Stephen Owen, the “new kid” at UBC, says all development is assessed separately from the board of governors [Letters, August 5-12]. However, the Advisory Urban Design Panel advises only, and final decisions are still made by UBC’s board of governors.

UBC has arrogantly and historically lacked adequate public consultation regarding any development at UBC, not just residential development, but Owen hasn’t been around long enough to know this.

Otherwise, he would remember UBC’s undemocratic 1991 cliffside installation of a sewer line along Northwest Marine Drive, threatening stability of the cliffs without consultation; the 1992 proposed eight-storey hotel and relocation of Wreck Beach Trail 6 to accommodate hotel guests; the 2005 UBC Marine Towers for students, which the Wreck Beach Preservation Society with legal counsel forced UBC to move back and lower; the 2009 proposed hospice at University Boulevard and Marine Drive, which the WBPS and others circumvented; and the 2005 tree massacre on park property west of the Museum of Anthropology reflecting pond, which is currently being excavated at great risk to Wreck Beach.

Now that the fox is in the henhouse of governance at UBC, it is even more imperative that UBC gets on with responsibly including the public in its land-use and development planning.

> Judy Williams / Chair, Wreck Beach Preservation Society