Riverview plans not current: Coleman
The Riverview Hospital lands are safe — for now — Housing Minister Rich Coleman said Thursday, calling suggestions to the contrary "purely speculative."
Coleman was contacted by The Tri-City News to discuss reports in the Vancouver Sun and other media that the provincial government has drawn up detailed plans for dozens of highrise towers, mid-rise buildings and several condominium and apartment buildings on the 98-hectare site.
And even though the number of units suggested — about 10,000 — is the same as what Coleman hopes to see on the Riverview grounds, he emphasized the plans reported Thursday are irrelevant.
"The Vancouver Sun story is based on old plans that were developed by the health authority about a year ago," Coleman said. "They have nothing to do with what's going on today."
He further stated that no plans would be developed without consultation with Coquitlam council and residents.
When asked to confirm whether site designs were being assembled for tender to explore possible options, he said nothing of the sort is happening because the ministry is busy exploring other housing projects in the Lower Mainland.
Coleman also said the Evergreen Line's Lougheed Highway route and Riverview redevelopment are not linked, noting there have been no discussions on the issue between the Ministry of Transportation, his own ministry and Accommodation and Real Estate Services, which manages the Riverview lands.
Coquitlam politicians denounced the latest Riverview plans, their frustration mounting over what appears to be a veil of secrecy over the site.
"I still haven't heard anything substantive from the minister or the government," said Coquitlam-Maillardville NDP MLA Diane Thorne. "It's still information by the media, rather than any information for the community from the government."
Thorne suggested that with plans that seem to fulfill Coleman's wish for 10,000 units, which would bring about 30,000 people to the site, the latest rumours are closer to what the BC Liberals want for Riverview. In November a housing ministry representative said public consultations could begin this month but Thorne said she's hearing it likely won't be until the fall.
Coleman did echo Tuesday's throne speech when he said the government is pursuing another Riverview project — a mental health facility that would complement a retrofitted and reopened Willingdon, the old youth detention facility in Burnaby.
Thorne sees it as "another nail in the coffin of Riverview" and that opening Willingdon would simply mean more space for market housing at Riverview. She said she'll put forward a private members' bill calling for Riverview to be kept in public hands and remain a mental health sanctuary that would include transitional housing for the mentally ill.
Coquitlam Mayor Maxine Wilson said bringing an urban centre into Riverview is "extremely cruel."
"To put [mentally ill people] in an urban setting, when they're in a paranoid state and distrustful of people... they need to be in a healing setting. They need to get away from people, so putting 30,000 people there is totally inhumane."
Wilson said she wants to see a mental health research facility at Riverview that would focus on developing better treatments for the mentally ill, as well as a hospital-like setting for patients who need that level of care.
Coun. Mae Reid, who chairs Coquitlam's Riverview committee, said the city's 50-year economic development plan envisions a medical school campus — but no market housing.
"There isn't room for both," she said. "Why they would take a site like that and just put regular housing on it? It's just greed."
Council has stated it will not rezone the Riverview lands for market housing and Wilson said she expects widespread support from other Metro Vancouver councils to leave Riverview as a park-like setting for the mentally ill.
Still, Thorne questions whether the BC Liberals will pay much attention to such a decision.
"I don't have a lot of faith in the statement Coleman made that in the end the city will make the final decision," she said. "Call me jaded, but I just don't believe it."
spayne@tricitynews.com
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Suggestions about the future of the Riverview Hospital lands are purely speculative, says Housing Minister Rich Coleman.
Tri-City News File Photo
http://www.bclocalnews.com/tri_city_...t_Coleman.html
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