; An example given was to have glass garage style doors to enable runners from the Sun Run and other festivals easy access to the centre field. However, it seemed this was more a long term idea.
The City Lands
Something really neat about the West Block site is that the old shore line of False Creek is determining the location of the centre plaza. Unfortunately, the site is cut up by three view cones, and the buildings along Main Street will also be forced to step down to the new Chinatown height limit. Keeping with Chinatown, there was also talk of dedicating cultural space for Chinatown to create a Chinatown Cultural Precinct. The team was insistent that other buildings will need to remain at that the proposed height, as the city needs the density for revenue purposes. However, whether the City will retain ownership as a landlord or sell the units as a strata is still being determined. Of course, given the recent backlash to development in Chinatown, there were some concerns expressed on whether this project too will face protest.
The Gateway Towers
I was really curious as to what the panel members reaction would be to the height of the project, specifically if they were okay with the viewcone violations.
While some members of our forum openly hate the UDP, and would expect them to be against the proposed height, there was generally a warm reception to this specific idea.
A couple members did express that gateway is generally thought of as two tall towers, were three is more of cluster. One panelist in particular though preferred to just have one even taller tower. However the consensus seemed to be that the important thing was that the three tower expressed a variation in height, meaning if one or two went higher into the view cone, then that was more than acceptable. I swear I was awake for this part of the discussion and didn't dream it.
The Overall project
One aspect I thought that was very important is this: 20% of the total housing stock will be set as affordable, and a further 50% of that will be family units. Of the market rate units, the standard 35% is planned to be for family housing. It's great that people of all sorts will have an opportunity to build their futures in this area. A more definitive version of the entire NEFC project will come back to the public in September. After some refinement it should go to the UDP by the end of October and, if all goes well, be in front of council by December of this year.
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