WEDNESDAY
February 18 2015 Vol. 106 No. 13
OPINION 11
Geller on Olympics’ legacy CITY LIVING 12
Winter Games replay HEALTH 14
Men’s mental health stigma There’s more online at
vancourier.com MIDWEEK EDITION
THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908
No rules, no worries Transit vote lacks disclosure rules
Bob Mackin
bob@bobmackin.ca
JOKER’S ON YOU John Oliver Joker Chantel Wacchan, 15, takes hold of her Sentinel secondary opponent in a 54-kilogram bout at the regional wrestling championship at John Oliver secondary Feb. 11. Wacchan won bronze. Read more Page 20. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET
Housing eyed for transit centre Concepts include towers, daycare and park
Naoibh O’Connor
noconnor@vancourier.com
Housing for hundreds of new residents, including towers up to 15 storeys high, is under consideration for the potential redevelopment of TransLink’s transit centre near Oakridge mall. Three concepts for the Oakridge Transit Centre site, which is owned by TransLink, were unveiled at recent open houses at the VanDusen Garden visitor centre. The city, at the request of TransLink, is creating a policy statement to guide future redevelopment of the 13.8-acre property, which sits between Oak and Willow streets and West 38th and 41st avenues. The concepts envision mostly residential development with some ground floor retail, a park
ranging from 2.2 to 2.6 acres, a daycare and buildings ranging from three to 15 storeys for a potential influx of 1,200 new residents. That’s a rough estimate at this point — the next planning phase will include the estimated number of units and population for the area. The property is located near Oakridge Centre, which is slated for massive redevelopment. The site is zoned for single-family use but has been used as a transit centre since 1948. Before the transit centre opened, it was used as an army barracks. The site now serves as an operations and maintenance facility, primarily for vehicle maintenance, commissioning and decommissioning, as well as for storage of retired buses. TransLink expects to redistribute those services among newer facilities in 2016. Preliminary open houses for the site were held last June as part of the city’s planning process for the policy statement. Concept A features a linear “green
promenade” that leads to a park at the north end of the site. It also includes residential buildings organized around courtyards, a childcare centre and the tallest buildings along West 41st with a “modest amount of local-serving retail fronting 41st.” Concept B features a “mews” street structure and a greater variety of building types. The park would sit at the north end of the property, and as with concept A, the tallest buildings would be along 41st where again there would be a “modest amount of local-serving retail fronting 41st.” Concept C includes a curved street that goes along the park and the tallest buildings would also be on 41st. Susan Haid, the city’s assistant director of planning for Vancouver South, said these are very earlier concepts but feedback from the open houses last year identified the park and a daycare as critical elements. Continued on page 6
When the provincial government set the rules for the non-binding plebiscite on a sales tax hike for TransLink expansion, it didn’t include any campaign fundraising or reporting regulations. “We think it’s embarrassing for a mature democracy like B.C. to not have disclosure rules,” said Jordan Bateman, leader of the No TransLink Tax campaign. “The fact that we may never know how much these government agencies spent in tax dollars on this yes vote is ludicrous, it’s a breach of the public trust.” Bateman, who is also the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation’s B.C. director, is against the proposed 0.5 per cent provincial sales tax increase in Metro Vancouver. The TransLink Mayors’ Council wants it to raise $2.5 billion over 10 years toward a $7.5 billion wish list for a subway under Broadway, light rail in Surrey and Langley and a new Pattullo Bridge. Bateman said his group expects to run a $40,000 campaign and would voluntarily disclose donations before the scheduled March 16 to May 29 mail-in voting period. Without rules, Bateman said large multinational engineering and construction firms hungry for TransLink contracts could spend millions of dollars to influence the vote. “There’s no accountability, no one will ever know,” Bateman said. “It’s secret money, just the way the province has set this up to be.” Coincidentally, the Feb. 12 cabinet order called Plebiscite 2015 (Regional Transportation System Funding) Regulation came a day before the statutory Feb. 13 deadline for candidates, elector organizations and third-party sponsors in last November’s municipal elections to submit their campaign finance reports to Elections B.C. IntegrityBC executive director Dermod Travis said there is nothing to prevent plebiscite campaigners from voluntary disclosure. He pointed to the 2014 Vancouver civic election, in which the four main parties published donation lists before voting day. “Here’s an opportunity to do it again,” Travis said. City councils, like Vancouver’s, are dedicating public staff and funds to promote the yes campaign. Residents who vote no, he said, “have a right to know how much of their dollars are being used to sway them.” Continued on page 3