From the subsequent press-release that was sent out on November 30:

“On November 27, 2007, Council received a progress report on EcoDensity and what we’ve heard to date. They referred a new version of the draft EcoDensity Charter, along with a set of draft Initial Actions, for further public consultation. Council also asked staff to consult on five additional Action items.

The Council report, draft Charter and draft Initial Actions are available on the EcoDensity website: www.vancouver.ca/ecodensity

Or you can go directly to the report here.

Opportunities to provide feedback on these drafts will include:

• Public workshops in January and February 2008 (details forthcoming)
• City staff will attend your group’s meeting in January or February – contact us to arrange
• Workbook and feedback sheet, to be available on the website soon
• A Special Council Meeting on February 26, 2008.”

Media

There was also an interesting article by Allen Garr in the Vancouver Courier that’s worth taking a look at:

Says Garr: “The most interesting thing about the EcoDensity package that went before council Tuesday is not the report…”

You can find the rest of the article here.

VPSN

You can also find our original VPSN EcoDensity Backgrounder on our Urban reDesign webpages.

Says the November 3 communique: “Mayor Sam Sullivan and Vancouver Councillors Peter Ladner and Suzanne Anton today invited residents, businesses and community organizations to provide their views about plans to complete the Millennium Rapid Transit Line to Central Broadway – and ultimately UBC.

An on-line survey at www.mayorsamsullivan.ca supports the three phase public involvement process for the Millennium Line completion announced in July.

“In addition to promoting sustainable development, completion of the Millennium Line will create economic opportunities, support EcoDensity and increase access to the Broadway corridor, health services and the University of British Columbia,” said Mayor Sullivan. “Making Vancouver one of the world’s most sustainable communities is one of the five goals we have established for our government. Completing the Millennium Line is Vancouver’s top transit infrastructure priority.”

The on-line survey invites Metro Vancouver residents to give their opinion on a series of questions about the proposed Millennium Line completion project. Earlier this year, Translink confirmed plans for a $1 million Broadway West Millennium Line Study.

Councillor Ladner said, “I am particularly interested in the potential of the Millennium Line extension to connect the Great Northern Way tech campus to the region and enable it to be the heart of the next downtown for Metro Vancouver.”

“Completing the Millennium Line will help us achieve the targets we have established to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Councillor Anton. “This survey will give us an opportunity to hear from stakeholders at the start of the project so that we can make the best decisions possible.”

Last month, Mayor Sullivan hosted the first in a series of roundtable sessions to support the Translink planning and consultation process. More will be scheduled before the end of the year.”

The Network’s Portfolio meetings have been going extraordinarily well over the last month or so. The initial idea for the working-group gatherings was to allow team members to prioritize key projects for the year. That much has been going better than expected and work is now underway on a bunch of initiatives – everything from new design backgrounders, to urban animation projects, to policy analysis, to mapping to guerrilla gardening reconnaissance and more. A synopsis of the active projects will be on-line in the next week or so, along with new web-pages for each of our nine portfolio/working groups.

Next week sees the last Working Group Prioritization meeting taking place:

Tuesday March 13 – Corporatization – Looking at billboard and advertising related concerns as well as project ideas around advocacy against the privatization of public space. The meeting takes place at Calhoun’s Coffee House – 3035 Broadway Avenue West at MacDonald at 7:00pm.

We also wanted to alert you to a couple of project specific meetings that will be taking place as well:

Monday March 12 & Friday March 16 – St. Patrick’s Day (Public Art WG) – We’re working on a plan to animate the Downtown area in a fashion similar to our Valentine’s heart-stamping excersise… minus the hearts and the mawkish sentimentality. This time it will be snakes! And maybe something even more ambitious. Our planning meeting is on Monday and our actual roll-out will be on Friday. This one will be big up fun! Locations to be announced.

Wednesday March 14 – Design Competition Planning meeting (Urban reDesign WG) – We’re currently in the planning phase of developing a collaborative public space design competition with our friends at ThinkCity. This meeting will review our proposal and develop a more elaborate work plan for the event. Takes place at 7:00pm at Rhizome (341 East Broadway at Main).

Thursday March 15 – Mapping Meeting (Communications WG) – The VPSN has already started on an ambitious surveillance mapping project over the last year. This year, we’re looking to expand the Network’s mapping activities with new tools and formats, as well as the possibility of GIS interfacing. This meeting will further shape this component of our communications portfolio. Takes place at 7:00pm in the Main and Broadway area, please RSVP for the address.

All meetings are open to the public; however we encourage people to RSVP so we can plan appropriately for seating and other details. To register for any of the sessions listed here, please send us an email at info@vancouverpublicspace.ca.

VPSN Coordinators Meeting and Big “Monthly” Gathering Workshop/Meeting

Because we love meetings so much (seriously – these are good gatherings – people laugh and joke, are respectful, collaborative and have never, ever, been known to refer to Roberts Rules of Order) we also have a couple more upcoming shindigs to let you know about:

Tuesday March 20 – VPSN Coordinator’s Meeting – A gathering for Portfolio Coordinators, folks on the Organizational Development Working Group and anyone else interested in Network administration and coordination activities. Time: 7:00pm. Location TBD.

Monday March 26 – VPSN Big “Monthly” Meeting & Workshop – Our first of the year, in fact! As per previous gatherings of this sort, we try to divide the meeting into a quick overview of VPSN activities (each portfolio coordinator will be giving a short update) and then a learning opportunity connected with an aspect of public space. Details on this event are being finalized and will be posted shortly.

Upcoming VPSN Projects of Note

Eggs in Space! In celebration of spring, and corresponding roughly with the dates of Easter, the “Events Committee” of VSPN will be organizing a public egg hunt in the city!

How we will do this, and what this will look like is up to the people who want to be involved. We need good ideas people to think up some good ideas about what the eggs might look like (plastic? wood? 2D? 4D?) and what we might do with them (messages? media? mystery?). And we will also need people to get out there with the eggs on the “day of” and make it happen.

If dressing up like a bunny was one of your new year’s resolution, you love painting pretty pictures on round surfaces, or you just like the idea of an egg hunt, get in touch with Surya at info [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca to be on the project team! Spring is coming!

New VPSN Design and Planning Backgrounders on EcoDensity & the Whitecaps/Central Waterfront Hub

EcoDensity Backgrounder – Our backgrounder on the City’s EcoDensity plans has been well-received (thanks to everyone for the complements). We even got a very nice plug on Dawn Paley’s Co-op radio show last Friday during her interview with our Urban reDesign Coordinator. For those of you still wondering what the EcoDensity fuss is about, check out our four-pager for a list of the pros and cons.

Whitecaps / Central Waterfront Hub Backgrounder – We’ve also released a new backgrounder this week to offer some commentary on the new Whitecaps stadium and Central Waterfront Hub development proposal. (More on this plan below).

Both backgrounders are available on our vancouverpublicspace.ca website under “Tools > Publications.”

This is a much-hyped project that has a lot of potential. As part of the activities connected with EcoDensity there is also an Ideas Fair being held on March 3-4 at Riley Park Community Centre at 30th and Ontario. We are encouraging people to attend and to let the City know that a strong public realm needs to be part of any and all planning criteria for the future.

The VPSN has also prepared a brief backgrounder on EcoDensity that outlines the concept as we understand it, it’s implications for urban design and public space, and some the issues that we feel need to be addressed as part of this project.

To download a PDF of the backgrounder, click here. For more information, contact our Urban Design team at info@vancouverpublicspace.ca.

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