Grandview-Woodland citizens weigh in

Assembly’s report calls for less traffic, more bike routes and a tunnel under 1st Avenue

From a separated bike lane down Commercial Drive into the heart of Little Italy, to reducing commuter traffic on the busy East 1st Avenue corridor and Victoria Drive, residents of Vancouver’s Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood are asking the city to slow things down.

It’s not just cooling development pressure by lowering the potential height of buildings at Commercial and Broadway that members of the Grandview-Woodland Citizens Assembly are after.

The final report by the 48 lottery-chosen members contains almost 270 recommendations — and a number couched as “demands” and “instructions” — to city council that seek to help guide the development and livability of the neighbourhood.

But recognizing that traffic is one of the single biggest complaints in any neighbourhood, the assembly also put a bull’seye on many of the busy commuter routes that transect the area. From Venables to Victoria Drive and from 1st Avenue, to Nanaimo, the assembly put out recommendations that seek to slow and reclaim the routes as local neighbourhood streets.

“We urge the City of Vancouver to reassess traffic flow and traffic lights with the aim of increasing the number of sequenced and pedestrian controlled traffic lights, especially the corridor between Hastings Street and Grandview Highway. The purpose of this is to slow traffic,” the assembly said of Nanaimo Street in its report.

Many of the assembly’s recommendations look at ways to gently increase density, encouraging coach houses, row houses, townhouses and low and medium highrises, while staving off high towers like the 36-storey building originally proposed for Broadway and Commercial. That proposal two years ago is what touched off a neighbourhood revolt that led to Mayor Gregor Robertson’s council taking the unheard-of step of creating the assembly.

The report, with its non-binding recommendations, will be reviewed by council on Wednesday before being referred to staff.

Showing that they know that even townhouses and row houses, the city’s new and preferred method of densifying neighbourhoods, can be problematic, the assembly does not support such housing forms around parks, schools and their adjacent streets, nor along the busy Nanaimo truck route.

Some of the recommendations mirror the city’s wider goal of encouraging more rental housing and preserving the stock of family-friendly units. One particular concern is the proliferation of short-term rentals through companies like Airbnb and VRBO and the impact they may have on the neighbourhood.

But the report also contains a long and varied list of other issues of importance to the neighbourhood, many related to transportation and making life simpler. Some deal with the very identity of the neighbourhood, which stretches from East Broadway to Burrard Inlet, between Nanaimo Street and Clark Drive. Here’s a sample: • Preservation of the 1938 Rio Theatre and the Waldorf Hotel, with its Polynesian Tiki-lounge theme.

• Abandon the “imposed” East Village brand in Hastings-Sunrise.

• Commercial Drive, arguably the most important commercial streetscape in the neighbourhood, should get a separated bike lane from East 14th to Gravely Street. The Drive, as it is known, is no stranger to the concept of reduced traffic flow. It is annually closed on some summer weekends for “car-free” days.

• More bike parking and signage, and several new bike routes to the Lakewood and Mosaic bikeways, which should also be improved.

•A bike underpass along Grandview Highway at Clark Drive.

• Return East 1st Avenue to the neighbourhood by reducing traffic and prioritizing alternative modes of transportation (e.g. transit).

• Explore in long-term planning the possibility of installing a tunnel under East 1st Avenue for commuter traffic between Clark Drive and Victoria Drive (or further east).

• Deal with commuters who use Victoria Drive and Venables to get to the Dunsmuir Viaduct by reviving the prospect of turning Venables, from Gore to Commercial Drive, into a traffic-calmed neighbourhood.

• On Nanaimo, a truck route, enforce speed limits, increase pedestrian walkways and install traffic lights.

PHOTOS: JENELLE SCHNEIDER/PNG The Grandview-Woodland Citizens Assembly has recommended a separated bike lane along busy Commercial St., shown at its intersection with Broadway, looking west, above.

Left, the Waldorf Hotel, which the citizens assembly wants to see preserved. At right, The 2300-block of Nanaimo Street, a truck route and one of the streets where the assembly would like to have measures to slow traffic down, like enforcing speed limits and installing traffic lights.