So many speakers flooded Tuesday nights public hearing that city council might have to delay a decision on a controversial West Side rezoning application until after councils August break.
More than 150 people signed up to speak before council July 26 about the proposal to put a massive condominium development on a historic, four-hectare property at 57th Avenue and Granville Street. Before the first speaker stepped up to the microphone, Mayor Gregor Robertson announced the hearing would be reconvened the following night (after Couriers deadline).
The marathon meeting went until midnight, with only a small fraction of the gathered speakers heard from.
Members of the Shannon Mews Neighbours' Association were out in force, as were placard-waving supporters from other neighbourhood groups and residents associations, over Wall Financial Corporations plan to knock down two-storey rental townhouses in their Shannon Mews property in favour of rental and owner-condominium buildings between two and 10 storeys high. The company wants to increase the number of housing units from the current 162 to a total of 735, which is down four storeys and 156 units from their original application.
Wall Financial president Bruno Wall said in a prepared statement. We are ... committed to being respectful to our neighbours and ensuring that our current on-site residents are treated fairly, to implementing a construction management program that minimizes destruction and delivering a project that carefully balances the needs of the community with the long-term vision of the city.
SMNA representative Karl Brodhecker said the large turnout came despite an alleged attempt to encourage members not to attend the meeting through a fraudulent email.
The person who unauthorizedly used our email list made this very clear by removing the executive and key people who would recognize that it was a false email from the distribution, he said.
Brodhecker added that he was not implying in any way the developer might have had a hand in discouraging attendance at the public hearing as we believe the integrity of our opponents is far too great to do such a thing.
Twitter: @flematic
