08 October 2012

City Council's (1976) Recommendation for Point Grey Foreshore

Point Grey Foreshore advocate Sal Robinson spent a little time in Vancouver Public Library's Northwest History Room with an old city planning report...

POINT GREY WATERFRONT PLAN
Adopted by City Council December 7, 1976

Policy 4: The beach area should remain in its current “natural” condition.
This stretch of beach provides one of the few “natural” beach experiences in Vancouver; intensely developed parks are immediately to the east at Kitsilano Beach and to the west at Locarno/Jericho.

Policy 5: The development and maintenance of street ends as mini-parks, in a manner that will improve their usability, should be investigated and reported back to City Council.
The beach currently has a number of access points, street ends that provide a lookout, and “miniparks”. However, the access points are poorly marked in many locations and the street ends are in varying degrees of conditions.

Policy 6: Improved signage and delineation of access points and improvement of access points (stairs, hand rails, etc. including an additional access point at Hastings Mill Park) should be investigated and reported back to City Council.
The City Engineer has been instructed to report back to City Council on the implementation of these two policies.

Policy 7: An amendment to the Zoning and Development By-law (No. 3575) should be prepared that would require all designs for retaining walls to be approved by the Director of Planning who would give regard to location, extension from existing cliff face, materials, landscaping, texture, etc. structural adequacy and safety. In no case, however, may seawalls be constructed to extend the existing land form at the top of the cliff.

Policy 8: No construction of building should be permitted at the base of the cliff.
Retaining walls that may be built in the future must be designed and built in an appropriate manner to enhance the character of the beach area. They are required to prevent erosion; however, they must be properly designed and landscaped to be compatible with the beach area.
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Sal Robinson writes: The source of the above is a 1993 document from City of Vancouver Planning entitled "Kitsilano: A Community Profile."  Policies 1, 2 and 3 are about property acquisition; Policies 9, 10 and 11 deal with the form of future development (no purpose-designed apartments or townhouses; no relaxation of side-yards for new developments.) I have not found, yet, that the by-law amendment mentioned in Policy 7 was ever made.

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