[news] WBPS Towers Press Release - Blimp Revisit

[Steve Kisby]

http://www.alternatives.com/prms/2004/wbps0727.pdf

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  
Tuesday, July 27, 2004

GVRD PARKS WORKING WITH WBPS AND PSPS TO DETERMINE VISUAL
IMPACT OF UBC TOWER HEIGHTS ON ADJACENT PARKLAND: 

Blimp to Revisit Visual Importance of Wreck Beach Views from the Beach, July 29 and 
Wreck Beach Supporters to Show Solidarity at GVRD Board Meeting July 30, 9am

The Wreck Beach Preservation society (WBPS) will again demonstrate the visibility of the UBC Marine Residence towers from Wreck Beach by raising the Eye-in-the Sky Blimp to the 20-story heights of each of the four proposed UBC towers.  The media are invited as witnesses on July 29 at 10:30 a.m. at the foot of Wreck Beach Trail #6.

Judy Williams, Chair of the (WBPS) said Tuesday that "GVRD Parks is working with both the WBPS and the Pacific Spirit Park Society (PSPS) to revisit the visual importance of the heights of the UBC Marine Residence towers relative to the beach area of Pacific Spirit Regional Park."  

In this revisit of the April 10 Blimp demonstration, Williams said heights of the proposed towers from various locations on the beach will again be measured. This time, both UBC and GVRD witnesses will be present since the 200 witnesses of the April 10 raising were insufficient for UBC!

The crux of the impasse between the WBPS and UBC is that UBC refuses to acknowledge the importance  of recreational activities and socializing on the tidal flats between Point Grey and the North Arm Breakwater.   "Part of the problem," Williams emphasizes, "is that WBPS filmed our blimp from low tide whereas UBC filmed theirs from the high water mark.  UBC also did not initially raise their blimp to 20 stories, but only to the 18-storey height!  UBC also told our Society that 'we would just have to get used to the idea of seeing high rises from the flats.'"

NO!  We do NOT have to get "used to seeing high rises" where Vancouver visitors have historically seen only pristine forested slopes by the sea!  And this is the message that park users will take to the GVRD Board meeting of July 30, 9 a.m. when the WBPS presents a petition of over 13,364 (and still counting) names calling for the Board to consider options to persuade UBC to reconsider their grandiose schemes.

"A number of persons concerned about the loss of forested cliff skylines above Wreck Beach  are expected to attend in order to show solidarity against this ill-advised, and ill-planned  UBC towers project," Judy Williams, Chair of the WBPS said Tuesday.

"This obscenity against Nature must be stopped or mitigated! In the meanwhile, the WBPS continues to seek a meeting with UBC," Williams said Tuesday.

Persons wishing to sign our online petition may access the petition at:    http://www.petitiononline.com/wreckbch/petition.html

Contacts:   Judy Williams, Chair: 604-856-9598/Cell:  604-308-6336
            James Loewen, Vice Chair: 604-689-9697