Former mayor Sam Sullivan was the first person I heard talk about the idea of “industrial densification” as a way to get more stuff onto Vancouver’s limited amount of land. I’ve heard the idea pitched several times since then.

But every time I talk to commercial brokers or industrial-land developers about it, they just roll their eyes. Building up costs too much, they say. People would rather build one-storey cheap buildings in Kelowna or Calgary and ship their stuff there than get into trying to do complex industrial buildings in Vancouver.

But Metro Vancouver and head planner Gaetan Royer are trying to buck that attitude anyways. Since earlier this year, they’ve been making noises about industrial intensification. There was an update at the Metro Vancouver meeting Friday (here’s my story out of it) and they’re about to kick this out to the public for consultation.

Why should the public care about industrial land? A few reasons

1. As municipalities try to encourage industrial developers to make maximum use of their land, that’s going to mean allowing them to go higher. Richmond has already put that into its official community plan, with the proviso that height restrictions are only lifted where industry doesn’t border residential. But you can see, as areas change, where there could be some conflicts.

2. You or your kids could end up working at some warehouse in the middle of nowhere, with no bus service, if developers don’t get smarter about doing dense industrial development.

3. Industrial land is jobs. We aren’t all going to be documentary film-makers, lawyers or massage therapists.

This story started floating around the community about three weeks ago. For whatever reason, the city has chosen not to announce the sale. But my sources told me it went through Oct. 30 and people at Collingwood Neighbourhood House are starting to ask for meetings with the city to get more precise ideas on what is going to happen there.

My story in the Globe is here and pasted below

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Transportation experts talk about the two functions of transit. It can primarily serve, which means putting most of your transit where existing demand is. Or it can be used to shape — so transit lines are built or routed into areas where demand isn’t strong yet, but the hope is that if transit goes there, development, density and demand will follow.

As a result of all the pressure to be efficient, efficient, efficient, the system — which had been very focused on shaping (many suburban bus lines running every 15 minutes even though not necessarily full, the Millennium Line, the West Coast Express, etc etc ) —  is now shifting over more to the serving mode. As a result, this just-out announcement from TransLink consultations for “service optimiatization,” which to people in more suburban areas is likely to translate as service cuts.

Members of the public will have an opportunity to offer comments and suggestions on proposals to provide transit service around Metro Vancouver in more efficient and effective ways. Public consultation on a set of proposed bus service optimization changes will begin November 19. Draft plans for refining and redesigning certain services will be presented both online and at a series of local open houses across the region. Feedback received will be taken into consideration as the plans are finalized in the New Year.

Service optimization is a critical part of TransLink’s ongoing program of managing the transit network. Its goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the transit network by reallocating existing resources from areas of low-productivity to areas where demand is higher. Using technology such as automated passenger counters and GPS tracking, TransLink planners can see how each bus route in the system is being used and use this information to better match transit supply to demand.

“Demand for transit service is growing in the region,” says TransLink CEO Ian Jarvis. “Our goal is to match that demand with an efficient service. Last year, we added 14 million more rides at no extra cost. We’re building on that success, and have a robust process in place to ensure we’re thinking about our customers and taxpayers as we plan and deliver transit service. We’ve done an analysis and now we want to hear from the public.”

The guiding principles for Service Optimization were established through consultations in 2010. One of those principles is to maintain service, to the greatest degree possible for transit-dependent customers while being efficient. (The guiding principles for Service Optimization can be found online at www.translink.ca/serviceoptimization<http://www.translink.ca/serviceoptimization>)

The increased ridership in 2011 through the optimization initiative generated 5 per cent more transit revenue, simply by shifting resources to where they were needed most. This indicates that service optimization is not only addressing current demand, but also generating more ridership.

The online consultation and open houses will continue through 4pm, December 13, with feedback being used to help finalize service changes. Any service adjustments will take effect later in 2013 or after.

SERVICE OPTIMIZATION 2013 – CONSULTATION SCHEDULE

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The application to transform Oakridge into a community of 2,800 units in nine towers and a bank of townhouses, a park on the roof of the mall, and more is sure to generate a lot of public interest in the coming months.

Open houses are next week, Nov. 15 and 17.

My Globe story with the preliminary look at the complete design is here and the application to the city is here.

A recently tender on the city website is advertising for an architect/landscape architect team to pre-qualify for work on a re-design of the north plaza, to be done soon because of urgent need for re-waterproofing between the surface and the Vancouver Art Gallery vaults below.

Not a moment too soon, many will say. At the moment, the north plaza is covered with wood chips, which make it look like an unused horse-jumping ring.

The goal? To quote: ” The goal of the City is to create a plaza that reflects the needs and desires of the
public, respects its location at the historical entry to the Vancouver Art Gallery
building and its relationship to Robson Square. The urgency for the work is due to the
immediate need to excavate the NE portion of the plaza and renew the waterproofing
around the underground vaults of the Vancouver Art Gallery.”

This is not connected, by the way, to the activities the city is carrying on re the south side of the gallery or Robson Square, about whether it should stay closed and, if so, what should go in there.

You can read more here if you wish.

I don’t need to add anything to a story like this, which is as good as a novel, really.

(Except one update. After deadline, city staff confirmed to me that whatever is operating at 5763 Balsam is doing so without a business licence. As per this message from the city:

The business’ request for a development permit renewal was declined late last year. One of the considerations in the renewal of development permits is neighbourhood concerns and there were a number of concerns regarding this business’ operations.

 The Board of Variance upheld the decision to decline the extension of the development permit.

 As a result of the decisions, the company’s business license was not renewed.

 We continued to receive complaints that the business was operating without a permit or licence.

 The matter is now the subject of legal action and we’re unable to comment further.

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This country saw a lot of good, cheap, affordable housing built in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Much of it was due to two things: federal dollars directly into social housing and federal tax laws that encouraged people to invest in private-market apartment buildings.

Many of the region’s minimum-wage or low-income households are holding themselves together in those three- and four-storey apartment buildings and social-housing projects all over the region.

The tax incentives got killed, so rental stopped. In 1994, the federal government ended its support for social housing, so it was left up to the few provinces willing (largely Quebec and B.C.) to keep building some.

But there was still money going into the old social-housing projects, through 30- and 40-year agreements signed when those projects were built a few decades ago. That money is still flowing, for the most part, but it’s due to start ending, as various agreements come to the end of their terms.

My story here looks at what people are fearing the consequences might be and what they’d like to see as a solution — no, not more money. Just the same amount that’s been going in all these years.

This, from a source.

At staff meeting the following numbers were provided for 4 yr agreement (really 3 now due to gap between expiration of past contract and current agreement)

This from CUPE 15’s website, Oct. 26

It’s time to sign a deal.

At 8:00 a.m. this morning your Bargaining Committee presented an “Offer for Settlement” to the employer’s bargaining team to renew four collective agreements covering over 2,500 CUPE 15 members. Our inclusive settlement offer was carefully built from a comprehensive package the employer presented to us on Monday morning. This required our Union to refine and in some cases reduce our bargaining demands to demonstrate our desire to reach a fair settlement with the City of Vancouver.

It has now been close to eight months since we started negotiations with the City and we have come a long way. Each party has worked extremely hard and invested significant time and energy. It has been tough negotiations. But it is now time to sign a deal. The four year offer that we presented to the City is fair, responsive and defendable to the needs not only of our Union, but of the employer and the citizens of Vancouver.

Our settlement offer reflects the terms and conditions contained in the recent settlement in New Westminster and other municipal settlements across British Columbia. We advised the City’s representatives that our Bargaining Committee is prepared to meet later today and throughout the weekend in order get this done.

The ball is now truly in the hands of the employer. From this point forward we will be increasing our communication with you and if necessary setting up special membership meetings. Again, it still remains our goal to renew a collective agreement with the City of Vancouver that is fair and reasonable, keeps members working, values your length of service, and is done without a labour dispute.

In solidarity,
Paul Faoro, President

On behalf of the CUPE Local 15 Bargaining Committee:
John Geppert (Staff Representative), Betty McGee, Brenda Coombs, Sally Bankiner, Barbara Dickinson, Arthur Lum, Jacques Massé, Donald Rounding, Steve Salsman

This seems odd to me. I can’t recall in my time hearing about the city settling with one major union (the inside workers, in this case) and not the other. And no details? Can someone enlighten me as to whether this is normal practice and I’ve somehow missed it before? Posts referring to 

This is the city news release that just came out.

The City of Vancouver and CUPE Local 15 have concluded a tentative settlement for a renewed collective agreement.  CUPE 15 represents the City’s clerical, technical and administrative employees.

The prior agreement between the City and CUPE Local 15 expired on December 31, 2011.  The parties commenced negotiations in February of this year and have worked hard to achieve a constructive, balanced outcome.

The tentative settlement is subject to ratification by City Council and the membership of CUPE Local 15.  No further details on the agreement will be available until ratification is complete.