Architecture
April 15, 2021

The Last Highrise in Kitsilano

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Michael Gordon* explores a misconception about Kitsilano in the Seventies – that, in a reaction to what was felt to be ‘out-of-control overdevelopment’ (see West End), Kits was downzoned.  Not quite.

 

Many years ago, Vancouver’s Director of Community Planning advised me that the 1975 downzoning in Kitsilano to prevent highrise residential development was not a downzoning. Upon further researching this, I discovered to some extent he had a point.

In July 1964 Kitsilano, Fairview, Kerrisdale, Mt.Pleasant and other neighbourhoods had their apartment RM-3 zoning amended to encourage ‘tower in the park’ residential development up to 120 feet.** Previously, the maximum height was three to four storeys.  Subsequently in Kitsilano, only seven highrise residential buildings were built along with a variety of four-storey wood-frame apartment buildings.

The RM-3 zoning had encouraged large site assemblies because it was the only way to achieve the maximum density and height of 36.6 metres (or about 11 to 13 storeys). Density bonuses were given for large sites, low site coverage and enclosed or underground parking. (This zoning still applies in areas of Fairview and Kerrisdale.)  Small- and medium-sized sites were built to a lower density and three- to four-storey wood-frame construction.

Things started to heat up in Kitsilano in the 1970s when:

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Business & Economy
April 14, 2021

How Three Simple Words Will Transform Wayfinding in Cities and Spaces

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Veronica Reynolds is the sustainable travel advisor for Milton Park which is a one square kilometre office and industrial park with 7,500 employees and over 250 organizations near London. She’s been very successful at getting people to look at other options besides motor vehicles for commuting, and has installed new walking paths and connecting cycling bridges around highway infrastructure. I previously wrote about her implementation of the first autonomous public transit shuttles in Great Britain to service the park.

Veronica asked me if I knew “what3words”.  I did not.

What3words is a geolocation technology that looks at the world made up of squares of three meters by three meters. That makes a whole lot of squares, and each square is given an address with three words. The addresses are translated into 43 different languages, and yes the addresses are not the translations of the same words.

Vancouver’s City Hall’s three word geolocation is putty.averages.closets.

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Transportation
April 14, 2021

Pandemic Change: Global Recovery and Demand in Driving, Walking and Transit

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Cubic, the company that provides TransLink with Compass technology, collects data on how mobility is changing in cities around the world, including Vancouver.

As cities are starting to re-open, road congestion is growing while transit continues to lag, signaling that congestion may become more severe than pre-pandemic levels.

Here’s the one for April:

Lots of room for interpretation here. (What’s up with Singapore?)  Clearly there’s a big difference in Motordom cities like Miami and transit-dependent ones like London.  Vancouver, as expected, falls in the mid-range of change – except when it comes to walking.  Guesses?

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Governance & Politics
April 13, 2021

Not in My Back Yard! Marine Drive Golf Course Says No to Public Access on the Fraser River Trail Greenway

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Take a walk on the Fraser River Trail Greenway which is the perfect thing to do on a brisk spring day. You can start at the south foot of Blenheim Street, and you can go west where the private Point Grey Golf Club has worked with the City to create a publicly accessible trail along the Fraser River.

There was one section of the Fraser River Trail Greenway south of the Point Grey Golf Course that was inaccessible due to a large stream embankment. The Simpson Family in Southlands who had lost a son in an accident in the armed forces chose to honour his memory and paid for the public bridge which is accessible to walkers, rollers, cyclists and horse back riders. You can continue on that trail that proceeds west through the ancient territory of the Musqueam First Nation, and that trail joins up to Pacific Spirit Park at Southwest Marine Drive.

 

But let’s say you choose to go east on the City of Vancouver’s Fraser River Trail which was approved by Council in 1995. There is a footpath on city public lands, and you then can follow the Fraser River beside the city’s McCleery Public Golf Course. It’s a wonderful walk beside the Fraser. And then you run into this:

And there is the obnoxious, anonymous signage:

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Business & Economy
April 13, 2021

The Battery Revolution in Our Times

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When technology and economy come together, that’s usually called a revolution.

You can get one of these electric scooters for a few hundred bucks at Canadian Tire:

 

Joe Sulmona says you may soon be able to get one of these if you need  more carrying capacity.

Bigger battery too.  From Euractiv:

Advances in technology mean that battery-powered heavy trucks can go up against their fossil-fuel counterparts on price and – with better charging infrastructure – on range, according to the study, conducted by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), an independent research institute.

“A tipping point is in sight for electric trucks,” said Björn Nykvist, lead author and senior researcher at SEI. “Battery technology is very close to a threshold that makes electric trucks feasible and economically competitive. All that is missing is one companion component: fast charging.”

If you’d like to know more the evolution of one-person electric transportation and its impact on urban transit as a whole,  here’s a more definitive piece from Boundmotor:

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Events
April 13, 2021

Free Webinar: Multiple Community Benefits: The New Role of Parks and Recreation

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Smart Growth America and the Maryland Department of Planning presents a free webinar:

Parks and recreation systems have evolved during the past two decades. No longer regarded as simply playgrounds and ballfields, parks and open spaces are being increasingly viewed as green infrastructure, with the potential to contribute to community resiliency and sustainability. To capitalize on this potential.

Join the Maryland Department of Planning and the Smart Growth Network at 1 p.m. Eastern, Friday, April 16, as Dr. David Barth, AICP, ASLA, CPRP, outlines an approach to creating parks systems that generate greater economic, social, and environmental benefits.

Dr. Barth will explain why parks and recreation systems should be regarded as elements of an integrated public realm and illustrate how these spaces can be designed to generate multiple community benefits.

Date: Friday April 16 2021
Time: 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time
You can register by clicking this link.

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COVID Place making
April 12, 2021

The First Day at School Street

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This morning on the Comox Greenway side of Lord Roberts Elementary School, an experiment began.  “School Street” – a pilot program for four weeks at three schools is, according Jeff Leigh of HUB (below left), designed to allow easier access by those who walk, bike and roll to class (or drop off their kids to get there).

Comox has been closed to vehicles for a block during drop-off and pick-up times, but it needn’t be so permanently if safe access was provided (like separated bike lanes, as has been on done on other parts of the greenway.)  There are still places for those in cars to access the school, but ‘School Street’ is as much a message as a physical change.

Here’s Dale Bracewell, the City’s Manager of Transportation Planning, who was present at the creation of the Comox Greenway years ago.

The West End was home to (maybe the first) traffic calming in North America back in the early 70s, and it has weathered various controversies that inevitably occur when changes are made to vehicle access and parking.  School Street is another in the generation of changes to the post-Motordom city.

 

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