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Dunbar
January 1997 Newsletter

Help Shape Dunbar's Future

The Visioning Process
Background on CityPlan
Community Vision Liaison Group
The City Perspectives Panel
Meet Your Vision Staff Team
Facts and Figures
Community Ideas Fair
News Update

Community Voices
Getting In Touch

"The next step of CityPlan is to work with communities to bring CityPlan's broad city-wide policies to the neighbourhood level. Community Visions will provide an opportunity for each community to look to the future, to determine their needs and aspirations, and to set a course that incorporates CityPlan directions."

CityPlan Community Visions: Terms of Reference Approved by City Council July 1996

Help Shape Dunbar's Future

CityPlan Community Visions starts this month in Dunbar. This is a unique opportunity for you to shape the future.

The nine-month process invites people throughout Dunbar to share ideas, create options, and seek agreement on future directions. The resulting Vision will be a document used to guide decisions into the next century.

Topics include traffic, safety, development, parks and community services, housing, local shopping, and neighbourhood character. There will be many opportunities to participate in deciding what should change and what should stay the same, and where and how change should happen.

At the same time, a second community, Kensington-Cedar Cottage, is working on their Community Vision. The two communities were selected by a public forum last October and endorsed by City Council, as the pilot project areas for this new planning approach. Based on the results of the pilot project, Community Visions could happen throughout the city.

Making CityPlan Happen

The starting point for Community Visions is CityPlan, Vancouver's city-wide plan which was adopted by City Council in 1995 to set directions for the city. An important next step in making CityPlan happen is working with communities to define how CityPlan will come to life at the local level. To do this, the Community Visions Program was developed last year with city-wide public input, and Terms of Reference were endorsed by City Council to guide the program.

Why Have A Vision

A Vision will describe your community's desired future. It will be a plan for the future -- Dunbar's first plan. The Vision will be an official document to guide zoning, funding, and programs in your community. It will include words, maps, photos, and drawings. Having a Vision will mean more certainty about the future. It will highlight what's important to people in Dunbar and help set priorities. It will provide a basis for actions -- in the community and at City Hall.

How To Get Involved

Visions will be prepared through an intensive, seven-step process, based on broad community involvement -- your involvement. By October, your community will have shared ideas about the future, created and discussed alternative Visions, determined what has the most support, and published a final Vision document.

There are many opportunities to get involved. You can participate on a topic of special interest, or on many topics. You can participate in hands-on workshops to create options for the future, or by commenting on the results along the way. The Community Vision staff, working out of the Dunbar Community Vision office, will support the process, provide information and assistance, and make sure you know how and when to be involved.

Start Now

Start now by marking March 1 and 2 on your calendar for the Dunbar Community Ideas Fair. Work with your family, or your community group, to prepare ideas for display at the Fair and for a chance to win prizes. See elsewhere in this newsletter for more information on the Fair. After sharing ideas at the Fair, there will be Workshops on specific topics in April and May where you can roll up your sleeves to develop options for Dunbar's Vision. Sign up at the Fair, or by phoning the Dunbar Community Vision office.

Background on CityPlan

CityPlan, approved by City Council in 1995, is the City's general guide to the future. Each community will bring CityPlan directions to life in a way that addresses the community's needs.

The CityPlan directions provide a checklist for Community Visions:

Strengthen neighbourhood centres
Provide shops, jobs, and services close to home, and safe, inviting public places to meet and socialize.

Improve safety and better target community services
Identify ways to increase safety; to better provide community services; and to use arts and cultural activities to support community identity and participation.

Reduce reliance on the car
Make it easier to get around on foot, by bike, and by transit.

Improve the environment
Suggest how to improve air quality; conserve water and energy, and reduce waste.

Increase the variety and affordability of housing
Find ways to help meet the housing needs of community residents of all ages and incomes.

Define neighbourhood character
Define what aspects of neighbourhood character, heritage, and appearance to retain, and decide the character of new development.

Diversify parks and public places
Meet park needs, and identify a variety of designs, activities, and locations for all kinds of public places, from play areas to greenways and gathering places.

Involve people and redirect resources
Find new ways to involve people and to redirect resources to bring CityPlan directions and your Community Vision to life.

Volunteer For The Community Vision Liaison Group

Are you interested in...

The City Perspectives Panel

How will the Vision alternatives prepared by your community affect other communities? Will they help create the kind of city described in CityPlan? How will they tie in with the rest of the city and region? The City Perspectives Panel will provide the city and regional perspective, as advice to you while you are considering your Vision alternatives in June. The Panel will be made up of people from outside your community who have a range of expertise and experience in the challenges facing the city and region, and who are committed to helping communities come up with their own solutions to these challenges.

Introducing Your Vision Team



Harv Weidner, Catherine Buckham, Catherine Seaman

Meet the Dunbar Community Vision staff team. Drop in to the Dunbar Vision Office at 4448 Dunbar Street and say hello.

Harv Weidner brings six years of community planning experience in a variety of residential, industrial and mixed use commercial areas. He recently returned from a six-month assignment with the B.C. Ombudsman's Office.

Catherine Buckham is re-joining the CityPlan team after a one year assignment with the Central Area downtown planning group. Catherine has lived in Kerrisdale for the past ten years and knows the Dunbar area well.

Catherine Seaman is on loan to us from the Dunbar Library where she has worked as the children's librarian for the past two years. Catherine hails from Ottawa and is fluent in French.

Facts and Figures

Dunbar and Kensington-Cedar Cottage are the two pilot project communities for Community Visions.

Dunbar

Population: 20,060
Seniors, age 65+: 13%
Children, under age 19: 26%
English as home language: 87%
Moved in last 5 years: 47%
Persons in low income households: 10%
Single-detached houses: 97%
Owner-occupied dwellings: 81%
Population growth 1971-91: 2%

Kensington-Cedar Cottage

Population: 39,165
Seniors, age 65+: 11%
Children, under age 19: 25%
English as home language: 54%
Moved in last 5 years: 53%
Persons in low income households: 25%
Single-detached houses: 82%
Owner-occupied dwellings: 57%
Population growth 1971-91: 15%

Source - 1991 Census Data

Community Ideas Fair

GREAT IDEAS? Do you or your group have an idea or project to share at the Fair? Call your Vision team. Bring your ideas to the Fair.

FIRST...

Come to the
COMMUNITY IDEAS FAIR
Dunbar Community Centre
4747 Dunbar Street
March 1 & 2 ,1997
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

NEXT...
in April and May
ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES
YOU will create options for Dunbar's future


Come to one workshop, a few, or all.
INTERESTED? Call your Vision team or come to the Ideas Fair to sign up.

News Update

RS Zoning Survey

Last month, residents and property owners, in the area generally west of Blenheim, received information and a mail-back survey from the Planning Department to determine their support for new zoning to address concerns about design and landscaping of new houses. The survey was part of a program being provided in communities across the city and was requested by Dunbar residents.

The December survey results show strong support for new zoning, and so Phase II of the program has begun. If you live in the area that was previously surveyed, you will receive detailed information about the next steps at the same time as this newsletter.

Initiating this survey in advance of Community Visioning gives people in Dunbar an opportunity to address immediate worries about changing neighbourhood character, before working on a longer term Vision. The Vision process will include further discussions of how you want your community to look and develop, and ultimately further zoning changes may occur over time in response to the Vision.

Greenways In Dunbar

City Greenways are green routes joining important destinations across the city. They give priority to pedestrians and cyclists and provide a variety of natural and recreational experiences along the routes. The first on-street City Greenway is the Ridgeway which eventually will connect UBC and Dunbar to Central Park in Burnaby. The section of the Ridgeway between Granville and Knight Streets along 37th Avenue is now under construction. It will join the proposed Spirit Trail along the UBC boundary giving Dunbar residents increased pedestrian and cycling access to the water at both Jericho Beach and the Fraser River.

During the Community Vision program people will be invited to comment on the development of the proposed City Greenways and to discuss their own ideas for smaller-scale Neighbourhood Greenways.

Official Community Plan For UBC

In 1995, the University of BC and the Greater Vancouver Regional District agreed to have the GVRD develop an Official Community Plan (OCP) to guide future development on campus. In October 1996, Vancouver City Council recommended that the GVRD not adopt the draft OCP unless it was amended to adequately address concerns expressed by the City and adjacent residents about traffic impacts, share of housing targeted to campus users, timing and funding of community services, parkland allocations, and the need for meaningful public input in campus development decisions (governance).

The GVRD has made changes requiring that: 50% of the new housing to be for UBC workers; single occupant vehicle travel be reduced by 20%; a truck management plan be done: and the park standard be doubled. A governance study will be undertaken in early 1997. In addition, UBC is expected to develop detailed transportation and sub-area plans.

Community Voices

"I'm concerned about the number of "house-poor" seniors who may be struggling to stay in their expensive single-family houses because they have no suitable alternatives in Dunbar."



Bill Rossum - owner of Stong's and resident of Dunbar for 28 years

"I know that change will happen but I don't want to lose our sense of community and our high level of volunteerism."



Sandra Sage -18 year resident of Dunbar


"I hope that the Visioning exercise will result in an on-going process to keep people informed and involved in helping to shape the future of Dunbar."



Helen Spiegelman - President of the Dunbar Resident's Association

"People have to take advantage of this opportunity to speak out about what concerns them."



Derek Spratt - Dunbar resident since 1977

How to Reach CityPlan
Phone: (604) 871-6126 / Fax: (604) 873-7898
E-mail: CityPlan
Mail: City of Vancouver, CityPlan, 453 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V5Y 1V4

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Last modified: February 24, 1999
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