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QCB Review of Meeting

Read It For Yourself: Aragon's Open House Story Boards & Summary

Make Your Opinion Known to Council and your QCB

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Pictures taken at the meeting

Quay residents listen attentively to Gary Pooni of Brooke & Associates explain why they have recommended Aragon either build to their property right of 170 feet,or if they were to seek a variance - it had to be nominal in nature (e.g 15%).

New proposal of a 198 foot tower which will require a variance from the city. This view will be what Quayside residents will see.

A rear view of the 198 propsed tower. This view is looking across the river to Quayside.

Rear view, looking towards the Quay of the currently zoned 170 foot tower. No variance required.

A rendering which compares all three heights; (L) 212 feet from the original proposal, (C)198 feet new proposal and (R) 170 feet as currently zoned.

Quayside Community Board Report

Queensborough High-Rise Tower

QCB REVIEW:

ARAGON PROPOSED HIGH-RISE A DISAPPOINTMENT FOR QUAY RESIDENTS

Is a difference of 12 feet between the first proposal and this latest one enough to quell the past misgivings of both council and citizens?

On Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 twenty-two concerned Quayside residents occupied the thirty-three chairs provided by Aragon to hear the latest proposed 'tower' plans for the Queensborough point. This space is directly across from the Quayside residential area and will undoubtedly change the visual impact of this area for decades to come.

Moderated by Gary Pooni of Brooke & Associates, Aragon presented concept drawings to the audience and then fielded heart-felt questions from those attending. The most incredulous point made during the early evening presentation was Aragon’s intent to go back to council with yet another variance proposal for this site.

During the first round with council and resident/community associations, Aragon, received a clear and concise message that while a tower was within their right to build, a proposal for a higher tower than 170 feet was not. While a prior council made way for a 170-foot high-rise building (or 163 units) at this location, the current council voted 4 to 3 against permitting a variance to see this tower height increased. The four councilors who voted against a first variance application were; Harper, Osterman, MacIntosh and Cote.

With councilor Harper in attendance, Quayside residents expressed their concerns for the proposed site. Many in attendance concluded that the meeting was a waste of time as this proposal was almost identical to the original, except for a mere 14 foot reduction in the height. At 198 feet (plus the 12 feet above grade for parking accomodation) bringing the total height to 210 feet. This is offered as a redesign of the tower from the first proposal which requested a variance on the total of 224 feet which includes the 12 foot above grade parking.

Others could not understand, after seeing that Aragon could design within the 170 foot limit (see picture in left column), why they simply didn’t build it and eliminate the need for more public ‘consultation’ and going before council to request yet another variance. According to architect Ramsey, most high-rises in New Westminster have been built at 170 feet since 1990. Quay citizen would like to know why we should change that fact now with the Queensborough development.

According to James Crosty’s (President: Quayside Community Board) observations on ‘visual impact’, the only visual impact for Queensborough residents is the sky view. Most Queensborough residents will not even see the building due to landscaping and other buildings in the area. Further James noted, that the majority of the concept drawing presented on the building showed a perspective originating well above any existing buildings in Queensborough thus giving a false impression of the visual impacts of the proposal.

James’ discussion on this matter with Architect Ramsey concluded with the observation that most, if not all, people viewing the building from Queensborough will be at ground level and looking up at the building. As a result, only the ‘sky view’ is affected from this perspective regardless of how wide or narrow the building is. The logical deduction therefore is only Quayside will be directly affected by the ‘view’ of this proposed building and that the 170 foot structure has no reason not to be considered.

It was also noted to Aragon and Brooke & associates, that while the concerns about ‘view’ seemed to be dismissed as a legitimate concern when it came to the Quayside resident, it was all about the ‘view of the building, ‘the view corridors’, the ‘view of the Queensborough resident’ whenever architect Ramsey talked about the justification of why the building had to be taller and designed in this particular manner.

Also brought up at the meeting was the $100,000 amenity package offered to Queensborough via the city as an enticement for the communities support. It was clarified at the Quay meeting that Aragon has built two towers on the Quayside Drive and has never offered any amenity package to the area. The dichotomy between Queensborough one tower and $100M amenity and the Quayside two tower and no amenities was not lost on those attending.

At the close of the meeting, most left disappointed with the proposal. Many had hoped that their concerns on the first round of discussion and the actions of council would have seen Aragon come back with a beautiful proposal within the confines of the current zoning structure. Their hopes were not realized, and they left knowing that once again they would have to voice their concerns to council to minimize the impact of this building on the landscape of our city.

ARAGON OPEN HOUSE INFORMATION

We encourage you to take a look at the Presentation Boards which lined the parimeter of the Inn At The Quay meeting room for residents to peruse.

We offer these up for those who were unable to attend this meeting and would like to see and read clearly what Aragon is proposing. Please note that these boards were authored by Aragon.

Click On The Links Below

Aragon Story Boards
Aragon Summary

RESIDENTIAL COMMENTS

Would you like to contribute a comment, observation and/or pictures, we would love to hear your story as it relates to the Queensborough Tower proposal. The following were submitted to the QCB via emails and the website.

RESIDENT 1

I thought you might like to see these pictures I took tonight. I asked permission to take these pictures. ELEVATION.JPG (above) shows how the building starts 12 feet above the level of the seawall walk which makes the roof of the building 210 feet about the seawall walk. Since their original proposal was 216 feet high they haven't given up much have they?

BOARDWALKVIEW.JPG (below) shows how it will look from the boardwalk. As much as some people questioned the scale I don't think they did any fudging on that. Whether it will look bigger in real life is another matter.

Regards,
Murray

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RESIDENT 2

Here is the view from our place, TIFFANY SHORES. The big mound is what the hi-rise will sit on (pictured above). You can just imagine what such a structure will do to our view.

Brian

The QCB was contacted by Arragon with an objection to the picture we had featured in this location with our interpretation of the tower's impact as depicted by a black box. Arragon has provided us with the following 'artist rendering' of the proposed tower.

As we notice little difference between our artist rendering and this one we complied with their request to take ours out and replace it with this one. This picture was submitted by email to James Crosty, President of the QCB by David Roppel, Director of Planning & Development; Arragon.

" James

Please find attached an accurate rendering of the proposed high-rise at Prot Royal as seen from a third floor unit at Tiffany Shores . I would respectfully ask that you include this image in place of the image with the vertical black bar that currently is on your web site. Thanks. "

David Roppel MAIBC LEED AP
Director of Planning & Development
Aragon Properties Ltd.
#201 – 1628 W. 1st Avenue
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6J 1G1
Tel: 604.732.6170 | Fax: 604.732.6178 | Web: www.aragon.ca

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MAKE YOUR OPINION HEARD ON THIS QUAY ISSUE.

If you would like to voice your concerns, opposition or support to council on this proposal, please forward an email to your councilors. If you should write your Mayor and Council on this issue, the Quayside Community Board would appreciate it if you would copy your letter to our mail box at info@quaysideboard.com - thank you.

Mayor Wayne Wright
Phone: (604) 527-4522
E-mail: wwright@newwestcity.ca

Jonathan Cote
Phone: 604-526-4742
E-mail: jcote@newwestcity.ca

Calvin Donnelly
Cell: 604-250-3564
E-mail postmaster@newwestcity.ca

Bill Harper
Phone: 778-227-4869
E-mail: bharper@newwestcity.ca

Betty McIntosh
Phone: 778-773-0546
E-mail: bmcintosh@newwestcity.ca

Bob Osterman
Phone: 604-521-7603 (Home after 5pm.)
E-mail: bosterman@newwestcity.ca

Lorrie Williams
Phone: 604-521-3416
E-mail: lwilliams@newwestcity.ca

The Quayside Community Board is devoted to: Assisting Strata Corporations, Housing Cooperatives and Community Planning for the Quayside area.

QUAYSIDE TERRACE

Photos Courtesy of
STC Design & Communications