Since taking control of Vancouver’s civic government in 2008, Vision Vancouver has often come under criticism for its dealings with the real-estate industry.

Some of that concern has centred on how Vision politicians decide what to do with money coming into city coffers from developers in return for additional density.

Recently, NPA park commissioner Melissa De Genova questioned why the city can use these community-amenity contributions (CACs) to build new neighbourhood houses but won’t proceed with a new seniors centre in the Killarney area without matching funds from the federal and provincial governments.

In a recent phone interview with the Georgia Straight, De Genova said that $300,000 of CACs from the Champlain Square mall covered a funding shortfall at South Vancouver Neighbourhood House.

According to her, this money had previously been “earmarked” for a seniors centre.

“I’m not saying that the neighbourhood house isn’t a great cause, but the seniors centre has been passed over so many times now,” she said.

The federal government has already contributed $2.5 million and the B.C. government has committed $1.3 million toward a new Killarney seniors centre, which would be built on park-board land.

The city has agreed to contribute $2.5 million, leaving a $1.2-million shortfall. That’s based on a 2011 estimated cost of $7.5 million for a 10,000-square-foot seniors centre.

De Genova questioned why the city can’t draw on CACs to pay the difference.

Vision Vancouver park commissioner Aaron Jasper told the Straight by phone last week that this can’t be done because CACs must be spent in the neighbourhoods where they’re collected. According to him, there aren’t any CACs in the Killarney neighbourhood

“The city rules are such that CACs can only be spent in an area where the development is taking place,” Jasper said at the time. “That’s the whole idea.”

De Genova responded that there are citywide CACs that could be applied to the project.

“It seems that Aaron Jasper comes up with more and more excuses why he can’t get this done and why someone else should pay for it,” she claimed.

De Genova suggested in a motion last year that the cost of the seniors centre could be $10 million today—a figure that Jasper has adamantly rejected.

Meanwhile, Vancouver’s general manager of planning and development, Brian Jackson, told the Straight by phone last week that the city wants to ensure that there are sufficient services in areas to accommodate growth from densification.

“In the case of Killarney, there has not been a development that has occurred in that general area or in the wide area around Killarney that has generated CACs in the past,” he said. “So there is no unallocated CAC money that is available for any improvements or changes to the Killarney seniors centre.”

However, De Genova noted that council relies only on guidelines. She argued that there needs to be a clear and consistent council policy providing more transparency about which specific projects CACs will fund.

De Genova also suggested that the city should turn over CAC money to the park board so it can be spent in ways that meet commissioners’ long-term objectives.

She added that the Qmunity resource centre will be built with CACs in the West End to serve LGBT people, without any requirement for matching funds from senior governments. But she said that the same principle isn’t being applied to the seniors centre in Killarney.

“That being said, I very much support Qmunity,” she said. “I think it’s a great centre, and there’s a huge need for it. There’s the same need for the seniors centre.”

A report to council last May revealed that the city had approved 44 applications for additional density in 2012, resulting in 2.4 million square feet of additional density.

According to the report, $68 million in benefits were obtained by council, with $59.4 million allocated in 2012.

The largest portion, 38 percent, went to heritage preservation, with another 29 percent going to affordable housing, resulting in 1,011 market-rental units.

Of the remainder, 22 percent went to community facilities and 11 percent to parks and open space.

The report stated that during the past three years, the city has obtained $275 million plus 1,519 units of market-rental housing by approving additional density.

The city collects $3 per square foot of additional net density as a community-amenity contribution.