Port’s public input process ‘a sham’
DEVELOPMENT: Area residents who would be affected claim no notice given; port says it sent emails
Views at a waterfront park used by Downtown Eastside residents are under threat from a marine terminal, says the president of a co-op housing group.
Barb Daniel, president of Four Sisters Housing, said the Port of Vancouver plans to reclaim three hectares of ocean and turn it into cargohandling facilities that would spoil views from nearby Crab Park.
“The park is one of the few green spaces in the city where Downtown Eastside residents can escape. People don’t have beautiful gardens and this is their urban waterfront,” said Daniel. “They depend on the park to get away, but it is being surrounded with industry.
“For them to destroy our waterfront is just outrageous. That’s why people are so upset,” she said.
The infill at the west end of Centerm terminal, in the 700-block Centennial Road, is part of the port’s $320-million plan to increase container traffic at the dock by 66 per cent. If the plan is approved, construction would start in 2017 and be completed two years later.
The preliminary review has started but Daniel said the port has done a bad job of telling local residents how they can make their views known.
The port says 6,200 notices were sent out in January advertising a public consultation period and the addressees included the Four Sisters, but Daniel said no message was received.
She said no one among the 250 residents at Four Sisters received a notice despite being located in the port’s mail-out area between Cambie Street and Clark Drive, north of Hastings Street.
“Their consultation process was a sham. We talked to other people who didn’t hear. I don’t know who knows about it. It’s all been so covert,” she said.
Port spokeswoman Julia Ren said emails were sent to the Four Sisters. “Additionally, a postcard was sent directly to them,” she said.
The 25-day commentary period closed on Feb. 12 with 28 responses; 17 strongly agreed with the “scope” of the plan and three strongly disagreed, according to the port.
Ren said there will be further opportunities to provide input as the project proceeds through the environmental review process.
Since the land would be federally created, it would not be regulated by municipal zoning bylaws for industrial sites, said Ren.
Daniel has asked the port’s boss, federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau, to intervene.
The port’s powers to approve projects are under scrutiny by MPs in the new Liberal government in Ottawa.
Port officials have already apologized to Garneau for not providing advance notice that a jet fuel project in Richmond was given a building permit earlier this year.
Port officials said president Robin Silvester offered “personal apologies to government” for the “oversight.”