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Posted Sep 30, 2011, 4:01 AM
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Ferris Wheel Hater
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 8,371
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Big Big News, going to council on Oct 6th.
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A. That Council endorse in principle the Northeast False Creek conceptual diagram, generally as outlined in Appendix A, to ensure integration of future development in Northeast False Creek.
B. THAT Council endorse in principle the reconfiguration of the future Creekside Park extension, generally as outlined in Appendix B, which facilitates the efficient and safe management of contaminated soils and enables an expedited delivery of a park that meets the needs of residents, and FURTHER THAT Council requests that staff embark on a more detailed design, soils management and park delivery plan that includes additional public consultation.
C. THAT Council endorse in principle a change to the public benefits strategy for False Creek North ODP areas 7A (“Rogers Arena site, Aquilini Development”) and 6b (“Plaza of Nations Site, Canadian Metropolitan Properties”) to include a publicly-accessible sports and recreation centre, noting that the public benefits package will be further refined and analyzed through the rezoning process, including additional public consultation and public hearing.
D. THAT Council endorse in principle the demolition of Enterprise Hall on the Plaza of Nations’ site in order to accommodate a public plaza and performance space, noting the significant direct costs and opportunity costs involved in retaining and upgrading the building, and in consideration of other recent public investments in heritage retention in east False Creek.
E. THAT Council’s decisions pertaining to A-D above do not fetter Council’s future decisions on rezoning applications in Northeast False Creek.
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The potential reconfiguration of the Creekside Park Extension was an opportunity that Council directed staff to pursue to achieve a number of benefits including the early delivery of a park for the communities in Northeast False Creek. The NEFC Directions acknowledge the possibility that Creekside Park and the adjacent Concord lands could be reconfigured subject to a full assessment against specific performance criteria. During 2010 City staff, Concord Pacific and representatives of the False Creek Residents association participated in a process led by a professional facilitator. The process produced a reconfigured option that all participants agreed was worthy of further consideration. Based on recent technical meetings with Concord and the Province, staff believe that the park reconfiguration option provides the greatest opportunity to expedite at least parts of the park. This report discusses steps to move forward with a public process on park design and program and further technical work on soils and timing.
The majority of this report is dedicated to several issues related to the staff assessment of a concept for the future development of the Plaza of Nations site and recommendations with respect to a future rezoning application. The proposal is for a large, mixed-use development on a 10 acres waterfront site in Northeast False Creek and includes significant residential development, a range of commercial uses, affordable housing, a childcare centre and a civic plaza. Since Council’s original review of the proposed NEFC public benefits, the owners of Rogers Arena and the Plaza of Nations have introduced a new potential public benefit of a publicly-accessible sports and recreation centre that would be jointly used by the Canucks and the general public. Staff have assessed the proposal for compliance with the Council approved policy for the area (NEFC: Directions) and shared the major ideas with the public through open houses in December 2010 and June 2011.
Both the owners of the Plaza of Nations site and the Rogers Arena site would like to proceed with rezoning applications and concurrent amendments to the False Creek North Official Development Plan. This report identifies key issues and provides recommendations to guide a forthcoming rezoning application on the topics of open space, density and massing, land use and public benefits and amenities.
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2) Reconfiguration of the Creekside Park Extension
Creekside Park is one of several parks in the False Creek North Official Development Plan that were planned to be delivered overtime a 20 year time frame in conjunction with different phases of development. The land in False Creek North is comprised of former industrial lands and many of the sites have contaminated soils. As part of the sale of these lands following Expo ’86 to Concord Pacific, the Province accepted both the financial and technical obligations of dealing with contaminated soils. To minimize risk and costs, some parks in False Creek North serve as permanent storage for contaminated soils from development sites within False Creek North.
The False Creek North ODP identifies the Creekside Park Extension as a 9 acre future park site with boundaries defined by False Creek, Pacific Boulevard Carrall Street. Legal agreements currently stipulate that the Creekside Park Extension is to be delivered with the development of Area 6c. Contaminated soils from the development of Area 6c (which has some of the worst soils in the entire FCN area) must be moved into the park for permanent storage and capped with a membrane. The park would then be constructed on top of the membrane. The timing of the development of Area 6c has been delayed for various reasons. Concord Pacific has been clear that they now wish to proceed with rezoning to allow for a residential development on Area 6c. The NEFC Directions allow for the consideration of a mixed-use development on Area 6c including significant residential development.
At the time of the approval of the NEFC Directions Concord raised the possibility of reconfiguring the park as a solution that could meet their development aspirations and could expedite delivery of Creekside park by allowing some of the contaminated soils to stay in place. The NEFC Directions allow for the possible reconfiguration of the park subject to adhering to specific criteria. Council instructed staff to continue to work with the developer, citizens and Parks Board to expedite the provision of the Creekside Park Extension.
Based on this instruction staff engaged a facilitator and engaged in a process with Concord and area residents to explore options for the delivery of Creekside Park. The facilitated process produced a reconfigured park option that all participants agreed was worthy of further consideration.
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In recent months, senior city officials have confirmed through technical meetings with Concord and the Province that the park reconfiguration option provides the greatest opportunity to expedite at least parts of the Creekside Park extension.
The original park design requires significant disruption of the contaminated soils area involving greater environmental risk, time and costs. The reconfigured park would allow for a significant portion of the most highly contaminated soil to be capped in place rather than being moved. This would be safer and would expedite the delivery of the park.
The reconfigured park would be the equivalent size as the original contemplated park and would be designed to achieve the performance criteria of the original park. The reconfiguration would also provide more waterfront green space, improving the waterfront experience
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The NEFC Directions requirement that non-market housing sites be designated and transferred to the city at no cost at the time of rezoning will provide greater flexibility in housing programs (compared to some current arrangements in north False Creek) and should reduce the likelihood of sites sitting empty for lengthy periods.
At 10 acres, the CMP site is one of the largest in NEFC and has the greatest amount of new residential floor space potential of all sites in NEFC (based on NEFC Directions policy advice). For these reasons Area 6b offers the greatest flexibility in accommodating designated nonmarket housing sites. To achieve the target of 20% non-market units, approximately 17% of the residential floor space (238,000 sq.ft.) needs to be allocated for non-market housing and this is equivalent to one tower along Pacific Boulevard.
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If new non-market housing sites are not secured on this site through rezoning, the only large site remaining that could include any affordable housing site is Concord Pacific (Area 6c).
Only Area 6b (CMP) and Area 6c (Concord) were identified as sites large enough to provide sites for non-market housing in NEFC. It was anticipated that the smaller sites that are constrained in design and have less floor space would provide cash-in-lieu of non-market housing.
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Sports and Recreation Facility
Subsequent to Council’s approval of the public benefits package for NEFC, Canadian Metropolitan Properties and Aquilini Development have proposed to construct and provide operating funding for a Sports Centre on the Plaza of Nations Site as part of the future development of area 6B.
The Sports centre includes a publicly accessible ice rink (to be shared with the Canucks), indoor recreation space and a childcare centre in addition to private components including a Canucks Training centre, offices, sports/med clinic and restaurant. The developer has proposed a shared facility, with the Canucks utilizing 20% of the available rink time and the public being able to access the ice rink for the remaining 80%. The Canucks would utilize the ice rink in the morning until noon and the ice would be available for public programming from noon to midnight, the most desirable time for public access. The multi-purpose community space (e.g. fitness centre, studios, etc,) would be available to the public 100% of the time.
The facility would provide the opportunity for the Canucks to create a “Rogers Arena Campus” which will be a place for their practice sessions, a location to mentor young hockey players, and as a base from which to continue their work with under-privileged youth. CMP and Aquilini are requesting that the Sports Centre be considered as an addition to the public benefits package for NEFC. Based on discussions and information provided to date the working assumptions on the proposal include the following:
-The facility should have the look and feel of a community centre and provide a similar range of services at comparable costs (i.e. Park Board access card, programs for lowincome residents).
- City of Vancouver to own the air space parcel for the publicly accessible spaces (ice rink, indoor recreation space and childcare)
- Publicly accessible spaces would be exempt from property tax
- The ice rink, indoor recreation space and childcare would be FSR exempt
- Construction costs for the publicly accessible spaces would be CAC eligible to be split between CMP and Aquilini Development
- The Canucks would operate the rink facility
- The City would operate the publicly accessible multi-purpose community space
- The City would contract independently with a childcare operator as is the standard model
- the developers would fund on a going forward basis the full annual operating costs of the public sport and recreation facilities (80% of the ice rink, 100% of the indoor recreation space)
This proposal and the potential partnership with the Canucks organization is a unique and exciting opportunity for enhanced recreation programming and amateur sport hosting at no incremental operating cost to the City and Park Board. The vision for a Sports Centre Complex with adjacent hotel, restaurants, and other commercial and residential space will also contribute to the local economy.
Staff have reviewed the basic structure of the proposal in terms of the developers’ offer and the City’s role in securing this public benefit and are confident that it fits within the range of options that the city utilizes to achieve public benefits.
The benefit of a new ice rink would allow for increased access to ice-based recreational opportunities in an area of the city that is presently not well-served by rinks. The demand for skating lessons, public skate sessions, minor sport activities, as well as adult hockey in the city remains strong.
The Sport Centre proposal would also provide additional indoor recreation space and services in an area of the downtown core that will experience significant density and associated population growth in the coming years. In recent years, the Park Board has confirmed the need for additional indoor recreation space based on population projections.
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Public Benefit Cost
Non-Market Housing (sites for 20% of units) $19,339,817 15%
Market-Rental Housing (10% of units) $31,335,195 25%
Heritage Density Transfer (10% of Resi. Floor Area) $13,000,000 10%
Inner City Employment and Procurement Requirements 0 0%
Georgia Street Pedestrian and Cycling Link on BC Place Land $15,000,000 12%
Civic Plaza and Outdoor Performance Space $10,000,000 8%
Pacific Blvd. Upgrades $600,000 0%
Carrall Greenway Completion $1,200,000 1%
Hard Surface Recreation Space Under the Viaducts $4,300,000 3%
Upgrades to Existing Parks and Open Spaces $1,500,000 1%
2 Child Care Centres $16,000,000 13%
A Family Place Out of School Care $4,000,000 3%
Contribution Towards Renewal of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre $8,500,000 7%
A Contribution to Vancouver Central Library $500,000 0%
Total $125,275,013 100%
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The essential consideration in the retention of Enterprise Hall is land use. The Directions recommend the provision of an 80,000 sq.ft. open space on Area 6b (Plaza of Nations). This space is needed to create a new civic plaza for daily use by residents and for special events. During Council’s consideration of the NEFC Directions concerns were voiced by the public about the balance between proposed population of NEFC and the provision of open space. Staff recommend that Council endorse in principle the demolition of Enterprise Hall in order to meet the public, open space objectives on the Plaza of Nations site and in NEFC as a whole. It would be very difficult to secure both the retention of Enterprise Hall and the provision of 80,000 sq.ft. of open space as part of the future rezoning of this site. Staff did explore the feasibility of retaining Enterprise Hall and concluded that retention is not feasible based on the following:
- A seismic assessment indicated that their will be a premium cost associated with the retention of the building to address seismic issues.
- The upgrade and renovation of the building is likely to cost $10 million or more.
- Considerable public investment has been made in other buildings of heritage value in the False Creek area. Specifically, Science Word (also an Expo Legacy building) has received funding from the federal and provincial governments in support of the $30 million renovation that is underway. The Salt building in Southeast False Creek was retained and renovated by the City of Vancouver at a cost of $ 15 million.
- The retention of Enterprise Hall would mean that other priorities for this site would need to be traded off.
Canadian Metropolitan Properties is currently proposing approximately 70,000 sqft of open space as part of the redevelopment of the Plaza of Nations site. The current proposal provides a series of open spaces including:
- Civic plaza ~50,622 sq.ft.
- Public Dock ~ 8,826 sq.ft.
- Retention of the Expo Treed Area ~ 10,613 sq.ft.
- Semi-public open spaces of approximately 24,627 sq.ft. (spaces used for outdoor seating adjacent to cafes and other spaces with some public access)
Staff generally support this configuration. Further work will be completed to achieve the 80,00 sqft target in the NEFC Directions report. Staff note that the demolition of Enterprise Hall is a requirement to meet the open space objectives.
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All in all no real surprises for those that have been following closely since the beginning. The FCRA makes some really good points in their letter to council/staff especially point 1 and 2 (letter is included in the document)
For those that didn't get bored to death by my less the brief summary here is the full document, it some some pics as well. 
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/...ents/penv1.pdf
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where there's the will, there's a way .......
Every time I give ideas I am told they are cheezy, not economical, or "oh boy, here we go with Japan again," or "this is Vancouver, we do not need to copy other places, or we are about this not that", etc... so sometimes I don't feel like posting an idea.
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