SUPPORTS ITEM NO. 1
P&E COMMITTEE AGENDA
FEBRUARY 29, 1996
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: February 13, 1996
Dept. File No.
TO: Standing Committee on Planning and Environment
FROM: General Manager, Park Board
SUBJECT: Hastings Park Planning
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT the attached Hastings Park Program (Appendix 1) be
approved as the basis for the development of a conceptual
design plan.
B. THAT $35,000 be approved for commissioning an adaptive re-use
study for three buildings: the Forum, the Garden Auditorium
and Rollerland; source of funding to be the Hastings Park
Reserve.
COUNCIL/BOARD POLICY
City Council and Park Board are both committed to the greening of
Hastings Park. Council approves the budget available for this project.
BACKGROUND
In 1990, City Council reaffirmed its intention to resume control and
operation of Hastings Park from the Provincial Government, and further
define its commitment to restore Hastings Park "to dominant park use
with abundant park space and trees instead of asphalt and buildings".
The Park Board (March 6, 1995) and City Council (March 16, 1995) passed
the following resolutions:
A. THAT the Hastings Park planning process, as outlined in this
report be approved.
B. THAT City Council be requested to approve $350,000 for the
implementation of this planning process, with the funding to
be provided from the Hastings Park reserve.
The planning process commenced in 1995 identified five phases:
- preparation
- programming
- conceptual design
- design development
- plan adoption
The preparation phase was completed in September 1995, and with the
approval of this program document, the programming phase is complete.
DISCUSSION
Public Involvement
The public involvement program in framing up this document has been
quite extensive and has:
1. Involved the distribution of two newsletters to 9,000 area
residents.
2. The two community conferences(May and October 1995) attended by 100
- 130 people each.
3. About forty meetings of the six Forums (Racetrack, Hastings
Residents, Vancouver Residents, Environment, Arts & Culture, and
Sports).
4. Eighteen meetings of the Hastings Park Working Committee.
5. Consultation with a wide variety of community groups.
When Council approved the public involvement structure it was foreseen
that there would be 8 interest based forums. These forums were intended
for people with similar interests to provide input into the planning
process. Council also assigned the number of representatives that each
of the Forums could have on a coordinating group known as the Hastings
Park Working Committee. The number of representatives were as follows:
Hastings Residents 5
Racetrack 3
Site Employees 2
Vancouver Residents 1
Sports 1
Environment 1
Arts & Culture 1
Youth 1
Business 1
Two of the forums did not materialize: Business and Youth. Despite an
intensive effort to organize Hastings Street merchants, there was
insufficient interest to form a group.
Similarly the Youth Forum proved impossible to establish despite several
efforts. Instead the co-design workshops which were a part of the
original work program were exclusively focussed on secondary school
students in the immediate catchment area. This proved successful in
obtaining a youth perspective on the future of Hastings Park.
The site employees remained a part of the Working Committee but at their
choice participated only in a few of the meetings.
The process has resolved a number of the issues identified at the outset
of the program, and some other issues have been distilled into distinct
options which require further evaluation in the context of the
conceptual design studies.
Greening of Hastings Park
The program document establishes the basis for developing highly
creative designs aimed at restoring Hastings Park "to dominant park use
with abundant green space and trees instead of buildings and asphalt",
in accordance with Council's direction. Statistically of the 162 acre
site, 51 acres are leased to the Racetrack, and further 17 acres would
be taken up with parking areas and buildings to be retained, leaving
about 94 acres to be devoted to green space.
The program for the greening of Hastings Park is premised on
restoration, integration, connection and experimentation. The park
program intends to restore its overall green character and, in
particular, focus on the daylighting of one of the two streams that once
traversed the site. The park's green sanctuary will be defined by this
stream and a series of associated waterbodies. Extending outwards from
the stream, there will be layers of increasing activity which will
include a variety of sports, recreational and cultural activities.
The following objectives are key elements in the greening of Hastings
Park:
. Restore the park's stream.
. Restore the park's natural features.
. Restore a green sanctuary.
. Focus community pride.
. Connect the park to the neighbourhood.
. Connect with adjacent parks.
. Integrate active and passive park uses.
. Integrate the old with the new.
. Integrate Racetrack within the park.
. Experiment with new ideas.
. Create a safe park.
Buildings
Council's direction with regards to the buildings was that all major
buildings except for the Garden Auditorium, the Agrodome, and the
Coliseum be removed in order to make way for green space. During the
process there was considerable discussion about this matter. The
heritage classification of the Garden (A), Forum (B), Food (B), and
Rollerland (B) buildings were noted, and some stakeholders initially
felt that many of these buildings held potential for a variety of arts,
cultural, and recreational pursuits. A consensus was eventually arrived
at by noting that adaptive reuse studies should be done for three
buildings, namely the Forum, Rollerland, and the Garden Auditorium.
These studies would examine the costs and benefits of renovating these
buildings to a range of possible uses.
In the case of the Forum, the principal use involves community ice. A
consultant study on the demand for community ice concluded that there
presently is a firm demand within Vancouver for at least 60 hours a week
out of a capacity of 110 hours. Participation in minor hockey, the
principal user of the community ice rinks, is at an all time historical
high, and is expected to remain strong though it may ease off somewhat
over time. While a good portion of the additional demand is generated
on the west side of the City, it is possible that if the Forum can be
adapted at a relatively modest cost, the Forum may in fact be a viable
option. However the Park Board would also have other options available
to meet the additional demand for ice time, should the demand continue.
These options include twinning an existing rink (low operating costs,
high capital) or renting ice time for minor hockey in private rinks
(greater travelling distances for players). The study also notes that
24 private rinks have recently been added in the region, plus a further
12 are in various stages of design and permitting.
The proposed uses for the Garden Auditorium and Rollerland overlap
substantially. A range of community recreation activities such as
indoor volleyball, basketball, aerobics and other general gymnasium
uses, community arts and cultural activities, including a performance
space and rehearsal spaces for music, theatre, as well as workshop space
for community arts activities such as the Public Dreams Society could be
accommodated in these buildings.
Therefore, a separate adaptive research study is recommended to:
a) verify the demand for the proposed community arts,
cultural/recreational uses,
b) identify the best fit between buildings and uses,
c) identify the costs associated with adapting the buildings to
the proposed uses, meeting all applicable building code
requirements.
An adaptive re-use study is expected to be in the order of $35,000. The
earlier Council report had identified a total of $350,000 for the
Hastings Park Planning Process, but noted that the budget allocation for
building redesign was only minimal. A more extensive study, as now
proposed, would therefore require some additional funding.
Agrodome:
The Agrodome is to operate as a community ice rink, while hosting the
occasional spectator event, not unlike the Kerrisdale Arena.
Coliseum:
Council expressed its intent to maintain the Coliseum and have a private
operator run the facility. An initial proposal call was held, but no
operator was selected. Enquiries about the building continue to be
received indicating some private sector interest in the facility. It is
expected that once GM Place has operated for one or more years, a larger
number of operators may be interested in submitting proposals. Impacts
of Coliseum operations on the community and the park should be carefully
evaluated, with community consultation to be a part of the process.
Should the eventual Coliseum use overlap frequently with horse racing
events, the need for additional parking (an extimated 2,500 stalls at
16,500 occupied seats) will require either structured parking, more off
site parking or a greyer rather than greener Hastings Park. (See also
discussion under parking).
Racetrack
Considerable discussion took place about the integration of the
racetrack into the park. Current edges of the track are solid and offer
few opportunities for people to view the intense and varied activities
associated with training and maintaining thoroughbred race horses. The
track is committed to making the edges more permeable consistent with
security requirements. Elevated viewing points and, in some areas,
waterbodies (rather than walls and fences) are intended to satisfy these
objectives.
The PRA has commissioned an adaptive reuse study of the Livestock
building with the view of accommodating horses in a renovated Livestock
building instead. The impacts on the park design are significant and
therefore the landscape consultant will be asked to evaluate both
building new stables east of the Racetrack and renovating the Livestock
building. Retention of the Livestock building would be subject to a
land swap aimed at creating a wider green strip on the eastern edge of
the racetrack. The conceptual design study will assume some flexibility
in the ultimate configuration of the Racetrack boundaries.
The edges of the Racetrack may also require some landscape or site
planning treatment, which would necessitate minor boundary adjustments.
Some flexibility of future track boundaries during the design process is
recommended.
The PRA has also indicated that in the long term it may wish to revisit
the proposal which was made by the B.C. Jockey Club some years ago,
which involved straddling McGill Street with a concrete structure that
would permit the expansion of the track itself. This concept would be
enhanced with a crossing to New Brighton Park and possibly a railway
station that would permit direct access from the Vancouver/Mission Rail
Line to Hastings and New Brighton Parks.
Connection to Adjacent Parks
The connection to New Brighton Park is also deemed to be an important
part of the park's long-term success and most of the potential
connections are in the vicinity of, or on the Racetrack lease area. In
the short run, the connection will likely be on the eastside of the
track and then through the Bridgeway tunnel. There is concern among
some Forums that the width of the property between the PRA boundary and
eastwards towards Cassiar Street may not be wide enough to accommodate
both a stream, riparian areas, walkways and bikeways, particularly if
the PRA proceeded with the construction of new stables.
Connections to Hastings Community Park and Callister Park are also
important.
Parking
The issue of parking has been a contentious one, since large amounts of
surface parking quickly dilute the remaining amount of potential
greenspace. There are presently about 3,500 on site, plus a further 800
off-site south of Hastings Street and 150 north of McGill Street. The
program calls for a total of 2,200 to be provided, on and off-site. The
fundamental principles in providing parking are:
- minimize the amount of parking to be provided south of Miller
Drive and north of Hastings (i.e. future park sanctuary)
- maximize potential event related parking on Renfrew Street and
Bridgeway Street
- maximize opportunities for park patron and racetrack related
parking to overlap
- use off-site lots to meet some demands.
A surface parking option and a structured parking option are to be
evaluated.
In order to assess the availability of parking over and above 2,200
stalls, the park design consulting team, which will include a
transportation engineer, is requested to examine opportunities through
the creation of additional off-site parking lots, possibly associated
with shuttle bus services and the provision of larger amounts of
structured parking. Neighbourhood impacts are to be evaluated.
In comparison to the major parking requirements, the additional parking
required for the park itself can largely be accommodated most times on
the spaces to be created for the Racetrack. Some small pockets of
parking are envisaged close to some of the buildings to be retained,
such as the Agrodome and the Garden Auditorium.
The City Engineer recommends that the scope of the proposed traffic
study be broadened to better ascertain the future parking needs and the
possible impacts on the surrounding neighbourhood. The estimated parking
demands may be underestimated. In addition, options should be developed
to account for the possibility of additional parking demands,
particularly with the retention and operation of the Coliseum.
Next Steps
The next steps in the Hastings Park Planning Process are:
a) retain landscape architectural team (see also Appendix 2)
b) retain adaptive reuse study team
c) generate concept plan (September)
d) complete design development (January)
e) commence building demolition (January)
f) commence landscape construction (Spring 1997)
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