Posts from — June 2011

Despite city-wide anxiety about “spot rezonings” and density increases, only two percent of of the city’s 1,100 development permits in 2010 were the result of rezonings with higher density.

That’s a total of 23 rezonings totalling about 2.2 million square feet in the entire city.

The whole story was summarized at council today in these reports on revenues generated by development charge levies and community amenity contributions.

The other 98 percent of development permits were outright approvals without rezonings.

Total capital spending on public benefits totalled $390 million, with about $31 million from DCLs. The community amenity charges totalled an additional $27 million.

Those revenues help pay for amenities as diverse as public art, dayvare, heritage preservation and affordable housing.

Conclusion: despite the perception among some that City Hall has become a rezoning machine, relentlessly densifying the city, the overwhelming majority of development is not rezoning at all.

Equally significant: most public benefits are paid for from regular revenues, not density bonuses.

Most of us are familiar with the term “peak oil,” the point at which most of the world’s oil reserves have been consumed and production starts an inexorable decline. But have we already seen “peak car,” the steady decline of car-miles travelled?

That’s the startling claim made by Australians Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy in the latest issue of World Transport Policy and Practice (see this link at page 31.)

Their analysis suggests that a combination of rising fuel prices, aging cities, increasing urbanism and the growth of public transit may be turning the tide of cars, spelling the end of designing cities around automobiles, at least in the developed world.

The paper was a key point in a provocative presentation yesterday to the Ontario Bike Summit, in Ottawa, where Rodney Tolley, of Walk21, made an impassioned appeal to the cycling world to embrace “active transportation,” especially walking, as the way to build sustainable cities.

Tolley is in the final stages of planning a major conference on walking and active transportation here in Vancouver in October, a fitting counterpart to next year’s Velo-city2012, a global cycling conference.

Next week’s meeting between the Metro Vancouver’s Mayors and Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom may open the door to new transit investments that benefit Vancouver riders.

At issue next week: whether or not Victoria and Metro leaders can agree on a new funding formula for transit that will allow the long-awaited Evergreen Line to the Tri-Cities to proceed.

To date, the mayors have made it clear that more property taxes are not part of the solution. Victoria says they must be.

But it is clear that Premier Christy Clark is keen to have the Evergreen issue settled before a possible fall election. If that remains the goal, and Victoria can achieve a deal with the Mayors, Translink would have to submit a new funding supplement to the Mayor’s Council with weeks or even days to clear the way for a September announcement.

If that supplement includes Evergreen, then new investments are required in Vancouver — including station upgrades and service improvements — to handle the increase in ridership. Even though the improvements would be based in Vancouver, they would have regional impact.

Even more significant for Vancouver: approval of Evergreen would finally clear the way for investments on Broadway, where the ridership already exceeds that on the Millennium Line.

In the wake of many media reports on the 1994 Stanley Cup “Riot Report,” Chief Constable Jim Chu today released this remarkable letter to VPD members declaring that Mr. Bob Whitelaw was not, in fact, the author of the report on which he  has been commenting since last week’s riot.

Chu challenges reporters who have given Whitelaw prominence to give equal play to the facts he sets out in this letter: [Read more →]