Housing rift divides community
Some residents oppose densification, while others say it’s desperately needed
There is a rift in East Vancouver, the depth of which started to become apparent Wednesday during a public hearing on the city’s new Grandview-Woodland community plan.
There’s a lot to digest in the 30-year plan, which is before councillors for decision this week. It provides for an injection of 9,500 new residents, 7,000 new homes and towers as high as 24 storeys.
For some, the increased density and height is unpalatable. For many others, insufficient or unsuitable housing for themselves, their children, and those with no fixed address is of far greater concern.
Among those in the latter camp was Noam Dolgin, a homeowner and tenant who lives a few blocks from Commercial Drive and Broadway.
“The under-utilization of this site seems short-sighted and out of alignment with this city’s green goals and housing goals,” he said.
The plan calls for buildings of six to 10 storeys near the major transit hub with the exception of a large development at the existing Safeway site. The previous version of the plan called for more density.
“Unfortunately, I believe the plan is too focused on appeasing the desires and fears of a small portion of the current community while sacrificing future residents and the city as a whole,” Dolgin said.
“In order to preserve the Drive’s funky nature, we must ensure there’s enough housing for all, or it’s the funkiest among us who are first to lose out,” Dolgin said, drawing hearty laughter.
David Carman unfurled a handmade scroll related to plans for six-storey apartment buildings at major intersections on Nanaimo Street and tossed it, along with a pile of other documents, into a waste bin.
“I appreciate it’s no easy task to formulate a plan with so many considerations, however ... I don’t believe the new community plan achieved the balance it claimed it was going to strike,” Carman told councillors, eliciting applause.
Many speakers offered impassioned pleas of support for the 12-storey Kettle Boffo development proposal. The city’s plan calls for fewer stories, which the partners say would leave a huge funding gap for the non-profit Kettle Society’s proposed 30 units of social housing and renewed drop-in centre, which serves an estimated 2,400 area residents.
Jill Atkey, who spoke on behalf of the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association, said it would be unwise to rely on other orders of government to fill that gap.
Eileen Mosca gave perhaps the most balanced words of support for the plan Wednesday.
“Is this plan flawless? No. Does it give me everything I ever wanted to see in a plan for my community? No. But I think such ideal plans only exist in an ideal world. And in the real world of Grandview-Woodland I think this plan is about as good as we can expect of a document crafted by human planners with input from human residents,” Mosca said.
The hearing continues today.