The Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver's latest proposal hasn't even made it to the public hearing and folks are lining up to offer their input.
The society has applied to re-zone 273 and 275 Sherbrooke St. from residential dwelling districts to a comprehensive development district zone. The society is proposing to construct a building at the site that includes a three-storey component (a multipurpose space would be on the ground floor and the society's offices would be on the second and third floors), and a two-storey component that includes 10 units of independent longterm, non-market housing for women and women with children.
In June, city council approved an official community plan amendment for the site. The proposal presented at that time included a four-storey and a two-storey building, but the four-storey portion has been downsized to three storeys and a 37-space licensed childcare centre on the ground floor has been eliminated for the time being.
"The community seemed so against it," Shawn Bayes, the society's executive director, said about the childcare centre. "I actually thought we were doing something that would make people happier."
Bayes said the multipurpose space being included on the ground floor could be used for day care in the future.
"That space, if it made sense, we would provide daycare," she told council Monday night. "We believe in it."
With childcare being proposed at the nearby Brewery District site, the society has decided to hold off on creating daycare space for the time being. Bayes said the city was seeking certain requirements regarding the space, and the society was concerned about being locked in to providing childcare for a period of time even if it wasn't financially viable for the nonprofit organization.
Bayes told The Record that in addition to reducing the building by one storey, the architects "pulled the building in" and created more of a residential feel by including entrances onto Kelly Street for the housing units.
A staff report states that the society has responded to neighbours' concerns by creating a smaller building that's more compatible with the neighbourhood and reduces shadowing - but still meets the society's organizational needs.
"EFry can't stay where it is," said Bayes of the administration space offered in its head office next door to the proposed site. "We work in the hallways. That is an unsustainable work plan."
Council has given two readings to the rezoning bylaw and will consider the proposal at an Oct. 22 public hearing.
Lower Sapperton resident Ross Eichendorf told council Monday night that the Elizabeth Fry Society previously tried to sell the project to the community and council on the basis of it providing childcare, employment of daycare workers and offices for the society, but only one of those objectives is being met under the current proposal. He voiced concern that the new proposal is still pushing commercial/institution into the residential neighbourhood, and is now pushing it onto Kelly Street.
"You are going to push that entrance onto Kelly Street," he said. "You are going to have another group loitering in the neighbourhood. It's not right."
Eichendorf also expressed concern that 20 proposed parking spaces isn't enough for the project.
Area resident Catherine Cartwright said she is "astounded" by the lengths the city's planning staff will go to get their "pet social engineering" project approved by council. She said the dates on some of the project's drawings indicate a new design was in the works during the official community plan amendment process, and staff would have known that the society was changing its plans.
Cartwright said it's "laughable" that staff would suggest that the new proposal has been done to address neighbours' concerns. If that was the case, she said the message should have been that expansion of institutional services shouldn't be done in a residential neighbourhood.
