I have long been concerned about the sweetheart deals a majority of Vancouver City Council has given developers when approving developer rezoning applications. Two of Vancouver City Council’s best councillors, Jean Swanson and Pete Fry, kindly took time out of their busy schedules to assist me with researching the policy details involved. Here is what…
Category: Vision Vancouver
Help stop The Ice Pick for good. It insults us all!
The Toronto-based developers like to describe it in terms of origami for its so-called “folded planes”. But just about everybody I know calls it The Ice Pick for its cold indifference to its surroundings, and how it stabs at the heart of our city’s most iconic district. We all thought the dreaded Ice Pick project…
“Pinnacle” landmark to a failed political party isn’t what Vancouver needs
City council will decide Wednesday Sept. 30, whether or not to approve Pinnacle International’s rezoning application for a proposed 55-storey luxury high-rise at the north end of Granville Bridge. (Over the years, the project has crept up from 52 to 54 and, now, 55 storeys.) By the time you read this blog, city council may…
Is the NPA on life-support?
When the provincial NDP were elected in 2017, one of their first orders of business was a very positive change to campaign financing at the municipal level. Within months, they passed legislation prohibiting donations to municipal political parties from corporations and unions, and banning individual donations over $1,200. Vancouver’s two developer-friendly municipal parties — Vision…
Broadway corridor: The lesser of two evils
As you may be aware, TransLink will soon be building the first phase of an underground SkyTrain line along the Broadway corridor from the Commercial-Broadway station to Arbutus. If Vancouver city council has its way, by 2030 the new line will extend all the way to UBC at a cost estimated as high as $3.8…
Let’s build a city that’s ours
Did you know that the City of Vancouver has no comprehensive city plan? Virtually every other major city in Canada has one — a city-wide plan that stipulates what can be built where throughout the city. To their credit, our city councillors elected in 2018 have initiated steps to create Vancouver’s comprehensive new city plan,…
Hats off to the Molnar Group for thinking of the community
I couldn’t believe it when I read Carlito Pablo’s article in the Georgia Straight about the proposed Molnar development at Renfrew and East 10th. Normally, I really challenge developers, but in this case I’m applauding the Molnar Group. They’re building 96 rental units, 19 of them dedicated to households earning moderate incomes. The bottom line…