Open-air eatery would be metres from residences
Marke Andrews
Sun
An artist’s concept of what an open- air bar and restaurant would look like on the rooftop of the Opus Hotel at 322 Davie St. in Yaletown.
Tempers may be short tonight at Vancouver city hall when a public hearing resumes over a Yaletown rezoning that would allow a proposed 250-seat open-air rooftop restaurant in the middle of residences.
Trilogy Yaletown Development Corp. wants to build the restaurant-bar atop the seven-storey Opus Hotel at 322 Davie St., in spite of opposition from residents concerned about noise, privacy, traffic and parking.
The public hearing began Tuesday, when 30 of a scheduled 140 speakers were heard. There will likely be a third meeting next week.
The public hearing follows meetings Trilogy Yaletown has held over the past six months with residents and strata councils from surrounding buildings.
One resident who lives directly next to the proposed restaurant dreads the possibility that as many as 250 people will be drinking mere metres from his apartment.
“The neighbourhood is already noisy,” said Dann Wilson, who lives at 212 Davie St. “From my home, I can hear people at the Cactus Club balcony, and that’s a block away on ground level. Every single day I hear people yelling and goofing around and partying, and they only get 50 or 60 people there.”
Michael McCoy, head of the strata council at nearby 283 Davie St., said the majority of the 300 residents at his building are against the rooftop bar and restaurant which, he believes, will cater to non-residents.
“Who is this being built for?” asked McCoy, noting that the Opus only has 94 guest rooms.
Both McCoy and 212 Davie resident and strata council member James MacKenzie agree with Wilson that noise from other patio dining areas is a problem.
“The outdoor patios do get raucous, and they only have 20 or 40 people,” said MacKenzie. “As it is, I can hear two people talking on their balconies across the way. To have 250 people talking is going to be a non-starter.”
Dino Celotti, project manager for Trilogy Properties, said that since the application was made, the Opus Hotel has proposed putting up a tent to cover the rooftop on the side of 212 Davie which “we believe would muffle the noise and direct it away from 212 Davie.”
It also proposes putting up a 1.8-to-three-metre high bamboo perimeter wall on the outside of the glass rail as a visual screen to ensure privacy of the residents at 212 Davie.
In a report, the Vancouver police department did not approve the application because of concerns about enforcing noise complaints.
McCoy thinks the city has to take a longer look at the issue before running it through prior to the civic election.
“City council must defer this application and must develop a set of policies and guidelines to allow for the use of rooftop dining,” said McCoy.
He emphasized that unlike his previous neighbourhood of Gastown, where he voiced concern over noise and was told the bars were there before he was, in Yaletown, the residents were there before the hotel.
