Category Archives: Community Plan

The Importance of Heritage

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VHF graphicThe Vancouver Heritage Foundation has published a very interesting piece of research that shows “the importance of heritage to both public and professionals. It gives an overview of past and present municipal heritage conservation programs and policies, and suggest[s a] strategy to ensure that heritage remains an integral part of the urban environment and landscape.”

The Introduction to rthe Report notes that

there is strong public support for the conservation of heritage buildings. Thepublic does believe heritage buildings are important to retaining the character of theircommunities and that 50% of Vancouverites would prefer to live in retrofitted olderbuildings rather than new buildings. They also want less demolition of heritagebuildings in their neighbourhoods.

 

These findings match very well with the ideas expressed by the Grandview Heritage Group in its submission to the Grandiew-Woodland Community Plan, and to comments made at the various Workshops that have accompanied the Community Plan.

This is very useful and timely research from the VHF and we would encourage everyone to download and read the entire Report.

 

Notes from the January Meeting

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On Thursday evening we had a grand turnout for our monthly meeting.  It was, I believe, the largest gathering of its kind that we’ve had.  There were lively discussions about a wide range of topics.

  • We began by discussing the Heritage Workshop put on by the Community Planners that many of us had attended during the previous week. It was generally agreed that some useful debates took place there, and the availability of the City’s heritage planners was valuable — hopefully they listened to what was being said.  However, we noted that they seemed to be trying to steer us in certain directions (picking individual sites of value rather than recognising the holistic nature of the neighbourhood, for example).  The general consensus was that the summaries given at the end of the event did not include several of the major points mentioned at the tables.  We look forward with great interest to see how accurately this workshop will be reported out.  It was further noted that heritage plays an important role in the future workshops on Housing and Transportation.
  • Further to the Workshop, it was noted that the Planners’ survey seemed to indicate that the “value” of heritage was not high on respondents’ concerns.  It was agreed that the question was skewed and thus the result is meaningless.  Further, the value of Grandview’s heritage to the rest of Vancouver has so far been ignored in the process.
  • The role that GHG could take in the expansion of the Heritage Register was discussed.  It was noted that the recent “Waldorf crisis” seems to have awakened City Council to a possible expansion of the Register.  GHG could take a role in identifying properties not yet on the Register, and could assist City staff by our contacts with relevant owners.
  • The creation of a Visioning Report by the Commercial Drive BIA was noted.  We will try to get hold of a copy for study and comment.
  • Eric Philips presented a fascinating slide show on the use of concrete blocks in Grandview’s early days.  He also circulated a catalog of early 20th century block-making machines. At a later date Eric will give a further presentation on the local use of concrete foundations.
  • We discussed the wrap up to the 2012 Centenary House project.  Penny has drafted a letter to the 2012 recipients which mentions that she and others will be collecting the signs soon and cleaning them up ready for this year’s project.  At the November meeting we agreed to look into the creation of a more permanent sign that could be offered to participants.  Lance has begun this exploration and he is currently looking at printing moulds on a 3-D printer and casting them in pewter.  It was agreed that our permanent signs should look different than the City’s Heritage plaques.
  • We then moved on to the 2013 House Signs project.  We had a list of about 150 houses we believed were constructed in 1913; however on further research many of these turn out to be earlier or later.  Given this, and the future problem of finding any houses for 1914 through 1916, we agreed to explore a change to our signs that would indicate the houses are over 100 years old rather than a specific age.  A date for a walking review tour of the 30+ possibles on our list was agreed.
  • The City’s 2013 Heritage Awards programme was discussed and we hope to be nominated both for the House Signs project and advocacy/education through the website and walking tours.  Deadline for nominations is January 28th.
  • Planning for the House History Workshop on March 23rd was moved ahead. Penny will present the workshop at the Eastside Family Place at 3pm.  Further details will be posted in the next few weeks.
  • Ann noted that there is a Community Small Grants program for Hastings North ( an area that covers Victoria Drive to Boundary, docks to First Avenue.)  It was suggested that we could apply for a grant to refurbish the heritage advertising sign on the side of the Via Tevere Pizza building on Victoria.  Various options regarding the future of the sign were discussed.  Ann will look into the grant possibility.
  • Michael noted that the Vancouver Heritage Foundation is seeking new locations for its Open House tour in early June.  A number of suggestions were made which Michael will forward to VHF.

It was another busy and productive meeting.

Community Plan’s Heritage Workshop

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On Thursday we had the Heritage & Neighbourhood Character Workshop organized as part of the Grandview Community Plan process.  It was a lively and sold-out affair.

We had organized to push for three main points: recognition of the entirely of Grandview as a neighbourhood of heritage (rather than certain areas), retention of current zoning patterns, and enforcement of design guidelines with community oversight.  I believe we were successful in getting those points across to the heritage planners in the room.  We just need to see how it gets reported out.

I have written elsewhere about my general satisfaction with the meeting. Does anyone else have thoughts on how it went down?

 

Let Us Make This Grandview Heritage Month

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This could be a very important month for Grandview’s heritage.  As previously noted, the Grandview-Woodland Community Plan workshop on Heritage takes place on Thursday 17th January. This could be the only time we can discuss heritage on its own as part of the Plan process. If you have not yet registered, we strongly urge that you do so.

As a lead up to this Workshop, I will be making a short illustrated presentation to the GWAC meeting on Monday evening on “Heritage At Risk” which will concentrate on the fact that 51% of our current housing stock was built before 1930 — thus one of our slogans:  Grandview is heritage.

GWAC meetings are open to all residents of Grandview and take place at The Learning Resource Centre under the Britannia Library (if you get lost, ask at the Britannia Info Centre on Napier).  They start at 7:00pm and again we urge all local folks to attend and help steer our neighbourhood’s future.

Update: There was an excellent turnout at the GWAC meeting, with a lively and articulate crowd, many of whom are registered for next week’s Workshop.  I am ever more confident that we will get our points across.

Important Heritage Meetings

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The Heritage & Character Workshop for the Grandview Woodland Community Plan will take place at 5:30pm on Thursday 17th January, 2013.  This will be a premier opportunity to press the value of heritage in our neighburhood, to discuss possible methods of protecting what we love about the Drive and its community, and making sure the City understands how important this is to our sense of place.

We strongly encourage all lovers of Grandview’s heritage to register for this workshop to ensure that our voice and our ideas are heard. (Register today!)

We would usually have our regular monthly meeting on that date.  But the Community Plan Workshop has to take precedence and so our January Monthly Meeting (to which all are invited) will take place in the Britannia Boardroom on Thursdsay, 24th January 2013.

 

Meeting Notes: November 2012

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We had a marvelously lively meeting on Thursday evening, dealing with a wide range of topics.

  • We began by discussing the 10-point proposal that GHG has submitted to the Grandview Woodland Community Plan. This led to an animated debate about the role of public engagement allowed under the Plan’s Terms of Reference.
  • The 1913 version of the Centenary Birthday signs campaign was next up.  It was suggested that we look at a “transition” from the successful 2012 campaign whereby the 2012 householders be offered the chance to purchase a more permanent form of the birthday sign.  This was generally approved and some members volunteered to look into manufacturing options.  They will report back to the meeting in January. As for the 1913 campaign, a list of 106 local houses built in 1913 was circulated and members agreed to check out the ones in their immediate neighbourhood.  We hope to have a shortlist of possibles by the January meeting.
  • The successful completion of the “Highland Echo” project was enthusiastically noted.  Jak will be interviewed on CBC Radio about the project on Friday.
  • Lance made a proposal about creating a wiki for the GHG.  There was a long and interesting discussion about the pros and cons.  It was agreed that we will discus it further early next year.
  • The idea of having a heritage building resources list on the website was debated in some detail.  It was noted that there are potential legal liability issues with “recommending” contractors and suppliers.  We will give this further thought.
  • It was noted that some residents of Cedar Cottage seem keen on establishing their own Heritage Group, similar to GHG.  We encourage this and will be happy to assist them.
  • The idea was proposed that we publish a version of our “Pictorial History of Grandview“ as a book, a fundraiser for the GHG.  We will research the costs and what else is required and report back to the February meeting.
  • We decided not to have a monthly meeting in December, the third Thursday being too close to Christmas.  However, our next event is the talk on December 8th about “The Birth of Our Community.”
  • The first event for us in 2013 will be Penny Street’s talk on “How To Research The History of Your House” which is scheduled for Saturday 19th January at 3pm.  We will publish more details on this as soon as the venue is confirmed.
  • It was agreed that we will continue our practice of public meetings on the third Thursday of each month in 2013.

Heritage and the Community Plan

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As part of the ongoing Grandview Woodland Community Plan exercise, the Grandview Heritage Group has submitted a 14-page document to City Planners regarding the protection and enhancement of heritage buildings in our neighbourhood.  Note that 50% of all buildings in Grandview were built prior to 1929: Grandview is heritage.  The Executive Summary for this document is posted below:

“The GHG is keen to see heritage/character preserved in Grandview as part of the Community Plan process and, to that end, would like to make a series of suggestions about preserving heritage/character.  Please consider this letter and attachments as a formal submission to the plan process.  We look forward to consideration of the suggestions by planning staff and adoption of them.  As you will see, the GHG would like to see some of its suggestions adopted in the upcoming plan workshop on heritage and character, and also other workshops such as housing.

During the Community Plan process, the GHG would like to see the final plan document include the following: 

  1. Wording that frames Grandview as a heritage/character area and that heritage/character has an influence on other plan themes (such as housing) and on the development of policy about Grandview and its geographical subareas.
  2. Retention of all existing land use and development zoning schedules, policies and guidelines that apply to Grandview (e.g., within RM, RT, RS, and C zones), since the heritage/character of the neighbourhood would be threatened by changes thereto, and increased development pressure from upzoning would threaten the loss of the large amount of existing affordable older housing and rentals within heritage/character buildings.  The GHG also notes that the City has not demonstrated that existing zoning cannot serve anticipated growth.
  3.  Wording to ensure there is vigorous application of guidelines that apply to zoning in Grandview (notably, Britannia/Woodland and Broadway Station Area RM-4/RM-4N; RS-1, RT-4 and RT-5), especially regarding the heritage/character nature of buildings and streetscapes.
  4. New “First/Commercial C2-C Guidelines” modelled on the Broadway/Commercial C2-C and C-3A Guidelines, covering Commercial Drive from Parker Street to East 6th Avenue. 
  5. The view that future growth in Grandview should be predominantly provided through the retention, adaptive reuse and/or upgrading of existing buildings with infill where appropriate, at a scale consistent with the existing heritage character of Grandview, to avoid speculative land inflation and to protect public/private views of the mountains and city centre.
  6.  Policies that encourage the preservation and discourage the demolition of existing heritage/character residential buildings in Grandview.
  7. The implementation of city-wide policies that undermine the heritage character of Grandview (such as the Interim Rezoning Policy) should be suspended for the duration of the plan.
  8. Zoned capacity information about Grandview should be introduced immediately into the plan process, with the raw data and assumptions about the data made available on the plan website, and publicity produced about the availability of the data. 
  9.  The theme of heritage/character should be included in events (such as workshops) about or including other themes, notably housing.
  10. Maps by Bruce Macdonald and data and maps by Jak King should be immediately introduced into the Community Plan process and maps of theirs should be used in displays and other materials at plan events about heritage/character and housing, including workshops about these themes, and should inform the final document.

The full document (available here) expands on some of the preceding suggestions.

 

Meeting Notes — September

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We had a splendidly full and interesting meeting last night.

Michael Kluckner led a discussion about how best we can approach the preservation of historic signs in Grandview.  These would include the Shelly’s sign at the Via Tevere Pizza restaurant on Victoria, and the Cozy Apartments sign on Commercial. It was noted that there are other signs on the Drive that are beneath thin veneers of whitewash. It was agreed that we should meet with the Tevere owners and discuss a possible repainting in the spring.

While we are talking about the Shelly’s sign, it is worth noting that the excellent images of the sign by one of our members, Egon Simons, are being used by the Grandview-Woodland Community Plan folks.

The talk of signs led us inexorably to the question of the Little Theatre sign that has been revealed by the redevelopment of the York Theatre.  The development plan shows that the wall is supposed to be covered by what appear to be white metal sheets.  However, we all agree that retention and diaplay of the sign would be a desirable outcome in what is an otherwise non-heritage renovation.  It was agreed that we will write to the developers to ascertain their plans for the sign and lobby for its continued public display.

We then turned to the matter of the Grandview-Woodland Community Plan.  Many of the people at the meeting are also members of the Community Plan PACE group and we discussed the first meeting of that Process Advisory and Community Engagement group that took place on Tuesday.  It was noted that heritage was a key factor in the discussions, especially in what the planners were keen to call “the Heritage area” east of Commercial Drive.  It was agreed that there are also pockets of important heritage value west of the Drive, many of which offer affordable housing options, and these need to be protected from any sweeping apartment-zone changes that may be contemplated in the new Plan.

There was a long and interesting discussion about the creation of a mixed cultural-industrial zone along and to the east of Clark Drive.

Talk of the area west side of Commercial was also timely because the next of our Walk & Talk series will feature that area.  One of the City’s most experienced guides, Maurice Guibord, will be leading the walk on October 20th and we’ll be publishing more details in the next little while.

Finally, we spent some time discussing additions and improvements to this website of ours.  It was suggested and agreed that we should have a page about resources for heritage home owners looking to repair and renovate their houses, and we will be gathering data for that.  We will also include a page with pointers for those looking to research the history of their homes, and this will tie in with our scheduled Talk in January on the same subject.  So, look for changes coming here soon!

 

 

Meeting Notes — August

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We had a splendid meeting last night, with a welcome number of new faces appearing to add their insights and opinions.

Much of our time was spent dealing with housekeeping matters to do with the Centenary Birthday Signs launch on Saturday morning.  We will kick off smartly at 10am with a short speech about 1912 and the development of Grandview at that period, along with an appreciation of the particular houses we are celebrating that day.  The formal posting of the sign will be followed by the presentation of a 100th birthday cake. We are hoping for a good crowd.

Talk of planting a centenary sign outside Professor Odlum’s wonderful old house on Grant Street just behind the liquor store led to an interesting discussion about co-op housing in the neighbourhood and the fact that 2012 is International Year of the Co-op.  The co-op which has occupied the Odlum House since 1980  is having a celebration this Saturday evening.

From co-ops, the conversation moved on to the current Community Plan process and the role that heritage may play in it.  There was general agreement that the current and recent City administrations seem to be lacking in sympathy for heritage retention, and a number of ideas were floated that could improve that situation while moving forward on City priorities such as the Greenest City initiative.  These included changes to the building code that would assist retention and renovation of older heritage houses (after all, the greenest building is the one that is already built), and innovative ideas for repurposing the hundreds of 1940s and 1950s “starter homes” in Grandview.  Our members and others interested are encouraged to participate actively in the Community Plan process to ensure that our past is maintained as part of our future.

We firmed up plans for our Walks and Talks series this fall and winter, and I’ll write up a separate post about those later today.

Finally, in our usual glee for show and tell, Eric brought along another of his extensive collection of technical books from the early part of the 20th century — this one included surprisingly modern bathroom fixtures — and Ann showed us a wonderful cast made by a local metal workshop that she found in her house.

Grandview On Top 10 Endangered Sites List

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Heritage Vancouver has issued a list of the Top 10 Endangered Heritage Sites in Vancouver — and the entire Grandview Neighbourhood is on the list.

Grandview is one of Vancouver’s oldest historic neighbourhoods, with many consistent streetscapes of older houses and commercial buildings, few of which are on the City of Vancouver’s Heritage Register. While individual owners continue to work to upgrade their houses within broad heritage principles, builders and developers have set a trend of erecting front-back duplexes on 33-foot lots in a generic “heritage” style that can erode overall neighbourhood character.

Historic resources that are not listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register are threatened, as they are not eligible for the creative tools, relaxations and bonuses offered for Register resources. Unsympathetic zoning allows unchecked demolition of houses not on the Register, leading to generic replacement buildings. Some historic houses that are not on the Register sit on multiple lots, which could be attractive to developers and very difficult to retain …

Commercial Drive – our best surviving early commercial streetscape outside of the downtown core – has no specific heritage protection, and could be threatened with the kind of densification being seen on Vancouver’s other arterial corridors.

I suspect that we have enough activists in the neighbourhood — including quite a few media types — that we can at the very least make a lot of noise about unwanted changes.  However, the massive barn that Council has recently approved at 1st & Victoria, and the bad compromises made at the Presbyterian Church at Salsbury & Napier, remind us that vigilance is always needed.

We are supportive of sympathetic change — we have supported the Jeffs House restoration, for example — but are concerned that some developers don’t look beyond the balance sheet. If you are aware of any potentially damaging changes that are upcoming, please let us know by email or in person at one of our monthly meetings.