W
hen the City
of Vancouver
tabled its ocial
community
plan for Grandview-Woodland
in April 2013—proposing, among
other things, a row of 20-storey
towers along low-slung East
Broadway—area residents were
startled. The height limits were
out of scale, they argued, and
current residents would be
priced out of any new build-
ings; furthermore, the plan bore
little resemblance to proposals
‚oated at open houses over the
previous year. Vocal opposition
to the Grandview-Woodland
plan—which came to symbolize
everything wrong with planning
in Vancouver—ultimately forced
the city to make a very public
retreat and led to the resignation
of Brian Jackson, Vancouver's top
planner. Now, after two years of
focus groups, the plan is back on
track for council's consideration.
But will a new plan—and, indeed,
a new planner—have any better
reception?
According to Larry Beasley,
not likely—or not until there are
some fundamental changes at
city hall. Beasley, now a plan-
ning consultant and professor
at
UBC's School of Community
and Regional Planning, was
Vancouver's co-director of plan-
ning from 1992 to 2006 and is
largely credited with planning
the highrise communities in
Yaletown and Coal Harbour
(above) PaUL JoSePH; (beLow) PeTeR HoLST NoveMbeR 2015 BCBusiness 17
T HE MON T HLY IN FOR MER
TMı
"We are denitely seeing
the unemployment rate
increasing. When I talk to
our industry people here,
it is slowing down, but
things have not come to
a halt"
–p.23
"Frankly you have to
prove that you were
listening, which city
hall doesn't always
do a good job at"
–Brent Toderian,
former Vancouver
director of planning
N O V E M B E R 2 0 15
The Toughest Job in Vancouver
R e a l E s t a t e
between rampant NIMbYism and micromanaging politicians,
who would want to be a city planner these days? by Jacob Parry
INSIDE
Your donation dollars ... Crosst crazies ... A game of newspapers ... Lori Ackerman + more
CITY MAKER
Larry Beasley was
Vancouver's co-director
of planning until 2006 and
the man behind Yaletown
