The last major item of business by the previous City Council in 2022, prior to the summer break and fall civic elections, was the adoption of the Vancouver Plan. This is a major policy document, intended to guide change in this city for many decades to come.
The Plan was adopted after months of lead-up, resulting in a 230-page report entitled "Vancouver Plan: A Long Range Plan to Guide Growth and Change." It was presented by the city's planning staff to a daytime meeting of the Standing Committee on City Finance and Services on July 6, with deliberations continuing and final adoption on July 22.
A citizen, wondering how much public support there actually was for the Vancouver Plan, recently wrote to the City to inquire about the tally of comments submitted from the public to our elected officials for the July 6 and 22 meetings. The citizen received a response form Office of Vancouver City Council, and shared the numbers (items of correspondence) with CityHallWatch, as follows:
"Vancouver Plan: A Long Range Plan to Guide Growth and Change"
Tally of public comments submitted to July 6 and 22 Council meetings:
• Oppose: 223
• Support: 54
• Other: 19
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In other words, over 75% of those who wrote to Council opposed the Vancouver Plan, while less than 20% supported it.
What is the significance of these numbers?
The Vancouver Plan was adopted despite considerable public concern and opposition. The present and future Mayor, Council and city planners should never forget that. They should carefully note and continue to address the concerns raised.
Why was an FOI inquiry even necessary simply to get these numbers?
In contrast, in the case of a public hearing for a rezoning, City Hall publishes the correspondence received from the public, classified as support, opposed, or other. Publishing it on the City website prior to the public hearing ensures a certain degree of transparency. The municipal government is in a "social contract" with society as the regulator of land use. Transparency is crucial. In contrast, even though the Vancouver Plan could have a thousandfold more impact than one single rezoning, it was presented -- and adopted -- at a daytime meeting of a standing committee, not even a Regular Council meeting. Correspondence to Council meetings is not published (though it could be obtained by an FOI inquiry). It is processed internally by staff at City Hall and summarized in general terms for Council.
It is a flaw of the system that major policy reports like the Vancouver Plan do not require a public hearing. (In fact, even now there are discussions under way about eliminating public hearings for rezoning decisions.)
What motivated the concerned citizen to inquire?
When CityHallWatch asked, the citizen spoke of deep concern about potential massive disruptions on neighbourhoods -- especially the large-scale displacement of renters, including seniors on fixed incomes -- that is likely to happen under both the Vancouver Plan and Broadway Plan.
(The Broadway Plan was also adopted as one of the last actions of the previous Council and affects nearly 500 city blocks in the "Broadway Corridor," from Clark to Vine and 1st to 16th Avenue.)
During the course of Vancouver Plan formulation, a number of public surveys were done at early stages, in various formats and with varying results, but they were done before many of the details of the proposed plan were presented to the public. The surveys were criticized as being too vague, and biased to produce the image of public support.
This is why the above-noted tally of correspondence to the July 6 and 22 meetings is highly relevant as a crucial gauge of public attitudes about the Vancouver Plan.
Details of the proposed plan were only revealed a few months before it went to Council, which on the last day made 19 pages of amendments. More analysis would be needed to compare public concerns raised versus the final text of the plan.
Bottom line: The mayor and members of council need to recognize that there was significant opposition to the Vancouver Plan.
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MORE READING
Vancouver Plan, official website: https://vancouverplan.ca/
July 6, 2022 - Vancouver Plan Final - Meeting Agenda, includes links to documents, video, minutes: https://council.vancouver.ca/20220706/cfsc20220706ag.htm
Staff Presentation: https://council.vancouver.ca/20220706/documents/cfsc1presentation.PDF
Report: "Vancouver Plan: A Long Range Plan to Guide Growth and Change" by Theresa O'Donnell, General Manager of Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability
Link - https://council.vancouver.ca/20220706/documents/cfsc1.pdf
Minutes of Council meeting, July 6 and 22, 2022 (19 pages of amendments before approval): https://council.vancouver.ca/20220706/documents/cfsc20220706mins.pdf
PHOTO (below): Just for the record, we've indicated in this Council photo below the six members of Council who were on the previous Council and reelected in October 2022, and the five new members. The members indicated with green arrows went through the whole Vancouver Plan process, while those with red arrows were not directly involved in the process as elected officials at the time.
Left to right:
Peter Meiszner (new on Council)
Brian Montague (new)
Christine Boyle (re-elected)
Lisa Dominato (re-elected)
Adriane Carr (re-elected)
Ken Sim (mayor, in center) (new)
Sarah Kirby-Yung (re-elected)
Rebecca Bligh (re-elected)
Pete Fry (re-elected)
Mike Klassen (new)
Lenny Zhou (new)
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