General Vancouver Updates

[rofina]

Originally Posted by Changing City

On the leadership question - Jean Swanson is taking a lead on Council. It's just that the lead she's taking doesn't line up with your (or most people's) opinion of what we need to see developed. Having elected representatives sometimes gets in the way of initiatives, and sometimes it promotes them. It's not necessarily straightforward. That's the system we have, and given the outcome of the last election, and the mix of councilors Vancouver got (and the debates that now occur on Council) there's not necessarily a consensus about what should be built, and it isn't going to be as simple as you'd like.

Unlike the West End Plan, which is simple to read and ought to be easy to understand, but apparently isn't. It never says 'a 50 storey tower can be built on this lot, subject to rezoning'. It says, 'a 500 foot building can be built here, subject to other City Policies, including viewcones and shadowing of parks'. There's no hidden agenda, it's not difficult to calculate how much a particular site can accommodate, and most projects fit in from the point of their application. It's pretty safe to assume that any that didn't and submitted something taller than policy allowed, were informed about the potential problem before they submitted, and chose to apply anyway. Maybe they thought that their design was so amazing that the policy would mysteriously disappear for them.

All fair and valid. Points taken.

I'm just generally tired of there needing to be a debate about everything these days. I can't help but feel like it wasn't always this way.