Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/609048
46 simon FALL 2015 the campus. Behind this demand lay a critical difference of opinion. SFU saw the grant as an endowment, while Burnaby insisted that most of it was a forest conservation area, held in trust by the Univer- sity but not available for commercial devel- opment. One should understand that the University was look- ing for new income in tough financial times, while green activists on and off the city council were intent on protect- ing the mountain's for- est as a conservation area. As one councillor said, "I don't want to look up from my office window to see tow- ers sprouting on the mountain." Ironically, SFU's first chancellor, Gordon Shrum, had claimed when interviewed by broadcaster Peter Stursberg that he had demanded far more wild land on the mountain than the University could possibly use—as protec- tion against future city-sponsored develop- ment. He wanted a secure greenbelt around the University. The threat that he had then feared from the City, the City now feared on the part of the University. On the conser vation issue, there seems to have been a common under- st a nd i n g t h at emer g ed once t he t wo sides got to know each other. Negotiation was a process that took a couple of years during Stubbs' presidency, but led to a formal agreement in November 1995. SFU returned most of its original land grant to the city to put into a for- est conservancy park, while the City of Burnaby endorsed SFU's plans for residential and commercial development on the land it retained. More than that—in exchange the City gave the University a one- time payment of $15 million as an endow- ment fund for univer- sity programs and as a financial stake with which to begin plan- ning a residential com- munity on 200 acres of wild land inside the ring road. Those who were close to the scene give SFU's Jack Blaney and Warren Gill (respec- tively vice-president and executive direc- tor for Harbour Cen- tre) a lot of credit for the results. What they brought to the table, particularly as the builders of SFU's Continuing Stud ies program, was a long- time commitment to universit y extension and outreach; and their sense of the inter- dependence of university and community made them very effective in this situation. As well, the University took seriously the city's concerns about the downhill haz- ards of any development at the top—toxic spillage or rainwater runoff—and readily made sustainable, green standards an essen- tial feature of the project. Selecting architect/planner Michael Geller to design and direct the develop- ment for the first seven years telegraphed the University's green intention. Geller had long been an innovator, designing and launching the kind of sustainable com- munity developments that SFU wished to undertake. Among Geller's creative ideas for the UniverCity community was a reduced- cost transit pass for residents. This was modelled on the U-Pass program for SFU and UBC students, but was to be offered to non-students as a community benefit. It was a marketing device that also admirably advanced the green objec- tive of taking people out of their cars and putting them in public transport. And, as with the U-Passes, it worked wonderfully in boosting ridership on buses and rapid transit. Community members could a get a three-zone pass—good for travelling the length and breadth of the metropoli- tan area—for about a fifth of the normal cost. The system came into effect in 2006 and continued for five years. But its effects have lasted, helping to make UniverCity residents less likely—by 30 per cent— to resort to a car than the average metropolitan are a resident. FOUR INITIATIVES The UniverCity development has been the fourth great initiative in SFU's 50-year histor y. The f irst was to establish the University on Burnaby Mountain. The second was to take the University down- town to the commercial and financial hub of Vancouver, where it now has four striking locations—Harbour Centre, the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, the Segal Graduate School of Business, and the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, all within the radius of a few blocks. The third was to open an impressive campus within Surrey's mixed-use Central City Office Tower. The campuses in downtown Vancouver and at Surrey Central City have enhanced the University's presence throughout Metro Vancouver. SFU's red banners are flying where UBC's cannot be found. And SFU has become an institution that reaches out to students and the public rather than expecting the approach always to come from the other side. It is steadily becoming better at marketing its offerings and facilities. And the consequences of this ability, which has been developing for some time, will likely continue to manifest One much- repeated objection to the placement of SFU's main cam- pus has been its distance from the heart of Vancou- ver. UBC, at the end of a peninsula, has drawn the same criticism