For those that follow us regularly, you will know we are big fans of East Van artist, June Hunter. We have a mutual love, admiration and respect for urban nature and wildlife that call East Van home. June Hunter and many of her neighbours organized last Fall to form a peaceful group called Notre Dame Neighbours to oppose a large stadium and artificial turf field. This development application was proposed in 2004 – 2005 by Notre Dame School located in Hastings Sunrise. The school is just steps from June Hunter’s home. In 2004-2005, Notre Dame School had revealed plans for a new campus, sports stadium and removal of the perimeter poplar trees. Residents were fine with the new building, but opposed the sports stadium and tree removal. So after some back and forth, a compromise was reached and Notre Dame School agreed to build a grass practice field instead of the stadium and keep the trees. The building was finished a few years ago, but the sports field construction never took place.
In September 2018, residents learnt purely by accident that Notre Dame School had submitted a request for a minor amendment to the 2008 building permit to the City of Vancouver. But the amendment was far from minor, it was basically the original development plan submitted in 2004-2005 that was opposed by residents. This time around, funny thing, neither the City of Vancouver or Notre Dame School informed the residents of the proposed changes to the development application.
Last winter Notre Dame Neighbours started a letter writing campaign to get more information which continues you to this date with Freedom of Information requests and minimal helpful response from the City of Vancouver.
Hundreds of local residents have signed a petition, citing urgent concerns around parking, traffic safety, noise, and loss of green space and asking that the matter be moved to a new building permit process so that all of those important matters can be properly studied. Notre Dame Neighbours will hand this petition over to the City next week. If you wish to get a sense of the timeline of events, Notre Dame Neigbhours have prepared one, see Timeline.
We appreciate development and change are necessary as part of a growing City, but the communities we live in are shared by everyone who lives and works there. That includes the wildlife and birdlife that June Hunter regularly features in her art work and on her blog. She truly provides a bird’s eye view into the variety of species that call East Van home. June Hunter is committed to saving her urban forest and on doing research on the topic, learnt that urban forests play an important role in climate change. June also learnt of an interesting new project called Citizen Cool Kit being discussed by the University of BC Forestry Department. It’s an initiative encouraging local neighbourhoods to come together to lower their carbon footprint. The view is that it is an all community based effort to combat climate change. An important aspect of this is maintaining and enhancing our urban forests.
What we don’t like about development in Vancouver is when the City slamming the door on residents trying to get access to information about what’s happening in their own neighbourhoods. The Notre Dame Neighbours were hopeful with a new Council having been elected last fall that there might be more transparency and although they did get a few ears after much persistence, they do feel left out of the process. Considering the repercussions that residents would have to deal with including extra noise, traffic and a host of other issues, Notre Dame Neighbours should be party to the discussions that affect their daily lives.
There is an Open House happening at Notre Dame School, 2880 Venables Street on Wednesday, April 3rd from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. The timing is a little suspect, as those with families, working and commuting, may find it challenging to make that time.
We at ILiveInEastVan are passionate about community, we all share the spaces we live whether apartment buildings, churches, schools, streets, roadways, parks, the air, all of it. So this one has us a bit perplexed as it’s Notre Dame Secondary School, a school which is founded on God and Community and espouses values to its student, faculty and alumni. This is what they state as their values on the school’s website and we quote (our emphasis in bold):
LOVE
We are committed to loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our souls and all our minds, and to loving our neighbours as ourselves.
SERVICE
With Jesus Christ as our model we serve our own community and respond to the needs of the greater community through prayer and good works.
COMMUNITY
Students, teachers and staff, parents, pastors and parishes, and alumni work together as the Notre Dame community. We foster healthy relationships between all members of the community and we respect.
So when they speak of community, do they mean only amongst themselves? It certainly is the impression that the Notre Dame Neighbours are left with at this juncture.
If you wish to contact the City about this development application, you are welcome to write to Project Developer, Andrew Wroblewski at email Andrew.wroblewski@vancouver.ca or Director of Planning, Gil Kelly email Gil.Kelly@vancouver.ca. If Vancouver wishes to continue touting itself as one of the Greenest Cities In The World, they may wish to try and keep more of what makes it green.
If you wish to learn more, visit Notre Dame Neighbours:
Web site: www.notredameneighbours.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/ndneighbours/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ndneighbours
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Tags: Birds, City of Vancouver, Development Application, East Vancouver, Hastings Sunrise, June Artist, nature, Notre Dame Secondary School, Notre Dane Neighbours, Poplar Trees, Urban Forest, Wildlife
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