The revised Marpole Community Plan finally goes before council April 2 — two years after city staff began working on it. Once adopted, the plan will guide growth and development over the next 30 years.
Residents protested the draft plan, largely over concerns about proposed rezoning of single-family areas, but the latest document appears to satisfy many critics, including Mike Burdick, spokesman for the Marpole Residents’ Coalition, who said the majority of the group’s members support the plan.
“The reason we’re in favour of it is because it basically fulfills our mandate when we started the coalition, which was to remove the single-family homes from the rezoning effort,” he said. “Almost 100 per cent of the single-family homes were going to be rezoned and now it’s only about 15 per cent.
Burdick acknowledged not everyone backs the document, “but they have a right to speak to that at the council meeting. As far as the organizing group goes, the people who have been to meetings for the last 10 months, we’re happy with it.”
(Tuesday afternoon, a copy of proposed amendment for the Marpole Plan was emailed to the Courier, which was drafted by Marpole residents Don Larson, Wendy Turner, Anita Romaniuk, Claudia Laroye, Gudrun Langolf, Ron Richings and Terry Slack. It asks that city council instruct city staff to investigate the undeveloped lands between Kent Avenue south to the Fraser River in the proximity of Cambie Street [to the west] with an intent to purchase one or more properties for the purpose of developing a ten-acre park. The proposed amendment asks that the park be created in the next two years and that a committee be formed to assist in developing and designing the proposed park and riverfront walkway.)
While Burdick said it’s not a perfect plan, he applauded the planning department’s effort to consult with the coalition over the past nine months.
He cited some remaining areas of concern such as traffic and transportation and the location of the community centre, which is due to be upgraded.
The current location of the centre is Oak Park, but Burdick said there appears to be a movement afoot to relocate it to the south part of Granville Street. He favours the existing location.
Coalition members are also worried about the impact on Marpole of development at Oakridge Centre, Langara Gardens, the Pearson-Dogwoods lands and the MC2 project at Cambie and Marine Drive. “There is no provision to handle these people,” he maintains.
As of Monday afternoon, 18 people had signed up to speak about the revised plan at the council meeting, according to Matt Shillito, the city’s assistant director of community planning.
“I think it represents a really good balance between what the existing community has told us, and what their desires are, and our need to plan for the future of the community and for the future of the city as a whole,” he said.
“It strikes a good balance between those two things and there are often tensions between what residents might want and what we might need to do in terms of planning responsibly for the future and for new residents and for growth and change in a city.”
Regarding concerns about traffic and transportation, Shillito said the revised plan provides a comprehensive look at different modes of transportation and how to deal with existing traffic issues. He said many concerns focus on drivers diverting off of major arterials to shortcut through residential neighbourhoods, and the barriers major arterials present to pedestrians and cyclists.
Shillito also said the plan includes a strategy for upgrading the community centre, as well as the library and the neighbourhood house.
“What the plan hasn’t done is conclude on the right combination or location of those facilities,” he said.
If council approves the plan, Shillito said staff would work with the community on the best combination of the facilities and where they would be located.
“Right now all of the options are open on that. We have heard from the community. I’d say the majority of the people, at least that we’ve heard from, have been keen to see the community centre stay at Oak Park, but we want to look at it more thoroughly.”
