Open House – November 3 , 2010
Final Draft Neighbourhood Plan
After more than a year and a half of charrettes, public review, open houses, and many steering committee meetings later, we have produced a final draft that is available for your review. We encourage you to attend next week’s final Open House at: ECOLE OCEANE SCHOOL, 1951 Estevan Road, 4:30 – 8:30 PM. Newcastle’s representatives on the Steering Committee will be in attendance (Linda Hildebrand – Member at Large, Warren Jaques – President, and Lee-Anne Stark). Hopefully, we can assist you with any questions you may have about the plan. Although not perfect, as in life, this is a long term plan for the neighbourhood and our position is “We support the Plan”. Please come and if you agree, or if you don’t, please complete the comment sheets and let us know. This way, the process will continue as it should. Many thanks. Hope to see you there!
Lee-Anne Stark, NNA Secretary Treasurer
PS Trees on the boulevard are taking turns changing colours and are looking fantastic!
Comments to Newcastle Neighbourhood Association on Draft Neighbourhood Plan
I am a resident of Newcastle and also a paid up member of the Newcastle Neighbourhood Association and I do not support this plan. If anyone takes the trouble to actually read the Draft Plan document (available on the City of Nanaimo web site at 157 pages and 78MB) you will see that there are a number issues to be concerned about:
1. Newcastle Avenue as proposed to be a one way street noth and a “gathering space” for events. I’m not sure how the residents of Newcastle Avenue feel about this. Perhaps they are not aware of the proposals. What I thought we had wanted on that street was a stairwell to better access the waterfront as well as to close the street at the south end to make it safer for pedestrians.
2. Laneways to be built behind Terminal Avenue from Bryden to Cypress Street. This is intended for access to business along Terminal Avenue but at the same time the plan calls for parking along Terminal Avenue so why would the lanes be required?
3. The introduction of small scale commercial uses and mixed use developments all the way along Vancouver Avenue from Bryden to Walnut Street. Stewart Avenue and Terminal Avenue are already designated as mixed used development areas: why would we also want to introduce them along Vancouver Avenue?
Of course, one of the biggest issues in the plan is what is a suitable height of development along the waterfront. I believe that the kind of development we have along Stewart Avenue is appropriate to this neighbourhood and more significantly, appropriate to this city. We are not Vancouver: we are a small community with none of the trappings of a big city and I thought that was the reason that we all lived here. The waterfront belongs to all of us and should represent the vision that we have of Nanaimo. I don’t think that the vision includes 15 storey high rise buildings along the waterfront.
The City of Nanaimo staff and the Newcastle representatives on the Steering Committee as well as the Stewart Avenue business who stand to benefit the most from the proposals are supporting the concept of 8+ storeys on the Moby Dick (Waterfront Suites); Nanaimo Shipyard; and Stones Marina properties. This is not 3 storeys; or 4 storeys or 5 storeys. This is starting at 8 storeys and going up from there.
The Brechin Hill representatives on the Steering Committee have proposed 3+ storeys on the Moby Dick (Waterfront Suites) and Nanaimo Shipyard which is what is now in the City of Nanaimo Official Community Plan just approved in 2008; and going up to 6+ storeys on the Stones Marina/Sealand properties and 8+ at Pimbury Point. I personally believe that this proposal is a more balanced approach to development which fits more effectively with the character of our neighbourhood.
Nancy Mitchell
Thanks, Nancy, for your practical thoughts. I much agree, especially with your comments on the unwieldy document that residents of our two neighbourhoods are supposed to be patient enough to download on their computer, if they have one. I’ve tried to download three times now and get an error each time, so unfortunately I can’t read the final proposed draft plan. Unless, of course, I try and try again, and not sure that I’m going to do that.
Re your point 1, Newcastle Avenue being designated as a gathering place for events, perhaps it could be so designated at fireworks times since it must offer excellent views for that event. But otherwise expensively remediated Maffeo Sutton Park offers huge expanses of parking and other facilities that certainly should satisfy space for almost all events coming to a small town.
Am at a loss to understand laneways now proposed to be built between Cypress and Bryden Streets to Terminal Avenue. Perhaps if I’d been able to view the final draft I wouldn’t be so confused? Right now I wonder about their purpose and how they are going to help.
Point 3, introduction of small scale commercial zoning along Vancouver Avenue. That hasn’t proved very viable along Stewart Avenue and wonder, as you say, if Vancouver Avenue would fare any better and if zoning change there in regard to small commercial usage has any practical basis. Coyote’s Coffee Shop at 572 Stewart Avenue, part of a mixed use development, has recently closed and posted a “For Sale or For Rent” sign. The only other apparently still thriving small commercial businesses I can think of on Stewart Avenue are the hairstyling salon and the architectural business on the floor above them.
Yes, waterfront heights are a major problem and most likely why Newcastle/Brechin Hill got neighhourhood planning in the first place since some of our councillors seem enthralled with highrises and what they will apparently bring to enhance Nanaimo’s desirability. Beats me what makes up that desirability: blocking view corridors? Bringing in more tax dollars for supposedly new purchasers of condos?
So I enthusiastically endorse your comment: “The Brechin Hill representatives on the Steering Committee have proposed 3+ storeys on the Moby Dick (Waterfront Suites) and Nanaimo Shipyard which is what is now in the City of Nanaimo Official Community Plan just approved in 2008; and going up to 6+ storeys on the Stones Marina/Sealand properties and 8+ at Pimbury Point. I personally believe that this proposal is a more balanced approach to development which fits more effectively with the character of our neighbourhood.”