Pieta Woolley
Other
A major Gastown developer wanted the controversial seven-storey condominium-and-retail complex planned for 58 West Hastings Street to be much taller.
In a May 2 e-mail, Jon Stovell, the general manager of Reliance Holdings, wrote to city planner Alison Higginson arguing that the 70-foot-tall project should include a 300-foot-tall tower—one that could contain 30 storeys.
“We strongly support the neighbourhood improvement brought about by such projects,” Stovell wrote in the e-mail, obtained by the Straight through a freedom of information request to city hall.
Stovell sits on the City of Vancouver development permit board’s advisory panel.
His e-mail continued:
Our only disappointment is with height and form.
The height should be much more varied across the site and there should be a tower component of 300 feet.
This would create some identity and architectural strength in the street and [architect] Peter Busby could make it fit very well with the existing fabric.
The design proposed looks like it has been designed to simply not offend an established bias towards follow form massing in this area.
The area would benefit greatly from some additional signature developments like Woodwards.
Reliance Holdings has developed several buildings in the area, including the live-work studios at 33 Water Street, 55 Water Street, 1701 Powell Street, and 321 Railway Street.
Concord Pacific, which is developing the site at 58 West Hastings, could have increased the height of the building to 100 feet if it included nonmarket housing, according to the minutes of the development permit board meeting on June 23. Concord did not include nonmarket housing in its proposal.
Also at the June 23 meeting, 29 Downtown Eastside advocates blasted the proposal for 58 West Hastings on such grounds as the creeping gentrification along Hastings. Among them were the Carnegie Community Action Project’s Jean Swanson; Streams of Justice’s Dave Diewert; artist Ned Jacobs; and organizer Harsha Walia.
The minutes record that some concerns included that there’s a “Huge homeless problem and building condos is taking up land that could be used for social housing”, that “rental space is becoming unaffordable in the DTES”, and that they “don’t want to be overwhelmed by condos as it will change the historical character of the area”.
The minutes also note that “provision of non-market housing is not a requirement under the zoning”, and that “the project will contain market housing within a small unit configuration for somewhat more affordable housing units.”
© 2012 Vancouver Free Press
