POLICY REPORT
URBAN STRUCTURE
Date: May 30, 1997
Dept. File No. IS
CC File: 5307-1
TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: Director of Central Area Planning
SUBJECT: Release of Staff Processing the Rezoning of
940-960 Station Street (Trillium Site)
INFORMATION
A. As of May 16, 1997, with acknowledgement of the applicant, all
work and City expenditures have stopped and the staff brought
on for processing the rezoning of 940-960 Station Street
(Trillium Site) have been released.
B. If a revised application for 940-960 Station Street (Trillium)
is not forthcoming by July 30, 1997, or the application is not
withdrawn, staff intend to report back to Council with a
recommendation for refusal of the rezoning.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The General Manager of Community Services submits A and B for
INFORMATION.
COUNCIL POLICY
There is no Council policy applicable to this situation.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
On June 13, 1996, Council approved funding to process the Trillium
rezoning and to complete the Thornton Park area plan. This included a
dedicated staff team from the Planning, Engineering and Law Departments
for a period of 13 months, as set out in Appendix A.
As it is now clear the Trillium rezoning submissions will not be
forthcoming in a timely fashion and the rezoning may not be pursued, and
as the applicant's portion of the rezoning fee has been completely
expended, to continue to spend this resource cannot be justified. This
report is to inform Council that the staff team for the Trillium
rezoning and Thornton Park planning has been disbanded and advise how
staff intend to deal with the rezoning application if it is not pursued
by the applicant in a reasonable time.
DISCUSSION
Following Council's direction on the Trillium proposal and the approval
of resources, the following temporary staff were hired: a Planner, a
Planning Assistant, an Engineer and a half-time Clerk/Typist II (the
temporary position in the Law Department was not needed until later in
the process and has not been filled to date).
The assigned staff commenced discussions with Trillium, their
consultants and business partners. A series of workshops was held last
summer which helped set up a framework for the submission of a revised
rezoning application. Substantial progress was made on the road system,
infrastructure, basic land use planning and subdivision pattern as well
as issues of scale, open space and urban design. After workshops,
considerable follow-up planning and engineering analysis was completed.
When the revised application was not received as anticipated at the end
of September nor on subsequent dates at the end of December and January,
as promised by Trillium's consultants, staff focussed their attention on
the preparation of the Thornton Park plan.
Work on Thornton Park has included background research, heritage and SRO
housing analyses, the preparation of draft public discussion papers on
all major issues, as well as completion of a consultancy on live/work
and work/live.
We are now at a juncture where we have completed as much work on both
the Trillium rezoning and Thornton Park plan as is advisable without
Trillium's revised application.
We explained our concerns to Trillium in an attempt to determine the
status of their application. We offered a solution which would have, at
their expense, continued the dedicated staff for sufficient time to
process a revised application, if submitted in the next month.
Otherwise, we indicated that the dedicated staff team would have to be
disbanded, with no further resources expended. We felt we could not
justify the continued use of these resources without security that the
rezoning would be actively pursued.
While Trillium is hopeful that their rezoning will eventually proceed,
they were unable to make any commitments and acknowledged in a letter
(attached as Appendix B) that the dedicated staff should be released.
Accordingly, on May 16, 1997, we released the staff assigned to this
rezoning, stopped all work on the rezoning and Thornton Park
neighbourhood planning and stopped the expenditure of the resource.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN REGARDING CITY RESOURCES?
Council approved $293,000 for staffing and support resources for these
projects. As of May 16, 1997, $167,000 has been spent on this work. A
rezoning fee of $77,000 was received, representing one-half of the
$155,000 fee required in accordance with our previous fee by-law. The
shortfall of $90,000 between rezoning fees secured and resources spent
represents the City's commitment, beyond the rezoning, to the area's
planning and to making headway on policy issues of general application.
While this work has stopped it can be easily picked up and used as part
of a revised rezoning on the Trillium site, as part of processing other
rezonings or development proposals in the area, or as part of the work
which has just commenced on the planning of the adjacent Southeast Shore
area.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO THE APPLICANT?
Trillium has requested that their application remain open indefinitely.
While it is reasonable to give them a limited period to reactivate their
submission, it is also reasonable to set a final date after which the
file will be closed. This is because current rezoning fees are
significantly higher, representing 100% cost recovery, and it is
inequitable to other applicants for Trillium to enjoy the lower rates
indefinitely. As such, if a revised application is not received by the
end of July or the application has not been withdrawn, we intend to
prepare a report recommending refusal of the rezoning.
Should Trillium reactivate their application during this time, or submit
a new application later, staff will be assigned from the Planning
Department's existing resources in the Land Use and Development
Division. Work on the Trillium site will then be done on a "first come,
first served" basis with other rezonings. Alternatively, if Council
wishes at Trillium's request, we could arrange for the dedicated team to
be reconvened for the necessary period to completion. Council might look
to Trillium to cover any special costs in this eventuality.
CONCLUSION
It is now clear that the Trillium rezoning will not be proceeding within
the time set aside by Council for a designated staff team. As a
consequence, the staff team has been disbanded so as to not unduly spend
City resources.
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