Our City- Diverse, Informed, Together
Public Hearing – July 5th, 2022Update: As the July 5th meeting lost quorum during Item #5, it has been removed from the agenda, and will be forced to start over on July 28th. As for Item #6, it will continue as normal, and begin at 6pm on July 21st.With the news that the Broadway Commercial... Continue Reading →
Public Hearing – June 23rd, 2022Time can be a funny thing, as these last two years have felt like an eternity, which in hindsight have also flown by. Supposedly as you get older this feeling only gets worse; since you’ve experienced more years, minutes, and hours can seem far quicker. Maybe that sense of time... Continue Reading →
Public Hearings – May 17th, 2022, and May 19th, 2022 With over 50 people already registered to speak on the Broadway Plan, it would be easy to forget there are three public hearings scheduled this month. So to simplify things, Hannah and I have combined this week’s zoning bylaw reviews into this post, and we’ll... Continue Reading →
343 W Pender St (DP-2021-00952) - 470 Homer StreetWhen the Hartney Chambers, and World Buildings were first constructed during Vancouver’s pre-war boom, I wonder if anyone thought they would be standing over a century later. Granted, their insides had been gutted to accommodate some rather interesting things, including a provocatively named waxing studio, an adult... Continue Reading →
Public Hearing – March 3rd, 2022As the civic election nears, it seems city hall is going to be getting considerably busier, as the Broadway Plan, Jericho Lands, and Vancouver Plan’s fates all remain undecided. The April public hearings will likely drag on for multiple nights alone, as the proposal to provide 244 rental homes at... Continue Reading →
456-496 Prior StAs our regular readers know, Hannah and I do our best to research the projects we write about, and on this occasion we may have gone overboard. Granted, it was a fluke that, as we sorted through my family’s home videos, we found John Daly’s 1989 report on the St. James Social Services... Continue Reading →
418-496 Alexander St (450 Alexander St)Like the Hon’s distribution centre this project will replace, I thought this Urban Design Panel meeting would deliver some good ol’ comfort for the soul. After all, at the other end of the block is the similarly-sized Roddan Lodge, and anyone who works in Railtown can tell you how badly... Continue Reading →
Public Hearing – October 5th, 2021As comedy can help keep powerful institutions humble, I’ve joked that perhaps Vancouver’s new Auditor General should examine if public hearings are held primarily for the taxpayer funded catering. Hannah often notes even bad humour occasionally reflects some truth, and Item #1 demonstrates how enacting wider changes can be more... Continue Reading →
304 E 1st Ave (DP-2020-00370) - The Sophia - ResubmissionMaybe it’s because Hannah covered the Urban Design Panel’s review of this proposal’s original iteration last September, but I think this revised concept is far more interesting. City staff seemed to agree, as they were satisfied most of the recommendations that resulted in this resubmission had... Continue Reading →
401 Jackson Ave (DP-2021-00481) / 460 E Hastings Street - Ch’ich’iyúy ElxwíknIt was Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, and having just taken a penalty, Montreal was down 1-0 at the end of the second. In other words, it was the “perfect” time for an Urban Design Panel meeting. That wasn’t a problem for... Continue Reading →
City Duo 