Agenda Index City of Vancouver

POLICY REPORT
URBAN STRUCTURE

TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: Director of City Plans in consultation with the General Manager of Engineering Services
SUBJECT: UBC Comprehensive Community Plan
 

INFORMATION

COUNCIL POLICY

On May 29, 1997 City Council supported the fourth and final reading by the GVRD of the Official Community Plan for Part of Electoral Area A, subject to certain agreements and commitments by UBC.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to update Council on the Comprehensive Community Plan now being prepared by UBC and on issues which may be of interest to the City.

BACKGROUND

The Official Community Plan for part of Electoral Area A was approved by the UBC Board of Governors, and adopted as an Official Community Plan by the Regional Board of the GVRD in July 1997. The Official Community Plan covers the University of British Columbia and the part of Pacific Spirit Regional Park along the foreshore, but does not coverthe University Hill residential area and the main part of Pacific Spirit Regional Park. Appendix A contains a map of the Comprehensive Community Plan Areas.

Throughout the Official Community Plan process, the City was mainly interested in:

… ensuring that much of the new housing serves UBC employees and students, to reduce commuting through Vancouver neighbourhoods;
… ensuring active UBC transportation planning, particularly traffic demand management and truck traffic management, to reduce impacts on Vancouver neighbourhoods;
… ensuring that parks, community services, and infrastructure services be adequately sized, appropriately phased, and funded in such a way that impacts on City taxpayer-funded facilities and services are avoided;
… ensuring ongoing consultation with the City on detailed area plans and development proposals; and
… reviewing the future governance of Electoral Area A

The agreement regarding implementation of the Official Community Plan called for “area plan(s) [which] would contain detailed land use plan and design guidelines, and servicing and transportation strategies. Area plan process would also produce zoning and or/other land use and development controls...”. Area plan(s) were to be done for 8 areas of significant non-institutional development or special sensitivity, and UBC staff were charged with doing the work.

UBC has prepared a draft Comprehensive Community Plan [on file with the City Clerk]. City staff liaises with UBC planners is through a Technical Advisory Committee. Staff on the Committee have been requested to comment on the draft Plan. The comments are also being forwarded to Council in this report, for information.

Other key implementation initiatives for the Official Community Plan are:

- Electoral Area A Governance Study

- Strategic Transportation Plan

DISCUSSION

As part of implementation of the Official Community Plan, UBC has prepared a Comprehensive Community Plan for the 8 areas of significant non-institutional development. The draft Community Plan mainly comprises general “principles”, sketch plans, and brief descriptions of building types and FSRs intended in these areas. While much of this is valuable, and consistent with the Official Community Plan, there are still significant missing pieces. No zoning or design guidelines are included. In addition, there are some proposals which require clarification, and/or amendment to the Official Community Plan.

City staff have prepared the attached comments on the draft Community Plan [Appendix B]. In summary, the following information and analyses are still needed, and when provided may alter the draft Plan:

- proposed unit numbers and sizes [e.g. ranges], distribution of non-market/market and rental/ownership, proposed development phasing; for each area and in an overview to show how consistency with Official Community Plan policies is achieved;
- information on the findings of the housing needs study, and how they relate to the housing proposed;
- rationale and impacts review for revised South Campus road network;
- clarification of transit terminal and routing intentions; adjustment of area plans to reflect these intentions;
- clarification of whether proposed relocation of the “village centre” commercial area from what is called for in the Official Community Plan is actually being pursued, or to be included as an option, or to be abandoned; and
- information on the sizes and phasing of the proposed parks and community centres, and how they meet Official Community Plan policies, including rationale and impacts review for the new proposed location of community centres.

Staff will be providing the comments to UBC for advice. While no action is required of Council at this time, if the concerns are not adequately addressed in the revised draft Community Plan, Council may need to take formal action in a few months time. Staff will report back when the revised draft Community Plan is submitted for City comments.

CONCLUSION

The draft UBC Comprehensive Community Plan reflects progress towards implementation of the 1997 Official Community Plan for part of Electoral Area A. UBC has chosen to undertake planning for all 8 development areas at one time. Staff review of the draft Comprehensive Community Plan indicates that, even allowing for UBC’s desire for more generality and less detail than the 1996 Memorandum of Agreement called for in area plan(s), the content of the draft Comprehensive Community Plan is not yet adequate to meet the City’s concerns as expressed at the time the Official Community Plan was prepared. There are significant omissions, as well as items that require clarification or consistency. A number of proposals seem to require amendment to the Official Community Plan, but that is up to the GVRD to determine.

UBC intends to revise the draft Comprehensive Community Plan based on comments received. When the revised draft Comprehensive Community Plan is completed, staff will review it and report to Council on its contents and any outstanding issues.

* * * * *


ag000215.htm

APPENDIX A ON FILE IN CITY CLERK’S OFFICE

APPENDIX B

City Comments on UBC Comprehensive Community Plan
Draft #1 (November 23, 1999)

1. Comprehensive Community Plan [CCP] Process and Current Status

The implementation agreement for the Official Community Plan [OCP] called for “area plan(s) [which] would contain detailed land use plan and design guidelines, and servicing and transportation strategies. Area plan process would also produce zoning and or/other land use and development controls...”. Area plan(s) were to be done for 8 areas of significant non-institutional development or special sensitivity.

The approach UBC has chosen to create and have adopted a CCP covering all 8 area plans at one time. The draft CCP was prepared by staff of the UBC Properties Trust [their real estate development arm] and the Campus Planning and Development Department. A number of consultants have also contributed to the draft CCP content.

As set out in MOU’96, the planning has involved 3 committees:
- UBC/GVRD Task Force: comprises 3 representatives each from GVRD Board and UBC Board, to oversee process and make recommendations to GVRD and UBC Boards. Councillor Jennifer Clark represents the City/GVRD on this Task Force.
- Technical Advisory Committee: comprises 6 staff from UBC Facilities/Planning, and 1 staff each from GVRD, UEL Administration, City of Vancouver, GVTA, and Ministry of Transport and Highways. Trish French is the City staff representative on this committee. Their role is to provide technical information to UBC staff and the Task.
- Advisory Planning Committee: established in November 1999, and comprises a rep each from: faculty, staff, students, 3 campus residential areas, the Musqueum Band, the Wreck Beach Association, and UEL, Dunbar, West Point Grey and Southlands neighbourhoods. Their role is to provide public input to UBC staff and the Task Force.

A public meeting was held on Campus on November 25, 1999 to present the draft CCP. The next step for UBC will be to develop a 2nd Draft CCP based on comments received. They hope to have this ready in late February or March, again to be publicly presented for review and comment. After this, a Final Draft CCP will be prepared to be presented to the UBC Board of Governors and GVRD Board for approval.

2. Importance of the CCP to City of Vancouver

As already noted, the CCP covers all 8 development areas. It contains less information than similar equivalent City major project Official Development Plans. This may result from UBC’s desire for flexibility, and from the challenge imposed by coming up with a plan for all 8 areas in a short period of time. Despite the MOU’96 requirement, zoning is not to be included in the CCP, and is presumably to be developed by UBC after CCP adoption. The CCP does refer to the idea of design guidelines, but it is not clear whether they will be part of the revised draft CCP or done after the CCP.

When completed, the CCP is to be endorsed by UBC Board of Governors and the GVRD Regional Board. Subsequently, the OCP, CCP, 1992 Campus Plan (and Strategic Transportation Plan [STP]) become the governing documents controlling development. Under the current governance structure, which looks set to stay in place, once the CCP is approved, UBC becomes the sole regulatory authority, as well as being developer. Once the CCP is adopted, the next opportunity for significant City influence will be when OCP is reviewed, 5 years from the date of its adoption, i.e. 2002.

It is therefore critical that the City is satisfied that the CCP is adequate to ensure that the commitments made in the OCP to address City issues are or can be fulfilled, and to allow for effective review of progress made when the OCP review comes up.

A significant amount of work has been done by UBC on the draft CCP, and much of what they have produced is valuable, and is consistent with the OCP. However, at this point, the draft CCP does not meet the requirements for area plan[s] set out in the MOU’96 - even allowing for the more comprehensive, less detailed approach which UBC has decided to take to the area plan(s). There remain significant omissions, outlined below, which City staff recommended be remedied.

3. Comments on Draft CCP

The comments below address only the issues of concern to the City of Vancouver, as raised during the process of developing the OCP, which require further work or clarification in the CCP. The current governance structure is assumed, with the City in its current role as an adjacent municipality.

The following topics are addressed: Housing; Road Network; Transit; Commercial Services; Parks, Community Centres & Library Services; and Infrastructure Servicing. In each case,the City’s interest is restated, OCP and MOU requirements are summarized, the CCP proposals briefly described, and implications and suggestions discussed.

(a) Housing

(b) Road Network

(c) Transit

(d) Commercial Services

(e) Parks, Community Centre, Library Services, School

(f) Infrastructure Servicing


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