Some downtown residents are appealing to city council to reverse its decision to demolish the western portion of the Front Street Parkade.
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. Record reporter Theresa McManus spoke with Mayor Jonathan Cote about some of the concerns being raised by downtown residents.
Q: The decision to take down part of the parkade was made some time ago. Were you swayed at all by some of the things these folks were saying?
A: 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. 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. A lot of the issues raised are issues we discussed and debated about in making those decisions, but ultimately the city has decided, for a multitude of reasons, to move ahead with this project.
Q: With the Bosa development set to take place on the waterfront, that existing parking will be lost in the short-term. Some say the parkade could provide some alternate parking. Any thoughts?
A: 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. 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. All of the studies we had on parking basically said for the next 30-plus years, the part of the parkade that is going to remain is more than sufficient to meet the downtown needs. At that point in time, who knows where we will be about a future conversation about parking, but at least for the timeframe that we are dealing with here, the parking is more than adequately addressed for the downtown neighbourhood.
Q: Discussions about taking down the parkade structure have been taking place for years. One of the delegations thinks the parkade actually provides a connection between the downtown and the waterfront, and that connection could have been enhanced by doing different things on the parkade itself, particularly the top deck to make it more attractive and user friendly. Was that ever really explored – I don’t recall that being part of the discussion?
A: 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. 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. Part of that is with the existing parkade creating the overpass/pedestrian connection on Fourth Street, which we will be opening up very soon. But the other part is recognizing the parkade in and of itself is part of that physical barrier between the waterfront and our downtown, and that's where we want to make those connections, is between the waterfront and the downtown, not necessarily having the parkade be that park structure, which is many cases would be a duplication of all the efforts we are doing right on the waterfront.
Q: It’s been suggested that the parkade isn’t the real barrier between the downtown and the waterfront and the trains and trucks pose the biggest barrier between the waterfront and the downtown. You may lose the parkade on the western end, but access is still challenging to the waterfront.
A: I can’t sit here and say the parkade is the only barrier between the downtown and the waterfront, but to me it is one of a few barriers. I don't think you are going to be able to re-imagine what opportunities you might have in terms of either the trucks or railroads unless you first are prepared to take leadership on basically a large concrete structure there. I think this is the first step of realigning what the city wants that area to be. If it's just a big concrete structure with lots of trucks moving under it, than that's never going to change. But if the city actually says, 'we envision Front Street being more of a commercial street where people might actually come down to visit,’ when you start to make the pieces of that happen together that you can start to re-imagine the truck route, start to re-imagine the rail lines. To me, I see it as the first of several steps that will happen over a long period of time. If you aren't prepared to take that first step, you'll never get to those longer-term goals.
Q: One of the delegations suggested council had been mislead about the mews being successful on Front Street beside the railway tracks. What do you think will want to be shopping and walking alongside the trucks and trains?
A: Certainly Front Street has had its ups and downs. It’s actually had some retail environment, even under its current situation, being buried in a parkade and next to all these routes. There are still going to be some barriers in terms of creating what I would call a vibrant retail network, but, having said that, I think if you remove the parkade and start to daylight Front Street and are able to create a bit of a barrier between the truck route and the rail lines and start to, through different urban techniques, really start to create a bit of a different environment, you are going to see that street take a completely different form. 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. 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.
Q: Some downtown residents say the parkade provides a bit of a noise barrier to downtown residents and shields them from some of the truck noise, something that will be lost with the demolition of part of the parkade. You, yourself, live in the downtown. Are you concerned about this?
A: I do live down there. I think if you live in close proximity, you will start to see, particularly when the truck traffic is at its heaviest points during the day, there will be a bit of a noise impact. Even thinking of the new tower at the Trapp Block, they were well aware of the city’s plans, and it was even part of the promotions in the sales centre that that will be going down there. I think there was a recognition that there was a tradeoff in terms of daylighting your street and creating a new street to the fact that yes, especially the buildings in close proximity, there will be some noise impacts.
