Big day for community engagement and planning today at Council with four community planning process (Grandview Woodland, West End, Marpole, Downtown Eastside) taking a big leap forward with Council's approval of terms of reference and planning frameworks for each of the four, and new interim development and rezoning guidelines for the Downtown Eastside. Plus staff reported back on West End Mayors Advisory Committee recommendations which will be implemented in the comming months.
And, for the first time ever, each planning process will have two Councillor liaisons to ensure that communities have a first (and second!) point of access to Council during the process.
Each of the four communities have unique but urgent needs, including a large number of renters (> 80% in the West End & Eastside) and a challenged neighbourhood economic base, including industrial lands under pressure in three of the four communities. Three have existing plans greater than 25 years old, and most assumed they would wait at least five more years to get going due to historic Council practice of doing one plan at a time. There has never been a Downtown Eastside plan.
The process to get to today was initiated by City Council 15 months ago, has involved a broad community engagement effort in all four communities aimed at ensuring that input comes across the demographics that mirror the communities, and has included ground-breaking community-led engagement processes such as the Downtown Eastside LAPP and the West End Mayor's Advisory Committee
Time for your to Get involved!
Any community member is welcome to get involved in the community plan processes. For more information:
Downtown Eastside
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/dteslapp/index.htm
Grandview Woodland
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/grandviewplan/
Marpole
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/marpoleplan/index.htm
West End (new plan info coming soon)
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/westend/index.htm
Next Community Plan Report to Council
Report: http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20120328/documents/ptec2.pdf
Presentation: http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20120328/documents/ptec2Presentation-NextCommunityPlans-TermsofReference.pdf
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