Speakers list for 1477 West Broadway

People's arguments for and against a 39-storey rental building at a SkyTrain station.

Latest update on the 1477 West Broadway rezoning, for a 39-storey rental building with 220 rental homes above the new Broadway and Granville SkyTrain station: there’s been three days of public hearings with speakers addressing council directly, both in support and opposition. The list of speakers is now closed, and council will vote at their next meeting on Tuesday April 26. Agenda.

It’s obvious that Colleen Hardwick (TEAM) will vote No - during the public hearings she would always ask questions of opponents (many associated with TEAM), drawing out the process. There’s four consistent Yes votes on housing: Kennedy Stewart (Forward Together), Christine Boyle (OneCity), Lisa Dominato (A Better City), and Melissa De Genova (NPA). Beyond that, it’s hard to predict how everyone else will vote. I’m hoping the three Green councillors (Adriane Carr, Pete Fry, and Michael Wiebe) will vote Yes. Voting record.

Written comments: 607 in support, 406 opposed. It’s a lot faster for people to submit written comments, and for council to read them, than to hold three days of public hearings, consuming a corresponding amount of council and staff time (including overtime pay for staff). But it’s like an arms race: both supporters and opponents don’t want to be outnumbered, so more and more people sign up to speak.

A potential strategy that supporters could follow in the future would be to submit a lot of written comments in support, but only have a handful of people speak (some near the beginning, some near the end).

As the MacPhail Report (“Opening Doors”) observed, the public hearing process tends to amplify the voices of people opposed to a project, since they’re most motivated to get involved. If you look at a more representative sample of public opinion, does the majority support or oppose high-rises near SkyTrain stations?

In July 2019, Burnaby ran a one-day workshop with randomly selected participants from across the city to discuss solutions to housing being so scarce and expensive. Among other things, 67% of participants supported high-rises at town centres (Metrotown, Edmonds, Lougheed, and Brentwood). There’s a lot of high-rises which have already been built at Metrotown and Brentwood, and there’s an 80-storey high-rise planned near Lougheed.

A June 2019 poll of Vancouverites by Mario Canseco didn't ask whether people supported or opposed high-rises near SkyTrain stations, but did find that a lot of people (about 40%) would be opposed to 20-storey buildings in their own neighbourhood.

Taken together, this suggests that opposition will be highest in the immediate vicinity of Broadway and Granville, but overall, public opinion will be supportive.

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Thursday April 14. Live tweets by Peter Waldkirch.

• 2:15:48 Rezoning presentation by staff and applicant

• 3:13:17 Gareth Sirotnik (oppose)

• 3:22:30 Alda Kelly (oppose)

• 3:29:30 Mira Oreck (support)

• 3:33:15 Justin Pollard (support)

• 3:35:40 Jack Barr (support)

• 3:40:40 Reza Didi (support)

• 3:44:45 Tony Pappajohn (support)

• 3:49:20 Brian Palmquist (oppose)

• 3:59:55 Stephen Bohus, City Hall Watch (oppose)

Tuesday April 19. Live tweets by Helen Lui.

• 7:30 Devon Hussack (support)

• 13:55 Russil Wvong, Forward Together (support)

• 18:00 Helen Lui (support)

• 20:20 James Tang (support)

• 25:20 Sean Nardi, TEAM (oppose)

• 40:00 Chloe McGuire (support)

• 41:40 Jonathan West (support)

• 43:25 Fraser McKeen (support)

• 45:00 Paul Morris (oppose)

• 52:50 Sal Robinson, TEAM (oppose)

• 1:00:00 Nathan Davidowicz (oppose)

• 1:07:55 Ward Sterritt (oppose)

• 1:17:20 Bill Tieleman (oppose)

• 1:25:30 Ian Poole (oppose)

• 1:32:15 Steven Grippo (support)

• 1:36:15 Peter Waldkirch (support)

• 1:41:25 Dale McClanaghan, Granville Island Council (support)

• 1:44:50 Sebastian Lipa, Granville Island manager of planning (support)

• 2:02:00 Jack Haybart (oppose)

• 2:10:30 Dr. Cyrus Boelman (oppose)

• 2:20:07 Rokshana Engineer (oppose)

• 2:25:30 Dr. Cyrus Boelman

• 2:29:05 John Donovan (oppose)

• 2:34:40 Roberta Olenick (oppose)

• 2:40:15 Colin McGrath (oppose)

• 2:45:20 Bobo Eyrich (support)

• 2:48:25 Taylor Brown (oppose)

• 2:54:15 Mary Masati (oppose)

• 2:57:35 Maureen Sherrod (oppose)

• 3:02:10 Will Cleveland (support)

• 3:03:45 Gail Gavin (oppose)

• 3:09:40 Erica Weiss (oppose)

• 3:15:45 Andrew Shields (support)

• 3:19:45 Jane Frost (oppose)

• 3:25:10 Frank Heinzelman (oppose)

• 3:32:50 Mark Battersby (oppose)

• 3:36:00 Ashken Renovarti (support)

• 3:38:20 Marlene Wickman (oppose)

Thursday April 21. Live tweets by Peter Waldkirch.

• 4:50 Anna Holton (oppose)

• 22:10 Valerie Jenkinson (oppose)

• 34:25 Sue Fenbeshi (oppose)

• 38:55 Nolan Strong (support)

• 40:45 Lewis Villegas (oppose)

• 56:30 Carol Volkhart (oppose)

• 1:04:00 Andrea Baxendale (oppose)

• 1:09:00 Aidan Crawford (support)

• 1:10:25 Michelle Scarr (support)

• 1:11:50 Maureen Coleman (support)

• 1:13:45 Cameron Fleming (support)

• 1:15:30 Pete McGee (oppose)

• 1:32:20 Jane Fob (oppose)

• 1:38:25 William Dawson (support)

• 1:41:45 Susan Thom (oppose)

• 1:52:45 Maya (oppose)

• 2:12:25 Ian Crook (oppose)

• 2:25:00 Darlene Cripps (oppose)

• 2:30:35 Randy Helten, City Hall Watch (oppose)

• 2:39:50 Janice Hamilton (oppose)

• 2:46:26 Gordon McCauley (support)

• 2:48:45 Jessica Ferguson (support)

• 2:52:50 Catherine McCauley (support)

• 2:55:00 Sam Stacey (support)

• 2:56:35 Bailey Mayazka (support)

• 2:59:10 Rebecca Hartley (support)

• 3:03:25 Robert Burns (support)

• 3:05:30 Parvej Sidhu (support)

• 3:11:10 Christopher Gall (oppose)

• 3:13:25 Owen Brady (support)

• 3:17:05 Tsur Somerville, UBC (support)

• 3:21:15 Daniela Elza (oppose)

• 3:32:15 Edward Benson Evans (support)

• 3:40:55 Kit Sauder, Renters Advisory Committee (support)

• 4:07:45 Melody Haskell (support)

• 4:12:30 Elizabeth Murphy (oppose)