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Kensington-Cedar Cottage
January 1997 Newsletter

Help Shape the Future of Kensington-Cedar Cottage

The Visioning Process
Background on CityPlan
Volunteer for the Community Vision Liaison Group
The City Perspectives Panel
Meet Your Vision Staff Team
Facts and Figures
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 the Future of Kensington-Cedar Cottage

CityPlan Community Visions starts this month in Kensington-Cedar Cottage. This is a unique opportunity for you to shape the future.

The nine-month process invites people throughout the community 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, Dunbar, 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 future. 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 -- the first comprehensive plan for Kensington-Cedar Cottage. 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 Kensington and Cedar Cottage 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 Kensington-Cedar Cottage 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 8 and 9 on your calendar for the Kensington-Cedar Cottage Community Ideas Fair. Work with your family, or your community group, to prepare ideas for display at the Fair and 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 the Kensington-Cedar Cottage Vision. Sign up at the Fair, or by phoning the Kensington-Cedar Cottage 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...

If so, consider being on the Kensington-Cedar Cottage Community Vision Liaison Group. The Liaison Group will be made up of about 30 volunteers. It will include people from all parts of Kensington-Cedar Cottage, with a range of ages, cultural backgrounds and community affiliations. Whether you're a member of a school consultative committee, business association, block watch, residents association, community centre association, or student council -- or an interested individual -- this is an opportunity to play a role in helping your community create its Vision.

To find out more, phone the site office. In February, a meeting will be held with those who have volunteered to determine a final membership that reflects a cross-section of the community.

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


Branca Verde, Angela Ko, Keike Roth

Meet the Kensington-Cedar Cottage Vision staff team. Drop in to the KCC Vision Office at #102-1459 Kingsway (near Knight) and say hello.

Heike Roth has been a community planner with the City for the last six years. She worked on the rezoning of the Joyce/Vanness industrial lands, and more recently, on a study in the Commercial Street area of Cedar Cottage.

Angela Ko has been working at the Fraserview Branch Library since 1987, and has lived in the Kensington Cedar Cottage area for over ten years. Angela speaks Cantonese and Mandarin as well as English.

Branca Verde has worked for the City for the past fifteen years, in the Engineering and Planning Department. Branca lives just east of Kensington-Cedar Cottage. Along with English, Branca speaks Spanish, Portuguese and 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

News Update

RS Zoning Survey

Last month, residents and property owners in Cedar Cottage East and Glen Park/Cedar Cottage West received information and a mail-back survey 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 at the request of local community groups. In Kensington-Cedar Cottage, the survey was an opportunity to see if residents want to deal with immediate worries about house design before starting Community Visioning.

The survey results did not show a clear majority wishing to change the zoning at this time, and so no immediate changes will be recommended. As part of the Community Visions process, people will have further opportunities to discuss how they want their community to look and develop.

Greenways in Kinsington-Cedar Cottage

City Greenways are networks of "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 route. The first on-street City Greenway is the Ridgeway which 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. The Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood Greenway on 19th Avenue west of Fleming Street, is an example of a community-initiated Neighbourhood Greenway built in partnership with the City.

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.

Broadway Light Rail Transit

B.C. Transit is proposing a ground-level Light Rapid Transit line on Broadway between Granville Street and Coquitlam town centre. Preliminary plans show tracks replacing the two centre lanes on Broadway and platform stations at Glen,Commercial, and Nanaimo. Over the next two years, the province will coordinate detailed studies of the route, ridership, impacts, and engineering design of the system. As part of this, the City and other municipalities will examine land use adjacent to the line. The results of these studies, which will start while the Visions program is underway, will determine whether or not the $900 million project will proceed.

Community Voices

"it's about neighbours getting together to talk about where they live, walk, shop, raise their children; everybody who lives here has something to say about that"



Donna Chang, Director of Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House, and long time area resident

"it's not a passive process; it will only work if it has participation and direction from a broad spectrum of the community"



Dana Weber, Chair of Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood Association and 8 year Cedar Cottage resident

"this process will help us bring our neighbourhood together even more"



Anne King, member of Glen Park Neighbours group, and area resident since 1981

How to Reach CityPlan
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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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