Vancouver Communities Unite to Fix Planning Mess | Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods

October 23, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Vancouver Communities Unite to Fix Planning Mess
Residents’ Associations Seek Better Consultation with the City of Vancouver

Vancouver, B.C. – Eighteen community residents’ associations, covering almost the entire City of Vancouver, have now joined together in a Coalition of Neighbourhoods with the specific purpose of demanding a more respectful relationship between the City and the communities. The Coalition is working on creating a new development/planning paradigm that will stress community involvement and local influence over land use and zoning decisions.

This coming together follows the summer of our discontent. Virtually every neighbourhood in Vancouver has suffered through the disaster that is development and “community engagement” under the present planning process.

Whether it is the failed Community Plans in Marpole, Grandview-Woodland, the West End and Downtown Eastside, or specific developments around False Creek, the Pearson lands in South Vancouver, the Rize and other projects in Mount Pleasant, the downtownification of Oakridge, and the overriding of community opinion in Norquay, the outrage expressed by the affected communities has been the same.

In each and every case, residents have been refused genuine involvement and influence over decision-making. Even in the few cases where residents have been allowed a form of consultation, such as in the Mount Pleasant Implementation, their positions have been ignored or curtailed or both. We have witnessed public hearings where hundreds of people have vocally and loudly opposed developments only to see City Council vote in support of the developers. This has squandered the time and energy residents have put into engaging with these proposals.

We hope that the City will quickly recognize that something is badly broken in the way they engage with communities and return to the concept of community-based planning that was so successful in building Vancouver. The Coalition will work together to support individual neighbourhoods in their disputes over unacceptable planning decisions and proposals.

The disenfranchisement of neighbourhoods must end. We will not accept with equanimity any more faux “engagement” circuses in which “consultation” produces nothing but disappointment and damaged communities. Communities demand genuine involvement and the right of local residents to have the highest level of influence over the future of their own communities.

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About the Coalition of Neighbourhoods

The Coalition of Neighbourhoods comprises eighteen community residents’ associations who share a common interest in collaborating with the City of Vancouver.

Arbutus Ridge Community Association
Crosstown Residents Association
Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council
Downtown South/Yaletown
Dunbar Residents Association
False Creek Residents Association
Grandview Woodland Area Council
Citygate Intertower Group
Marpole Residents Coalition
Norquay Residents
NW Point Grey Home Owners Association
Oakridge Langara Area Residents
Residents Association of Mount Pleasant
Riley Park/South Cambie Visions
Strathcona Residents Association
West End Neighbours
West Kitsilano Residents Association
West Point Grey Residents Association