In an article for the Vancouver Sun, John Mackie writes of the potential risk to Chinatown posed by the provincial government’s proposed legislation:
The legislation announced earlier this month calls for eight- to 20-storey buildings within 800 metres of SkyTrain stations. It would require municipalities to “permit housing developments that meet provincial standards for allowable height and density.” This would mean up to eight storeys for much of Chinatown and Gastown, including the 200-block of Carrall Street in Gastown and the 000- and 100-blocks of East Pender Street in Chinatown, which have numerous buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Both areas have civic, provincial and federal heritage designations.
Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said Monday the government’s transit-oriented development plan will not overrule heritage protection for buildings in Chinatown or Gastown.
“The transit-oriented development will ensure communities that have heritage sites will still be able to make decisions around how they want to see (or) if they want to see heritage sites being developed,” he told reporters in Victoria. “Local governments will still have a say in that.”
Mackie quotes Craig Ollenburger of the Grandview Woodland Area Council, who provides these words of caution surrounding the NDP’s proposal:
“But a city is not just a blank slate. There’s people and places and culture and life there. If you obliterate all that with something like this … the speculation on the land is going to be insane.”
Share: 
