Vancouver councillor Geoff Meggs won’t push Concord Pacific on Creekside Park
Vision Vancouver councillor Geoff Meggs has ruled out pressuring developer Concord Pacific about its long-promised extension of Creekside Park, located north of Science World, to the northeastern side of False Creek.
“There’s no way you can force Concord to undertake a development that it doesn’t want to undertake,” Meggs told the Straight by phone. “They have their own timing, and there’s no way the city can compel them to move ahead if they are not interested in doing so.”
Meggs’s comments were in response to those of lone Non-Partisan Association park board commissioner Ian Robertson, who told the Straight, “Quite frankly, my position is I would like to see the council put pressure on Concord to make good with their commitment to develop the park in that area.”
The land has sat vacant since Expo 86. The Creekside extension area sits next to the land used for some Olympic pavilions.
Fern Jeffries, cochair of the False Creek Residents Association, told the Straight that extension plans were laid out in a 1990 development plan. However, in 2004, changes to the Northeast False Creek Urban Design Plan postponed the extension of the park.
“The simple truth is, they [Concord Pacific] owe the city a park,” Jeffries said. “It was a critical piece of land that could potentially be an iconic park for the city, and they are sitting on it and all they can think about is more, more, more, more profit.”
On Tuesday (March 9), 2008 NPA council candidate Sean Bickerton will host a meeting of the FCRA steering committee, of which he is a member. Bickerton told the Straight that the group “absolutely” will be discussing the park issue.
“It’s still one of the dominant concerns of the organization,” Bickerton said by phone.
He said the issue could be resolved if Concord would agree to locate density nearer to the downtown end of the space. Concord recently retained architect Richard Henriquez, who drafted a plan “that saw the row of towers march down Pacific right to Citygate” at the Main Street SkyTrain station, according to Bickerton.
“That provoked a very strong reaction on our part, the community’s part,” he added.
Like Meggs, Bickerton said a major stumbling block to moving ahead more quickly is the issue of soil remediation in the area.
“So the province has agreed to pay to have the soil under Concord’s property remediated,” Bickerton said. “To do that, they have allocated the future park as a place where that soil will be remediated. That’s an expensive undertaking. That’s the big problem—it’s quite expensive, and I doubt the province is eager to spend the money.”
Concord staff did not respond to Straight questions by deadline.
According to a 2008 campaign-financing disclosure statement filed with the city clerk, Vision Vancouver received a payment from Concord Pacific Developments Inc. of $600, as well as 15 payments from Concord Pacific Group Inc. totalling $35,000.
Comments
5 Comments
Sean Bickerton
Mar 4, 2010 at 4:21pm
Councillor Meggs has been helpful throughout this process, and I think he's being unnecessarily humble in this instance. He has a great deal of influence, and I believe can help fashion a win-win solution involving increased density up against the stadium, new technology for in-place soil remediation and early action on building Creekside Park as promised by Concord for the past twenty five years.
The community is prepared to work with Concord if they demonstrate good faith by not bringing back their construction storage yard to Pacific Avenue, and if they are willing to leave Lot 9 entirely for the park. I would encourage Councillor Meggs to do everything possible to bring the parties together - the time is right for a comprehensive solution.
Bill McCreery
Mar 4, 2010 at 5:11pm
Mr. Meggs may be trying to be helpful but, Vision's track record of public consultation & coordinated, prioritized planning has not been stellar. We now have Concord's floated revised NE FC march of the sugar plum towers plan, the Pav Corp stadium redevelopment & Mr. Meggs Viaduct demolition / redevelopment trial ballon [after just spending $300,000 of deficit money on a bike lane, to be used for how long?] all happening in the the same neighbourhood. Maybe it's time to take a breath & prepare an up to date comprehensive plan for the whole area [including bike lanes]. This will hopefully result in a coordinated, livable neighbourhood with positive linkages to surrounding neighbourhoods.
Birdy
Mar 4, 2010 at 10:53pm
The city isn't broken, leave it alone, it's fine and just wants to chill for a while.
Fix the roads if your bored, or USE THE MONEY FOR THE CONSERVATORY, I live there ok, I am a fanciful birdy you see, and if I lose my home I'll have to go to art school.
That said, city hall isn't all bad. They're spending $600,000 on two giant bird statues for the seawall in 2011!
Not trying to be "helpful"
Mar 5, 2010 at 2:16pm
Let's change the name of our fair city from Vancouver to Concordia Pacifica, they own City Hall anyway and why shouldn't we acknowledge the fact. Bickerton and Meggs are falling over each other trying to be the "helpful" hand servants of the real estate industry.
Sean Bickerton
Mar 6, 2010 at 1:58pm
"Not trying to be "helpful" - with respect for your understandable cynicism, given the history of the project, my only goal is to ensure that Creekside Park gets built as promised by the developer 25 years ago. And I am doing everything in my power to hold their feet to the fire until they do.
This problem has festered through administrations of all political stripes and the plain fact is that in order to break that logjam, we need to work with City Hall and those that own the land. How else could we solve this problem?
Understanding the history and what has led to the current impasse, I believe we can now see the outlines of a solution if only the city would bring necessary pressure to bear and the province would provide some much-needed leadership.
I am ready to work across all ideological divides that prevent a solution in order to see this park built, a park the children of our neighbourhood have been denied for more than a quarter century.