The same
holds true for the Athletes’ Village in Southeast False Creek. It too got off
to a rough start following the receivership of the developer and debts exceeding
projected revenues.
While I was
critical of the city’s management of the project marketing, including a sign on
the sales centre door telling potential buyers not to park on the street or they
would be ticketed, today the Olympic Village is a very successful community.
The Olympic Village is not the only city-sponsored community to have a rough start. The
same applies to False Creek South, located on 55 hectares (136 acres) of
formerly industrial lands between Cambie Bridge and Granville Island, where land
leases for many cooperative and non-market rental projects will soon expire.
Today False
Creek South is considered one of the most attractive and livable waterfront
communities in Canada. However, in the 1970s it was mired in controversy.
Then mayor
Art Phillips and UBC planning professor and Alderman Walter Hardwick, father of
today’s city councillor Colleen Hardwick, proposed a truly visionary community
with a broad income mix and variety of building forms. However, many civic organizations
were vehemently opposed.
Park Board
commissioner George Puil argued that all the land should be a park and many residents
agreed with him. Craig Campbell, a 35-year old city planner working on the
project made headlines by quitting his job after proclaiming “I believe the
city-owned land on False Creek to be among the very worst spots in the entire
city to build a lot of housing.”
Alderman Harry
Rankin urged skid road residents to fight the city’s plan to mix low- and
high-income people and even the Board of Trade opposed the development.
With half
of the public wanting a waterfront park and the other half supporting a planned
residential community, the city did the politically astute thing and created a
park on half the property and housing and commercial uses on the balance.
In 1974,
during the False Creek debate, I arrived in Vancouver as the assistant
architect-planner for CMHC. Many of my CMHC colleagues were convinced the
community would be a failure and worried that any association with it would limit
their future career opportunities.
I believed otherwise
and in 1975 was appointed CMHC’s Special Coordinator for False Creek South.
Despite
project leadership by Doug Sutcliffe, a well-respected former Dominion
Construction executive, none of Vancouver’s developers wanted to be involved
with the community. (Note: the banks didn't want to either. The city threatened to move its accounts in order to secure a lender.)
For one
thing, they questioned the market viability of condominiums on leased land
since it had never been done before in Canada.
Consequently,
the city coerced two well-known contractors, Stanzl Construction and Haebler
Construction, to become condominium developers. In return, they were offered contracts
to build some of the rental and social housing projects.
False Creek
South was innovative in so many ways. Thanks to generous senior government
funding programs, it was possible to create a community with one third
low-income, one-third mid income and one-third higher income residents.
The first
phase included neighbourhood shops and a school, along with experimental planning
concepts and building forms. These included stacked townhouses and mixed-use mid-rise
apartments that were unprecedented in Vancouver.
False Creek
South was planned as a model sustainable community with pedestrian-only streets
and reduced parking. To ensure public transit was in place the day the first
residents moved in, Art Phillips proposed an innovative funding arrangement to
subsidize BC Transit by levying a $5 per month charge on every housing unit until
there was enough ridership.
Over the
coming months we will hear and read much about False Creek South as the
residents, many of whom have lived in the same dwellings since the very beginning,
demand new affordable leases from the city.
In a future
column I will share some ideas on future redevelopment opportunities that will
allow both residents and the city administration to have their cake and eat it
too.
