BC to look into Development Approval Process

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by misher

Seems like the last resort was used up since a bunch of people who work in Vancouver commute from North Van, Richmond, Burnaby, Surrey, Abbotsford, etc. So we're very late to the party?

Very, very late; many of those folks used to live closer in and got priced outward.

Originally Posted by misher

To be honest the City of Vancouver is like a suburb of Downtown Vancouver.

Rather than work to pack more people closer to downtown. How about we create new city centres to move downtown closer to people?

Like a commercial centre at Marpole skytrain station, Oakridge, along Broadway, something in East Van similar to Brentwood/Lougheed, etc.

The more spread out our commercial offices are, the less pressure there will be on downtown's infrastructure to commute to it.

Also we can build a ton of towers around each centre like we did at Marpole.

Why not both? The CoV should get big and downtown should get bigger.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Why not both? The CoV should get big and downtown should get bigger.

Well it's time that downtown moved off the peninsula and that we start getting serious about densifying COV's areas around the peninsula.. The peninsula alone is a tiny area and although it is doing a fabulous job of being the entire region's job centre, it needs city hall to change its ways in order for it to grow.

[misher]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Very, very late; many of those folks used to live closer in and got priced outward.



Why not both? The CoV should get big and downtown should get bigger.

I'm a little against Downtown getting bigger.

A few reasons for this:
1. Downtown traffic is awful already, we don't need more gridlock.

2. There are no good ring roads to avoid downtown gridlock. Meaning you must pass through the traffic to go past downtown. This hinders people from getting to/from West/North Van to/from Vancouver as they must pass through the downtown gridlock or take a very circuitous route.

(for those who haven't taken Urban Land Economics, ring roads are roads going around dense areas so people may bypass the city traffic and reach the other side quickly. Ring roads are great because then traffic that is just trying to reach somewhere else does not compete with traffic travelling to a point in the city) Surrey has the SFPR, Vancouver has Marine Drive/Marine Way, Burnaby has Barnet Hwy around SFU).

3. Emergency services downtown such as the hospital are difficult to expand to accommodate more population.

4. Just a guess here but the sewer system & power grid is likely overburdened as it is. Likely much easier to upgrade the power grid & sewer for the COV.

5. Expansion outside downtown allows for much shorter commutes for most people.

6. Downtown is already quite developed and its best to leave some in reserve for later rather than max it out now.

[WarrenC12]

^^^^^ Really?!

Our downtown is far less dense than some of the most successful cities in the world. I find your arguments ridiculous.

[misher]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

^^^^^ Really?!

Our downtown is far less dense than some of the most successful cities in the world. I find your arguments ridiculous.

Many of those cities have great ring roads and/or aren't compressed due to having water around them. A nice list of famous ones here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ring_roads

Vancouver has the SFPR but its not really meant for the COV and it doesn't alleviate downtown traffic. You'll see below that Edmonton's does a much better job, largely because they don't have water in the way and because it was started early.


Downtown Vancouver traffic gets so bad that you can go out, get a coffee, and come back to your car in 20 mins. Traffic will not move on green lights. It gets worse when there's an accident or construction.

Also have you seen the traffic in HK or New York? lol.

Downtown definitely needs a nice ring around it instead of bike lanes before we promote even more density there.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by misher

Many of those cities have great ring roads and/or aren't compressed due to having water around them. A nice list of famous ones here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ring_roads

...

Downtown definitely needs a nice ring around it instead of bike lanes before we promote even more density there.

They wanted one about 70 years ago. Klazu took a great picture of it four years ago. It's generally considered to be one of Vancouver's greatest lucky breaks that it was never constructed. (By the way, what does this have to do with the development permit process?)

[scryer]

What was that thing about designing cities for people, not cars?

[misher]

Originally Posted by Changing City

They wanted one about 70 years ago. Klazu took a great picture of it four years ago. It's generally considered to be one of Vancouver's greatest lucky breaks that it was never constructed. (By the way, what does this have to do with the development permit process?)

Interesting. Seems pretty similar to what we have now except for the extra bridge to North Van and the wider+elevated roads. Reminds me of Seattle and Portland.

[red-paladin]

Let's stay on topic please

[red-paladin]

Off topic threads were deleted.