Formerly sacrosanct protected views are now being re-evaluated or simply ignored as cities and provinces make moves to allow much more density in their central areas, professor says
Residential housing buildings with ground level commercial units on East Hastings Street in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver on June 13.From strategic points, tourists and residents have had the carefully protected ability to see the sweeping vista of Quebec City’s historic skyline, Toronto’s iconic city hall, the Citadel in Halifax , the bucolic Mont-Royal in Montreal or the grandeur of Vancouver ’s North Shore mountains.
Because Old Quebec is designated as a World Heritage site by the United Nations, UNESCO “invites” governments to let the agency know about new construction “which may affect the outstanding universal value of the property.” Germany’sIn Vancouver earlier this month, a majority of councillors agreed to some of the most significant alterations to that city’s view-protection rules since they were created in 1989.
Those alterations to the protected views will mean that hundreds of properties throughout the downtown and central Broadway area are able to be redeveloped higher or wider than previously allowed. That could potentially produce as much 20-million extra square metres of development over the next 100 years, the staff report said.
“I feel lucky to have grown up in a city that protects public views. This will simply allow the developer to pad their profits,” Russell Chiong said. Others, such as former city councillor Colleen Hardwick and Chinatown activist Melody Ma, echoed that idea, adding that all the new space would provide very few benefits, like affordable housing, for Vancouverites.
Vancouver View Housing Crisis Value Perspective Montreal St. Lawrence River Citadel Halifax
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