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THE CHRONOLOGY, 2004-2006
BACKGROUND:
Wreck Beach in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, is one of the most beautiful clothing-optional beaches in the world. It wraps nearly 8 km. around the Point Grey peninsula and is framed by spectacular forested cliffs. Above those cliffs lies the campus of the University of British Columbia (UBC). Presently the pristine forested cliffs above the beach hide any university buildings from view, giving beachgoers a natural backdrop that approaches wilderness, despite close proximity to the city. This precious heritage view greeted Captain George Vancouver centuries ago and is still enjoyed by boaters and people who visit the tidal flats today.
In February 2004, UBC announced plans to develop the land and to build several 18-story student dorms there. Despite several environmental reports warning about the instability of the cliffs and the effect the buildings would have on local birds and other wildlife (not to mention the fact students could look directly down onto the naked people on the beach below), the university was given approval to build Tower #1, the tower farthest from the cliff edge because, the council reasoned, it would not be visible from Wreck Beach. This decision was made despite widespread community opposition and no public hearing.
On April 10, 2004, WBPS retained a professional firm to help conduct a visual impact study by raising a blimp to the exact height of the towers closest and farthest from the cliff, at the towers' exact location. Only those two towers were measured because of the expense and the Society's limited budget. The height of the blimp is clearly shown in the top right hand corner of the photo that was later used to illustrate the view of the towers from Wreck Beach.
On May 3, 2004, WBPS released an illustration produced by an architectural grad student who took UBC's own plans and measurements and superimposed the closest and farthest towers onto a photograph taken April 10, 2004. The illustration accurately portrayed UBC's original plan of the tower now built (Phase One) and towers yet to be built (Phase Two).
On or before May 17, 2004, Dennis Pavlich, VP of External and Legal Affairs for UBC, said that the tower farthest from the cliff edge (the Phase One tower now built) would not be visible from Wreck Beach and UBC would proceed to build the towers despite widespread community opposition and no public hearing.
On November 22, 2004, UBC announced plans to drop the height of the Phase One tower. UBC was forced to lower that rear tower to 18 stories when it was discovered that their original plan did not comply with the Official Community Plan for Electoral Area A, a bylaw of the GVRD adopted on July 25, 1997. UBC is part of Electoral District A, which is administered by the GVRD. The GVRD has the authority to regulate building guidelines on the UBC site in relation to their impact on the adjacent park and beach.
Petitions were launched by the WBPS where, to date, over 40,000 people have signed calling on UBC to find another way. Visitors from all provinces in Canada except PEI, 45 communities within BC but outside the Lower Mainland, 30 states in the US, and 18 foreign countries in addition to thousands of Lower Mainland residents, have supported preservation of Wreck's magnificent vistas. In less than 54 hours this summer, over 3000(?) persons have signed a petition calling for comprehensive public consultation and supporting the GVRD Staff line-of-sight which would preserve the remaining panorama viewscape from Wreck Beach toward the forested cliff tops.
On July 6, 2005, Tourism Vancouver issued a letter asking the GVRD to preserve the viewscapes near the tip of Point Grey, at Wreck Beach, and including portions of Pacific Spirit Park. Many international and local guidebooks refer visitors and tourists to Wreck Beach, as do six Tourism Vancouver information centres, describing Wreck as "one of the worlds' great beaches", "very beautiful", "undeveloped (and unspoiled)", and "pristine".
The GVRD has echoed the concerns of the public about the impact on the pristine, natural views of the cliffs from the beach, on the privacy of beach visitors, and on cliff stability and erosion. On October 29, 2004, the GVRD passed three resolutions regarding the development. The first expressed opposition to any development that compromises the historical viewscape and the privacy of Wreck Beach from all areas of exposed beach at low tide. The second advocated that UBC release its background reports to the public, and the third requiring UBC to conduct a full public review, including consultation with the Musqueam, regarding the impact of the development on Pacific Spirit Regional Park.
Unfortunately, UBC still wasn't listening -- prompting the GVRD, at its full Board meeting on July 29, 2005, to pass a motion directing UBC to improve its public consultation process and not build towers visible during the spring/summer foliage season from the beach -- or demonstrate that UBC has explored all reasonable locations and site design alternatives, and prove that there is no alternative that can be achieved without unreasonable hardship to UBC's student housing program. The full resolution passed July 29 is:
" That the GVRD Board:
a) Advise UBC that the Board recommends that the Marine Student Residences-Phase Two not
be visible during spring/summer foliage
season from Beach Zones 'A', 'B' and 'C' as illustrated in Attachment
1 [of the report dated July 8, 2005, titled 'Pacific Spirit Regional
Park and UBC's Marine Drive Student Residences-Phase Two'];
b) Advise UBC that the Board recommends relaxation of recommendation (a) to no visibility of the Marine Student Residences-Phase Two during spring/summer foliage season from Beach Zones 'A' and 'B' and a maximum height limit of 53 meters including appurtenances be considered if UBC can demonstrate that:
ii) there is no alternative that can be achieved without unreasonable hardship on the UBC student housing program;
iii) the absence of any visual impact on Phase Two buildings on Beach Zones 'A' and 'B' has been proven by a verifiable study acceptable to GVRD and UBC staff; and
iv) if any issues cannot be resolved by GVRD and UBC staff, that the matter be referred to the GVRD-UBC Joint Committee co-Chairs;
d) Reconfirm UBC develop consultation guidelines that includes broad consultation, sufficient advance notice, and a process for incorporating suggestions into any final outcome. "
Option (b) means the GVRD has the final say where UBC has to come back to the GVRD Board if they can't adhere to (a) or (c).
At the July 29 GVRD meeting, the WBPS presented alternate locations for student housing, as well as alternative building designs for the Phase Two towers site. A full range of locations and design alternatives now exist, including a redesign of the Phase Two site where WBPS's architectural consultant demonstrated how UBC could lower the towers significantly, while maintaining virtually the same number of student beds as originally intended at the Phase Two site. The WBPS's design lowers the tower's height and adds floors to the lower connective building.
UBC WANTS ADDITIONAL DORMS BUILT OVERLOOKING WRECK BEACH
VANCOUVER, B.C. -- October 6, 2005 -- UBC held public meetings yesterday, to inform the public of its plans to build yet more high rises adjacent to Pacific Spirit Regional Park. At the Open House meeting, UBC released images showing the impact of these new towers on the view from Wreck Beach. The images show that the proposed towers will be even more visible from the Beach than the existing tower. Worse yet, the proposed towers will violate a GVRD Board resolution of July 29, 2005, which dictated that any new towers not be more visible than the first tower.
The GVRD, which has authority over planning on campus, resolved that UBC will only be allowed to build more towers visible from the beach if UBC meets certain conditions. First, UBC must prove that it has explored all reasonable alternative designs and alternative locations for student housing. Second, UBC must prove that any other alterative design or location would cause unreasonable financial hardship on its student housing program. And no matter what, the GVRD resolution prohibits UBC from building any tower that would impact the view from that part of the beach which is currently unscathed by the existing tower.
"The two towers will loom over much more of the beach than we feared," said James Loewen, vice-chair of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society. "They will ruin the natural back drop of Wreck Beach. UBC promised not to expose any more of the beach to views of towers, but clearly if these towers are built as proposed it's a broken promise. Shame on UBC," continued Loewen.
The public meetings were a 4 pm Open House that was immediately followed by a Town Hall meeting at 7 pm where UBC presented it's Phase Two plans to build two more 18 storey towers, in addition to the Phase One 18 storey tower already built.
At the Town Hall meeting, members of the public, including students, alumni, faculty, and members of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society and Pacific Spirit Park Society, almost unanimously opposed UBC's new development plan. Speaker after speaker urged UBC not to build the new high-rises, charging that they will further impact the beautiful views enjoyed by beach visitors. Despite this near-universal opposition, UBC Properties Trust intends to submit its plans to the UBC Advisory Urban Design Panel today, October 6, without amending them in any way to reflect public concern.
"We are extremely skeptical about UBC's willingness to actually incorporate public feedback and input into its design," said Judy Williams, chair of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society. "The public comment period extends to October 31, 2005. Yet UBC is pushing to have its building design approved immediately, before the public has had a full opportunity to comment," Williams' continued.
At the Town Hall meeting, UBC was unable to demonstrate that it had truly considered alternative locations and site designs. WBPS has presented alternative locations, and alternative building designs, to both the GVRD and UBC; however UBC appears not to have considered these alternatives. WBPS has provided an alternative architectural design, demonstrating how UBC could easily lower the proposed 18 story towers, while maintaining virtually the same number of student beds in the original design.
Many at the Town Hall meeting said there is much underutilized space at UBC that could be used for student housing, making up any shortfall that would result if the towers were lowered.
Wreck Beach is part of Pacific Spirit Regional Park, which is protected from development impacts by its Regional Park Management Plan and by the Official Community Plan (OCP), a bylaw of the GVRD. Any towers built higher than the GVRD line-of-sight analysis are not in compliance with the OCP. The OCP requires all new development by UBC to protect and preserve Park values.
10/6/2005, Vancouver, - Both AANR and The Naturist Society are assisting with emails and letters to their members urging nudists everywhere to both sign their petition against the proposed buildings and also to mail letters to the local city council there, whose members are only a few weeks away from deciding the issue.
The fight to preserve Wreck Beach has been going on for almost 10 years. The land above the bluffs are owned by the local campus of the University of British Columbia and until a few years ago it was used as a parking lot for students.
Judy Williams, chair of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society said, “We are extremely skeptical about UBC's willingness to actually incorporate public feedback and input into its design…UBC is pushing to have its building design approved immediately, before the public has had a full opportunity to comment.”
"It seems obvious to us that the university will have to reinforce and extend the cliff angle in order to support the two towers. In so doing they will effectively be eliminating any access to Wreck Beach by the public. Their long term plan may be to have the Attorney General re-interpret the legality of nudity on Wreck Beach.”
Evidence of this was alluded to at one of the public hearings, when a UBC official admitted for the first time they did not like the nudity on the beach below their property.
“So, the battle lines are drawn,” said Williams.”Even if the construction cannot be stopped, we must convince them to lower these Phase II towers below the planned 18 stories so they cannot be seen from the beach.”
URGENT MESSAGE TO ALL WRECK BEACH SUPPORTERS
Judy Williams, CHAIR, WBPS
October 12, 2005
The Wreck Beach Preservation Society (WBPS) thanks Naturists everywhere for their generous and whole-hearted support of our battle of the towers here at Wreck Beach for the past 19 months.
We thank naturists and individual supporters (FCN, FQN, INF, TNS, NAC, SLUGS, W-CANR, AANR) from around the world, who wrote or sent donations orboth. Altogether, the unity of naturists helped us raise thousands of dollars. However, once again, our coffers are low.
Those of us in the vanguard in Vancouver, B.C., thank you all with gratitude, but we must ask you to step up to the plate one final time with either pen or computer in hand. We are launching a FINAL letter writing and petition signing campaign in our battle to preserve the beauty of Wreck Beach. In just three days, earlier this month, we got 50 + letters before the October 5 public meeting.
We need new letters NOW of support against the heights and locations of those remaining two towers, even if you have written before. UBC must understand that the public will be heard. We appreciate that the architects dropped the height of the original 20-storey tower closest to the cliff edge, terracing it from 5 to 7 storeys leading eastward away from the cliff edge toward Lower Mall Avenue. We have 45,000 signatures on petitions, but WE NOW NEED YOUR E-MAILED or FAXED LETTERS AS WELL. If you have not yet signed our petition, go to “Towers” on the www.wreckbeach.org website and add your name, address and e-mail or phone number to the petition also.
In the winter months when there are less leaves on the deciduous trees, one will see Tower #1 from many many points along the beach. And, unfortunately, the proposed two towers will show even more than Tower #1 from various points along the beach because of increased visibility at the gully heads since they lie south of Tower #1. Bottom line is that simply because UBC continued building Tower #1 throughout our organized protests, that need not become the precedent for their forging ahead with the construction of Towers #4 and #5!
Bioengineering has already been suggested on the cliffs in order to protect buildings that should never have been built there in the first place. Plus a consultant has already called for interceptor ditches paralleling the cliff edge that would kill the trees for lack of water. And, that would lead to opened-up views and a possible re-interpretation of the Attorney General toward nudity on the beach.
On June 20, UBC said at a Joint Committee meeting that they did not approve of the nudist lifestyle and behaviour at Wreck Beach. This was the first time in years where they openly criticized the nudity!
On October 8, in a Globe and Mail article, UBC Properties Trust announced that they would be “moving forward” with Phase II of the project … BEFORE all public and agency feedback is due by October 31, and before the GVRD Board has had a chance to vote on the issue. On October 6, one day after the public hearing, the Advisory Urban Design Panel voted unanimously to accept the designs presented on October 5. Puzzling indeed.
We thus have our work cut out for us, and with your support through letters, e-mails, and donations, we can continue to stand up for our Naturist rights and beliefs.
However, we do not have time for posted letters. You must send e-mails to ensure you make the October 31 deadline for public input. You can use your own words, or you can adapt the wording below to which you may add your own reasons for wanting the views preserved. You may want to talk about the importance of Wreck Beach and its drawing power for tourists from around the world. You may want to tell them that you visit the beach regularly and spend your tourist dollars locally, nationally and internationally to come here. You may want to talk about the healing nature of the beach and the benefits of getting away from urban concrete, glass and steel. That , of course, will be up to you. But, bottom line is that the Phase II towers must be lowered from 18 stories.
For more information, please contact:
Judy Williams, Chair, WBPS, 604-308-6336, judyw@wreckbeach.org |
