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City Plan: A Vision for the Future
Fall/Winter 1996

Index

Headline News
Kensington/Cedar Cottage and Dunbar Selected for Pilot Project
A Vision for the Future
What is a Community Vision?
CityPlan in Your Community
Community Visions: Questions and Answers
What's in a Vision?
How will the Vision process work?
Why a pilot project?
What were the criteria for selection?
How were the pilot project communities selected?
When and how long?
When will your community be able to do its Community Vision?
Going in CityPlan Directions
Greenway Under Construction
Zoning Review Available for Single-Family Areas
Draft Transportation Plan Complete
Safety
Communicating Better With You
What do you think?
Upcoming Events
How to reach us
It doesn't have to be good bye, but...

Headline News

Kensington/Cedar Cottage and Dunbar Selected for Pilot Project
Two communities, Dunbar and Kensington Cedar Cottage will participate in the Community Visions pilot project which starts in January 1997. The two communities were selected by participants at a public City Forum on October 5th and confirmed by City Council on October 22nd.

In January the two pilot communities will embark on an intensive 8-month public process to create their Visions. At the same time there will be ample opportunities for the communities to share their experiences with each other and the city as a whole.

To view each area's Community Profile:
Kensington/Cedar Cottage
Dunbar

A Vision for the Future

What is a Community Vision?
A CityPlan Community Vision will describe in words, pictures and maps what local residents and business people want their community to be like in the future. A Vision will cover all CityPlan directions and will include:

"The future should be a matter of choice rather than a matter of chance."

CityPlan in Your Community
In July, Vancouver City Council approved the Community Visions program of CityPlan. This next step of the CityPlan process will bring CityPlan to the local level and give communities the opportunity of creating a guide to the future. A Community Vision will help direct future decisions and actions taken by residents, business and the City. It will be developed through a public process which will examine what each community values and wants protected along with those things that could and should be changed.

Community Visions: Questions and Answers

What's in a Vision?
A vision will describe what local residents and business people want their community to be like in the future and how to move forward in CityPlan directions. A vision will identify what people value and want to protect as well as those things that should change and how that change should occur. Community visions will include all CityPlan topics, from transportation to arts, from housing to safety, from neighbourhood character to parks, recreation, and public places, from environment to decision-making.

Having a vision will mean more certainty about the future. A vision will guide decisions and actions by the City, residents, and businesses. It will provide a basis for targeting future City programs, responding to rezoning inquiries, and directing funds to priority actions and services.

"The Vision program will be an intensive, fun, and challenging look into a community's future."

How will the Vision process work?
Visions will be prepared through an intense seven-step, eight-month process which was developed, with public input, to solicit broad community participation and to bring forward a wide array of possibilities. CityPlan will provide the context. The content for the visions will come from the community.

People in each community will identify and share ideas, create and discuss vision options, and finally select a preferred vision. To facilitate the process, a CityPlan community staff team will be located in a site office in the community.

Why a pilot project?
Because the CityPlan Community Vision program represents a new way of planning with and for communities, doing a pilot project provides an opportunity to test and develop this new program before deciding if and how to proceed with more communities.

Previous community planning programs have been in reaction to major development proposals or anticipated changes to a community. Instead, the Community Vision program's goal is to assist each community to define the future it desires within the framework of CityPlan, and at the same time, to strengthen partnerships within the community and between the City and the communities.

What were the criteria for selection?
At the City Forum, participants started with criteria approved by Council and added a range of other criteria they thought were relevant to the selection. The two communities selected, Kensington Cedar Cottage and Dunbar, are in different parts of the city. Both are predominantly single-family areas and neither has had a comprehensive area-wide planning program. Community groups in both areas had expressed interest in preparing a Vision.

How were the pilot project communities selected?
A public City Forum was held on October 5 to select the first two communities for the Community Visions pilot project. The recommendation of the forum was forwarded to City Council and approved on October 22.

When and how long?
The two Vision programs will begin in January 1997. Completing the eight steps in each community should lead to two CityPlan Community Visions by the end of September 1997.

When will your community be able to do its Community Vision?
The Community Visions program was developed as a way of making CityPlan happen at the local level throughout the city. People in all communities are invited to watch what is happening in the two pilot project communities, and help to evaluate whether individual community visions are adding up to the kind of city people who participated in CityPlan said they want to create. Even if your community is not selected for the pilot project, you can have a say in deciding whether and how this program should be extended to all communities.

Going in CityPlan Directions:

Some of the initiatives and programs now underway to make CityPlan happen

Greenway Under Construction
The Ridgeway Greenway - the first on-street greenway to be built as part of a city-wide network of 14 greenways and publicways - is under construction along 37th Avenue between Granville and Knight. Pedestrian/bicycle activated signals will be installed at all the major intersections. Some of these will be accompanied by a new feature in Vancouver, a landscaped bicycle gate which will allow bicycles to continue along the route but restricts cars to "right turns only" from 37th Ave. This measure will deter motorists from using the greenway as a route through neighbourhoods.

A couple of road closures, the largest at Mountainview Cemetery, will enhance the experience of pedestrians and cyclists. Other improvements include extending Cartier and Queen Elizabeth parks into the roadway to create more attractive, usable park space. Greenways: 873-7090

Zoning Review Available for Single-Family Areas
Residents from a number of single family neighbourhoods throughout the city have raised concerns about the design of new houses in their communities and the lack of landscaping. An interim zoning program is available to interested single-family neighbourhoods which offers the option to change their current zoning to one of two new zones, RS-5 or RS-6.

RS-5 zoning encourages new houses and additions to be compatible with existing houses by going through a design guideline review process. RS-6 zoning requires/prohibits certain design features and encourages/discourages others in order to establish a minimal standard of design quality and foster a greater variety of design than under RS-1 zoning. RS-6 zoning also involves a design review process.

Staff anticipate being able to implement this interim zoning program in 4 to 6 neighbourhoods a year. The Community Visions program will include neighbourhood character and housing issues which could lead to further zoning revisions in the future. If you and your neighbours are concerned about the design of new houses and site landscaping in your neighbourhood, you can call the Planning Department with your comments or questions about the RS-5 or RS-6 zoning. Call Heather Burpee at 873-7094 or Neil Bailey at 873-7087.

Draft Transportation Plan Complete
Over the last year city staff have worked with the public to prepare a transportation plan for the city. The Plan follows the directions laid out in CityPlan and the Region's Livable Region Strategy which includes tackling the region's air pollution problem and arranging housing, jobs, shopping, and recreation conveniently to minimize the need for long trips.

Council wants your thoughts on the Draft Plan. Here's how:

1. Pick up a copy of the Draft Plan at City Hall (available in the main foyer or in Engineering and Planning Departments) or call us at 871-6060 and we will mail a copy out to you. Copies of the plan will also be available at the public meetings.

2. Attend a public meeting. Dates and times are listed in the latest newsletter from the Transportation Plan team, they are also available on the City's internet homepage or you can call 871-6060.

Safety
Fourteen Crime Prevention Offices have opened in Vancouver during the past few years. Volunteers at the offices are trained by the Vancouver Police and provide services to the community such as education in crime prevention. Some community offices are also involved in arranging Block Watch training and self-defence classes. There are about 470 Block Watch groups in Vancouver.

For more information on Block Watch or your nearest community Crime Prevention Office, call Block Watch at 665-5064.

Communicating Better With You

What do you think?
Several initiatives now underway will make it easier for you to get information on City issues and services and to give us your views:

Upcoming Events
Speaker series - in late January and early February, CityPlan and the Urbanarium at the Vancouver Museum program will sponsor a speakers series to kick off the Visions program. For more details check the City of Vancouver's homepage, http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca, the Museum at http://www.vanmuseum.bc.ca, and Rogers Community 4.

How to reach us
Phone: 873-7120
Fax: 873-7898
E-mail: cityplan@city.vancouver.bc.ca
Web Site: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca
Mail: City of Vancouver, CityPlan Program, 453 West 12 Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V5Y 1V4

Multicultural Information Referral Service
Cantonese/Mandarin: 871-6868
Punjabi/Hindi: 871-6565
Spanish: 871-6464

Don't forget! If you want to keep in touch with CityPlan let us know by fax at 873.7120 or e-mail at cityplan@city.vancouver.bc.ca or by mail to the above address.

It doesn't have to be good bye, but...
After 4 years of public involvement on Cityplan and Transportation Plan, our mailing list has grown to over 7000 names. We need to update it and make sure our news is going to the right places.

So if you want to keep in touch with CityPlan let us know by fax at 873-7898 (fax us your mailing label with any changes), call us at 873-7120 or e-mail us at cityplan@city.vancouver.bc.ca and of course you can always use the postal

Comments or questions? You can send us e-mail.

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Last modified: February 24, 1999
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