This afternoon the City’s Advisory Design Panel reviewed the Cooperators proposal for the site along Thrift between Johnston and George.
It was very gratifying to listen to the panel members. They raised all the same issues I was concerned with.
A new and important pieces of information came to light. Until now, I couldn’t understand why they were so incredibly resistant to suggestions that I thought were fairly fundamental.
A few of the main concerns at this point are: how interesting the storefronts are along Johnston; making sure it’s easy to get around for people with wheelchairs or walkers; and the usefulness of the public square.
It turns out, the reason it seems those concerns are not being given the level priority the City wants is that Coast Capital has a conflicting set of priorities. Coast Capital currently has a location on the site and part of their contract in selling its land was that they be guaranteed space in the new building. Where the problems come is that they have a long list of criteria which clash with the City’s standards.
They insist that their customers will want to enter their parking lot from Thrift. But creating a vehicle entrance on Thrift lifts the public square up so that it can’t be seen from the street/sidewalk and can only be accessed by stairs from Thrift.
They want to move into their new location without any disruption to the delivery of service to their customers. But this means that the project must be built in two phases so the parkade must have an entrance from Thrift.
They want the bank to have maximum frontage along Johnston and have everything on the ground level. But this creates the inevitable closed-blind-window walls that makes for a very boring street with no shops along the way.
It seems the impediment to this project moving forward is either a lack of flexibility from Coast Capital.
As a City Councillor, I have to be concerned with the very long term quality of life of White Rock. I have to be concerned with how it will feel to walk along the sidewalks of George, Thrift and Johnston… for the next 50+ years.
If asked whether I care about Coast Capital’s ability to please its customers, the answer is yes, of course. However, if asked what is more important, a temporary inconvenience for Coast Capital customers or the long term viability of the City’s main street – I’m going to say that making Johnston and Thrift more interesting and pleasant places to walk and shop over the next several decades is a far higher priority for me.
Hopefully Coast Capital will step up to a higher standard for this project. It would be very unfortunate for the City and Coast Capital both to miss out on the potential this site offers.
What’s good for the City will be good for Coast Capital, and vice versa.