As the City of Richmond grapples with how to have its voice heard by Port Metro Vancouver, the Richmond School District is also having communication issues with an important stakeholder of its own — the city.
In late June, Richmond city council approved a plan, at the behest of a development firm, to rezone parts of the West Cambie neighbourhood to residential, from commercial.
At issue is the late public hearing notice the city gave to the district regarding the transformation of a 16-acre site from planned office space to a mix of apartments and retail space similar to that of which is found on Vancouver’s Broadway corridor.
The changes will usher in 2,250 additional residents to the area, meaning the district must now redraw — or at least reassess — its future catchment areas.
“It’s going to throw all our future planning off. …This changes our numbers and this changes our predictions entirely,” said Richmond school board chair Eric Yung.
The zoning change is an amendment to the four-year-old Official Community Plan to 2041.
Clive Mason, the district’s director of facilities, wrote to the board earlier this month, telling it that the district had not been given enough time to review the plan.
Yung said the board had three days to submit its opinions prior to a public hearing.
Mason charges the city has slowly chipped away at a once designated commercial area, which is zoned as such due to its position next to Vancouver International Airport .
Mason wrote that the city “has incrementally increased the amount of residential land use in the West Cambie area” and that “the seemingly shifting sands” poses problems to plan future schools.
Adding to the problem is that much of the new housing stock will be apartments and townhouses, which are more family friendly compared to Richmond’s luxury home market.
Yung said he appreciates more students, but proper planning is necessary.
City council’s liaison with the board is Coun. Linda McPhail, a former school trustee.
McPhail called the planning snafu a “misunderstanding” as a result of the school year coming to an end at the time of the public hearing.
She said she hoped to work with the district on the matter.
Westmark Development Group sought to rezone a five-acre lot in 2013, which prompted a review by city planners, who, subsequently, denied the initial request.
Council prompted staff to investigate the matter and the city determined, via a study, that office space was being sought closer to the Canada Line. This meant the West Cambie area in question — near the planned Walmart at Garden City Road and Alderbridge Way — could accommodate residential developments.
Reports indicated from the get-go that the airport did not support the rezoning.
Staff consulted with the airport prior to the public hearing but did not do the same with the district.
At the public hearing, an airport representative wrote to council, noting the area is under a flight path and Transport Canada does not recommend residential development in such instances.
Nevertheless, council altered the zoning so that the area in question would not fall under the city’s Aircraft Noise Sensitive Development policy.
A city report cites that a benefit to the new zoning is that residents may live near to their workplace. However, the new zoning is said to attract less high paying jobs as it will be more retail oriented.
