The mega tower that will privatize public views
How money and politics are privatizing our public mountain view
Thanks to the eagle eyes of civic watchers, we’ve found out why view cones are being urgently reviewed for removal right now: The Shard by Intracorp.
The proposed 580-ft tall, 56-storey condo tower in the West End will obliterate the Heather Bay public mountain view of the Lions by a massive 320 ft.
A quick reminder of what the Heather Bay view looks like:
And this is what Intracorp wants want to do:
The only reason The Shard hasn’t been approved yet is because it’s pending city council to remove the Heather Bay view cone. Here’s the presentation and report delivered to city council in 2022.
Let’s call a spade a spade. The Shard luxury condo tower will not solve the housing affordability crisis at all. It’s going to be 443 units of the most expensive condos in Vancouver reserved for the wealthiest of the wealthiest.
Even the City of Vancouver staff report warned that:
“Permitting a building of this height in this section of the West End, could destabilize land values in this area, erode the City’s ability to protect public views to the North Shore mountains and compromise the principles of the View Protection Guidelines.”
To put it another way — this will not only destroy housing affordability in the West End, but also destroy Vancouver’s free public mountain views.
And of course, Intracorp’s executive team are massive donors to ABC and Green parties for the 2022 civic election maxing out on party and individual donations where they can. Here’s a list of their donations:
Evan Allegretto, BC President of Intracorp:
Don Forsgren, CEO of North Amercia of Intracorp:
Jimy Athwal, VP Finance of Intracorp Vancouver:
Farouk Babul, VP Development of Intracorp Vancouver:
Farouk Babul was the first speaker at the recent view cone motion council meeting where he said:
“The views [from Leg and Boot Square] are shallow and obstructed and often obstructed by sailboat masts…We conducted a study…which we submitted to the City illustrating the additional development capacity that could be unlocked in the West End and Coal Habour with the elimination of the Heather Bay view — an impressive 2 million square feet of additional development density could be created…This is just one example of an outdated protected view.”
What we’re seeing is an egregious privatization of a free public asset for the wealthy driven by this mayor and council right in front of our eyes.
As you can see, developers are actively providing their input to city hall, while public consultation is shunned for this city council view cone review.
Intracorp might have money, but we have our collective voices. Demand City Council to protect our public views and not sell it off to Intracorp:
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TO: ken.sim@vancouver.ca, rebecca.bligh@vancouver.ca, christine.boyle@vancouver.ca, adriane.carr@vancouver.ca, lisa.dominato@vancouver.ca, pete.fry@vancouver.ca, sarah.kirby-yung@vancouver.ca, mike.klassen@vancouver.ca, brian.montague@vancouver.ca, lenny.zhou@vancouver.ca, peter.meiszner@vancouver.ca
CC: paul.mochrie@vancouver.ca
BCC: info@saveourskylineyvr.ca
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Dear mayor and council,
Do not sell off the Heather Bay view cone to Intracorp for their Shard condo project.
Even the 2022 City staff report indicates that allowing The Shard to penetrate the view cone will "destabilize land values in this area, erode the City’s ability to protect public views to the North Shore mountains."
Do not privatize our public mountain views and make affordability worse in Vancouver.
I demand that you open public consultations for the view cone review.