Please see bottom of this post for an explainer by CityHallWatch.
Link to petition: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/protect-vancouvers-seniors-protect-our-green-spaces-stop-the-rezoning-of-5455-balsam-street
Protect Vancouver's Seniors! Protect our green spaces! Stop the Rezoning of 5455 Balsam Street!
Larco Investments wants to rezone 5455 Balsam St to add another high-rise building.
The proposed development will have negative effects on the character and livability of the surrounding area, and degrade the living standards of current tenants of the property––many of whom are seniors. If approved, this development will:
- Create more unaffordable housing. We must prioritize social, co-op, and non-market rental housing to address the housing crisis. Seniors, young people, and low-income families will not benefit from this development.
- Endanger seniors: The existing tenants of 5455 Balsam St, many of whom have mobility issues, would lose their underground parking lot during construction. Forcing them to walk as far as 10 minutes off-site for parking poses a profound safety risk.
- Remove needed green space and harm the environment: Building an additional high-density structure on the property's garden space would contradict Vancouver Plan's guidelines for neighbourhood centres, increase traffic and congestion, and harm the environment.
- Reward the applicant's neglect of the existing building: Tenants have reported going without heat during the winter due to insufficient repairs to the building's boiler; one of the elevators in the building has been broken for weeks at a time; and the pool has been unusable for three years. Larco Investments, the applicant, has withheld adequate building management from the current tenants of the property. Approving a new development next-door before the situation is improved would reward bad behavior.
Link- https://actionnetwork.org/letters/protect-vancouvers-seniors-protect-our-green-spaces-stop-the-rezoning-of-5455-balsam-street
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EXPLAINER, BY CITYHALLWATCH
Preamble: This case is part of an nasty ongoing saga about a major developer that has been delinquent in providing proper safety and services for existing tenants, while seeking approval from Mayor and Council to rezone land for a new tower in Kerrisdale. The last chance for the City of Vancouver to apply pressure to Larco is before approving any rezoning, but the City's rezoning staff ignored appeals from renters pleading for the City's interventions. A "referral report" on June 11, 2024 (rezoning planner Robert White, in the name of Josh White - Vancouver's new chief planner, or General Manager of Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability), included a staff recommendation to move the application ahead to Public Hearing. That Public Hearing could occur as soon as July 9, 2024.
Council adopted the Council recommendation on consent, thereby attempting to block any further communication from the public to our elected officials prior to the Public Hearing. This case is a test in more than one way. In a city with such a large proportion of renters, will our municipal government reward egregious behaviour by landlords and developers by approving their rezoning and development applications? Or will our officials apply their powers to make them rectify their behaviour? A second matter is that under new legislation passed by the BC NDP under premier David Eby (and amendment of the Vancouver Charter under Bill 18 - 2024, in which all NDP MLAs representing Vancouver ridings were complicit by bloc voting for the legislation, making no effort to defend the constituents they were elected to represent), Public Hearings for rezonings will soon be prohibited if they comply with an official development plan, moving decision making further out of public view. At least this time, the concerned residents can express their views in public, and the decision will be made in public. Once the rules change, this part of the democratic check-and-balance system will be obliterated -- willingly -- by provincial and municipal officials. Links for more reading at bottom of this post.
For more details on CityHallWatch, see: Tenants with a long list of grievances at 5455 Balsam (Kerrisdale) prepare to protest developer/landlord Larco.
Rezoning background: 15-storey tower proposed at 5455 Balsam St. Virtual. Open house Jan 31- Feb 20. (Applicant is mystery firm Larco Investments)
Rezoning application - https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/5455-balsam-st
Staff referral report - https://council.vancouver.ca/20240611/documents/rr1.pdf
June 11, 2024 Council meeting that approved the referral report - https://council.vancouver.ca/20240611/regu20240611ag.htm
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