[van-announce] Emergency Protest to Save Wreck Beach & Pacific Spirit Park

[Steve Kisby]

WE NEED YOUR FEET IN UBC'S PROPOSED 20-STORY TOWER FOOTPRINT!
(6600 Block of NW Marine Drive) 

JOIN US IN SHOWING UBC THAT PEOPLE POWER CAN STOP GOLIATH 
PLANS TO DESTROY VANCOUVER’S HERITAGE AND LEGACY!!!!!!!

SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 11:00 a.m. 
Beside NW Marine Drive Between Agronomy Road and UBC Gate #6
Parking in GVRD Loonie Lot /Fraser Parkade (Gate #6)

In order to help save one of Vancouver’s last natural treed skylines and an astronomer’s perfect night-sky-scape, we need your body! We ask that you step into the 80-foot by 80-foot "footprint" of UBC's proposed 20-story residential tower on Saturday, April 10, 11:00 am.  The towers threaten Pacific Spirit Regional Park’s cliff stability, migratory and resident birds, wildlife habitat, eagle roosts, viewscapes, and Point Grey and Wreck Beach privacy.

Going against its own commitment to "support the recreational values of the beach including privacy (not being able to view the beach from the cliff top and vice versa), and continued access of Wreck Beach as a clothing optional area," UBC's Board of Governors have approved the height and location of four 20-story towers on this site.

Poster: http://www.alternatives.com/prms/2004/wbps040a.pdf

SEE YOU ON SAT. APRIL 10, 11:00 A.M.
INFO: JUDY AT 604-856-9598 OR 604-308-6336

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http://www.alternatives.com/prms/2004/wbps0407.pdf

REDUCE, REMOVE OR RE-LOCATE! APRIL 10 PROTEST
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2004
WRECK BEACH PRESERVATION SOCIETY (WBPS)

The University of British Columbia has been given the green light to build four, 20-story, 187-1/2 foot student tower residences (UBC Marine Residences) for 1950 students just across from the cliff edge of Pacific Spirit Regional Park. The foreshore park is part of the Pacific Migratory Bird fly-way, but bird strikes are only one of many reasons Wreck Beach users and surrounding Vancouverites do NOT want these monoliths on this location (6600 block of Northwest Marine Drive)!

To protest the destruction of Vancouver's heritage viewscape from the Fraser River and from the sea, and to prevent dangerous vibrations to the cliff face from pile driving and increased truck movements which will jeopardize the wilderness-like ambience of Wreck Beach, beach users and neighbours of Pacific Spirit Regional Park are gathering in peaceful protest on Saturday, April 10, 11 a.m. on the site of the proposed Tower 6, the closest to the cliff edge, at 6600 block of Northwest Marine Drive between Agronomy Road and UBC Gate 6. We have hired the Eye in the Sky to raise his observation blimp to the height of the towers and people who do not wish this abomination against Nature to be built on this location and at this height, will be standing in the 80-foot by 80-foot "footprint" of the building. Other folks will be on the beach photographing the visibility of the blimp from different locations.

Two weekends ago, the WBPS raised and photographed balloons at the height of the high rise and those photos have been given to the Vice President of External Affairs for UBC. On the basis of those photos, we have hired Eye in the Sky to formalize that process. The view from the beach is as important to us as is our visibility from the top of the cliffs from the height of the high rises. A month ago, the UBC Board of Governors approved a cliff-erosion management plan that "supports the recreational values of the beach including privacy (not being able to view the beach from the cliff tops and vice versa)..." Yet, the towers would allow clear views from the buildings.

On February 19, twenty-seven witnesses heard the President of UBC Properties Trust say he was prepared to lower the height of Tower 6 if it was visible from the beach which we have now clearly established that it will be. The Marine Residences project manager told Judy Williams on April 6 that UBC always knew the buildings would be visible below the high water mark. That is unacceptable not only to us but to any Canadians who value the forested view of the Point Grey promontory. By insisting on this height at this location, UBC is undermining WBPS's last 30 years of efforts to keep Wreck Beach out of public view.

UBC's student housing coordinator last year told WBPS chair, Judy Williams when asked what environmental impact assessment had been done on adjacent parkland that it was "...not UBC's responsibility." We respectfully suggest that it is UBC's responsibility to be a good neighbour to GVRD parkland just as UBC has insisted over the years that GVRD be a good neighbour to UBC by impacting park cliffs and foreshore to protect UBC property. What is good for the goose, should also be good for the gander!

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Dear Wreck Beach and Pacific Spirit Regional Park supporter:

To protest the destruction of Vancouver's heritage viewscape from the Fraser River and from the sea, and to prevent dangerous vibrations to the cliff face from pile driving and increased truck movements which will jeopardize the wilderness-like ambience of Wreck Beach, beach users and neighbours of Pacific Spirit Regional Park are urged to gather in peaceful protest on:

Saturday, April 10, 11 a.m.
Beside 6600 block of NW Marine Drive Between Agronomy Road and UBC Gate #6
Parking in GVRD Loonie Lot /Fraser Parkade (Gate #6)

This is in protest of the proposed building of four, 20-storey residence towers near Wreck Beach. There are some pressing environmental and social concerns that need to be stressed:

1) Wreck Beach is the site of a very fragile ecosystem.  It is the only wilderness-type environment left on the Vancouver shoreline of the Georgia Strait.  It is home to numerous resident and migratory species of birds, such as the world's population of Western Sandpipers, the great blue heron and the Pileatted woodpecker.  A multitude of  wildlife, including river otters, shelter in its forests and marshes.

2) The beach itself is the destination of nearly 500,000 visitors annually from around the world.  Changes of this magnitude -- the construction of these residential towers at this location -- would serve to ruin a way of life enjoyed by many people of all ages from the Greater Vancouver area and elsewhere.  On a sunny day, Wreck Beach now easily provides healthy recreation for upwards of 14,000 individuals.  Wreck Beach wraps around the Point Grey headland for a distance of over 8 kilometers. 

3) If these towers are built as projected, the beach will most definitely be visible from the top of the towers below the high water mark.  This will mean that unless people will be content to huddle like Emperor Penguins near the foot of Wreck Beach trail #6, they will be easily seen by those above.

4) If the beach were to become visible from above, the towers would also be visible from the beach.  For centuries, people have enjoyed the last untouched, pristine view of the cliff side, its trees, and its wildlife without any view of development at all.  This is the same view that Captain George Vancouver and Simon Fraser had when they approached the shoreline, and which has continued to be enjoyed by the Musqueam (People of the Grass) of Halkomelem Nation for generations.  They called this sacred land "Ulksen".  If the towers go up, _the tradition of a natural view and setting will be gone forever_.

5) Even if the towers' height is lowered, the view of the cliff side would still be marred by bright ambient light that would be increased in the area.  Lights above the park would be extremely unaesthetic, and not at all in keeping with the principle of maintaining a wilderness feeling and ambience in the park.  We want the building re-located as well as reduced in height -- or removed altogether. 

6) Wreck Beach (and the water surrounding it) is the unparalleled best viewing area for astronomical events in the Vancouver region, primarily because there is no ambient light coming from above.

7) Lighting in the tower area is hazardous to the birds.  The towers will be sited beside the major Pacific Migratory Bird Fly-Way and bird strikes will be inevitable due to nighttime lighting.  Eagles train their young in this area because they nest and roost in trees that lie directly across from the proposed towers.  The area in front of both St. John's Campus and all along the Nitobe garden areas are already being impacted by nighttime lighting, but this situation will be  seriously worsened should the tower development go ahead in this location. 
   
8) Vibrations caused by construction of the towers, drainage from the construction site, and increased truck traffic plus building weight could affect the perched aquifer topography of the cliff-face.  The next conceivable step would be for UBC  to pressure the GVRD into erosion-control measures that could involve bio-engineering and shaving of the cliff-face to an angle of repose in an already challenged and fragile area.

Development on the UBC campus FURTHER AWAY from the proposed cliff side area would generate the housing needed and solve all of the above environmental, ecological, and social concerns.