Why should rich people have exclusive access to Vancouver’s beautiful vistas? A civic party wants to know.
VANCOUVER, July 15, 2024 – Are Vancouver’s “view cones” worth preserving?
It all depends on your point of view.
If you’re City Cllr. Peter Meiszner, who proposed the motion gutting Vancouver’s 1989 view-cone guidelines, it boils down to one thing: privatizing our mountain views.
It seems that Meiszner, who dressed up as a pirate at Council’s session last Hallowe’en, thinks only his rich backers in costly crow’s nests deserve to enjoy these beautiful vistas – which Vancouverites have enjoyed since the guidelines were established.
That’s an incredibly narrow – and selfish – point of view. Former Vancouver Planning Director Ray Spaxman has a broader outlook.
“The current short-sightedness of those advocating the further harming of this particularly unique view of The Lions is awful,” says Spaxman of one suggested change to the guidelines. “I support undertaking a review and update of all the current view protection policies, but narrow-minded interests should not prevail over a thorough evaluation of genuinely valuable assets.”
As former City Planner Sandy James points out, “The views are what makes Vancouver really special. People don’t come here to see towers; those views are precious, and that’s what makes us different from any other city.”
Another respected former civil servant notes how the public has been frozen out of the view-cone review process. Larry Beasley, Co-Director of Planning from 1994 to 2006, wrote Council asking for deferral of the staff report on amendments to the Protected View Corridors Policy until Council had heard a range of public opinion on the issue.
But his appeal fell on deaf ears. ABC and its enablers on Council put on their blinkers and forged ahead with their tunnel vision.
TEAM for a Livable Vancouver rejects the developer-friendly narrative put forward by Meiszner and the rest of the ABC pirate crew. We think everyone who lives in our city has the right to enjoy the beauty that nature has bequeathed to us – not just those who can afford to live at the top of the towers that ABC mistakenly believes will solve the housing crisis.
“View cones are not obsolete,” says former TEAM councillor and 2022 mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick. “These policy priorities favour the few who stand to profit – not the majority of people who call Vancouver home.
“What is Vancouver without its views of the mountains?” Hardwick asks. “And why should rich people have exclusive access to those views? It’s a conversion of the public to private, with no benefit to the city whatsoever. This is yet another illustration of the democratic deficit displayed by the current City Hall regime.”
When the 2026 civic election rolls around, ABC’s trashing of this vital civic legacy will be remembered by voters who take the long view of things.
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