Fans of the Front Street Parkade are planning a rally to encourage the city to pretty up the parkade and save it from the wrecking ball.
A group of downtown residents has been urging city council to scrap its plan to demolish the western portion of the parkade, work that’s set to get underway this year. The residents, who have launched a DeferTheDemolition SaveTheParkade page on Facebook, are planning an information rally for Saturday, March 21 at noon at the Fourth Street ramp of the parkade.
“I am hoping they will put a bit of a pause on it,” said New West resident Roland Guasparini. “You know, even if they go to a tender, which will give us more information about timing, costs all that kind of stuff, the demolition isn’t scheduled until after they do some of the rehabilitation work on the east side. As far as I am concerned, once people start seeing some of the things they can actually do to do some of the prettying up of the parkade – people may say, ‘Why don’t you do that to the rest of it? Why are you taking it down?’”
The group believes the city’s plan to demolish a portion of the parkade is unnecessary, saying it’s in excellent condition and is worthy of being repurposed to provide an elevated river-walk extension to Westminster Pier Park.
In April 2014, city council directed staff to proceed with work needed to deconstruct a portion of the Front Street parkade and to restore Front Street frontage road into a pedestrian-friendly area that includes angled parking, a wide sidewalk and a landscaped boulevard with trees.
The city’s 2015 capital plan includes $3.5 million for demolition of the portion of the parkade that’s located between Sixth and Begbie streets, but several residents have appeared before council in recent weeks to urge the city to reconsider its plan to tear down the parkade.
“I appreciate the comments they were making. I don't want to discount the types of items they were bringing forward, but the reality is the decision to move forward with the partial deconstruction was made several years ago,” Mayor Jonathan Cote told the Record. “We are at the phase where this project is actually moving forward and going to tender. We have passed the point of the consultation – and there was significant consultation on this decision for a number of years. I appreciate the comments that were made, but in my opinion it is not going to stop this project from moving forward.”
Residents have been trying to make the case that the parkade provides a connection between the downtown and the waterfront – a connection the city believes will be enhanced by knocking down part of the parkade. Cote said the parkade is a physical barrier between the waterfront and the downtown, which is where the city wants to create connections.
“I think if we didn't have the vision for the actual waterfront, whether that be the Westminster Pier Park or the proposed boardwalk and extension of the park from the Larco site, the parkade could very well have played a role like Highland Park in New York,” he said. “But the reality is, we have made investments to say our connection and our pathway is the waterfront. So how do we get people from the downtown to the waterfront and actually remove those barriers.”
Trucks and trains, say fans of the Front Street parkade, are the biggest obstacle to connecting the downtown to the waterfront.
Cote said the parkade isn’t the only barrier between the downtown and the waterfront, but until it’s removed it’s hard for many people to imagine the opportunities that exist in the area. By “daylighting” the street and using other urban techniques, he thinks Front Street will change dramatically.
“Right now, underneath the parkade is the worst air quality in all of Metro Vancouver. Icertainly wouldn't even want to be promoting a retail environment downtown there because from a health perspective it's not the place to be. But you start to remove the air-quality issues, you start to bring daylight to those issues, you start to recognize that the beautiful heritage buildings we have on Columbia Street are also wonderful heritage buildings on Front Street,” he said. “You are starting to re-imagine what that street can be. I am not going to sit here and say Front Street is going to become like Robson Street as soon as the parkade comes down, but having said that, it's going to start to take a different form and start to attract different type of businesses that will cater to all the new residents in the downtown. It's still going to be a gritty street but not all urban areas are perfect.”
A parking study of the downtown commissioned by the city concluded there is ample parking in the area. Residents, however, believe the parkade will be needed as development takes place on the two parking lots on either side of River Market.
“Certainly, as the Bosa site and the Larco site get developed – and both of those sites will include new public parking in there – there are going to be some challenges, just like there would be with any development site. I really believe the parkade is actually one of the barriers that is stopping the Larco site from being developed and the waterfront vision on that portion of the site from ever coming to reality,” Cote said. “Unless we are actually able to take that first step of trying to reconnect our historic downtown with our waterfront, all those other steps aren’t going to start to happen.”
Along with organizing a rally, proponents of keeping the parkade are accepting emails from parkade supporters at [email protected].
“It’s never done until it’s torn down,” Guasparini said.
