Vancouver entrenches in plans to tear down viaducts

[Man Mountain]

http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/712250/vancouver-entrenches-in-plans-to-tear-down-viaducts/

Vancouver entrenches in plans to tear down viaducts
By Emily Jackson
Metro Vancouver
June 19, 2013 Updated: June 19, 2013 | 7:31 pm

Tear ‘em down.

The city won’t come straight out and say it, but that’s the general message in a staff report (PDF file - http://former.vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20130625/documents/rr1.pdf ) released Wednesday regarding the future of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts.

City council will vote next week on the report that recommends spending two more years hammering out the details of removing the viaducts and planning the surrounding neighbourhoods before council makes a final decision.

It refers to the viaducts as an “urban scar” and a “physical and psychological barrier,” and adds that removing them is a rare opportunity to “correct a past planning wrong.”

It also touts the benefits of removal, including increased waterfront parkland, 200 to 300 units of affordable and subsidized housing on city land, and connections between Vancouver’s historic neighbourhoods and False Creek.

Going forward, the guiding principles will be “to create an active and diverse waterfront neighbourhood through removal of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts, shifting the balance away from an automobile-dominated landscape to one focusing on improving public life.”

“The case around building a new neighbourhood versus status quo looks more and more compelling,” Mayor Gregor Robertson said Wednesday, adding the area is a “dead zone.”

Despite the report’s strong language, Robertson said the removal isn’t a done deal since the city must negotiate with the landowners, including the province and Concord Pacific, as well as surrounding neighbourhoods.

Alternatives to removal weren’t explored in the report because the best options from an ideas competition for the viaducts’ future involved removal, Robertson added.

According to the report’s timeline, construction could begin in 2017 should council approve the removal in 2015. (The next municipal election is in 2014.)

Should council approve the report next week, the city will spend $2.4 million over the next two years on staff, consultants and public consultation to determine how to proceed with the potential removal and to design the future streetscape.

Removing the viaducts will cost $115-$132 million over the next five to 10 years, though the 10 acres of city land freed by their demolition would be incredibly valuable to developers.

Keeping the viaducts would cost much less in the short term ($35-$40 million over the next five to 15 years), though they would need to be replaced for $60-$80 million in about 40 years.

The viaducts were originally built in the 1970s as part of an extensive highway system, but public opposition quashed the rest of the freeways. At their busiest, the roads only carry half the traffic they were designed to (750 vehicles per lane per hour), according to the report.

The main challenge in removing the viaducts will be accommodating the cars, cabs and full size trucks that depend on the arterials. Surrounding neighbourhoods such as Strathcona are worried about increased traffic.

 

[VanessaofBC]

I read this article on the Skytrain today too.

Great even more traffic in a neighbourhood that already hates traffic.

Question. Being new to Vancouver I heard a lot of shady stuff goes on under neath the viaduct. Could that be another reason for wanting to take it down?

 

[Man Mountain]

Question. Being new to Vancouver I heard a lot of shady stuff goes on under neath the viaduct. Could that be another reason for wanting to take it down?

I have a feeling that it has more to do with this:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...2/07/20/bc-rogers-arena-rental-vancouver.html

3 rental towers approved for Vancouver's Rogers Arena
CBC News Posted: Jul 20, 2012 10:03 AM PT Last Updated: Jul 20, 2012 11:43 AM PT

Vancouver council has approved a plan by the owners of the Canucks to build three residential and commercial towers next to Rogers Arena — the city's largest rental housing project in 40 years.

The Aquilini Investment Group says complex will include 614 rental condos, and rents are expected to range from $1,200 to $2,000.

Some rental groups have already criticized the project, saying the rates are too high for people on welfare, and there are no social housing units in the plan.

But Counc. Kerry Jang says the city needs a range of rental housing.

"We need a range of housing options for people of all ages and incomes,” said Jang. “For the first time in decades, we are seeing purpose-built Vancouver rental housing finally being constructed to help realize that goal."

The complex is targeted at professionals and families with average annual incomes of $80,000 who want to live downtown, he said.

"When you think about it, if you were to buy a house, or a condo in the city of Vancouver, your average mortgage payment would be more than $3,000, so this gives families the opportunity to live downtown in a brand new place, but also helps them save money for eventual home-ownership in due course," said Jang.

The largest rental project in the city's history was Langara Gardens, which was built in the early 70's.

The computer model image at the link shows the proposed towers and the viaducts but I still wonder if the removal of the viaducts would make it more convenient to construct those towers and how much the current plans for those towers would be altered.

 

[CJ Tylers]

They could add more towers without the viaduct, simple as that. The developer has paid them to do it, they are doing it, to hell with the community.

 

[CJ Tylers]

There is that... a certain degree of "green leaning" in the rhetoric. As much as I despise and disagree with them, they are doing what they think will make the city a better place to live and work. They are trying things, rather than simply allowing the status quo to continue. If anything, at least it gives us something to laugh and/or cry about.

 

[VanessaofBC]

I heard there has been more building permits issued in the last year in Vancouver & area, since the Expo Boom in the 80s.

It is also in line with their anti-vehicle, pro-bike leanings.

I talk to taxi drivers all the time unless the earth shifts and we magically end up with more sunny than rainy days these bike lanes are only making traffic worse.

edit: which skytrain is that close to Stadium then, or Chinatown?