SAC members Eddy Elmer, Eva Wadolna, and Colleen McGuinness attended today’s meeting of the Planning, Transportation, and Environment Standing Committee at City Hall.
Vice-chair McGuinness spoke to the Committee about the Oakridge Centre rezoning application. She relayed to the Committee our concern that there has not been sufficient time to carefully assess the impact of this redevelopment on the health and well-being of older adults in the area. Below is the text of the statement she delivered to the Committee:
Mayor Robertson, members of Council:
It seems like only yesterday since I stood before you.
My attendance yesterday was, in part, to support the efforts of the Task Force on Engagement and the release of the Quick Starts report.
I am here to speak today about the development at Oakridge in my capacity as the vice-chair of your Seniors Advisory Committee.
This report only came to our attention on Sunday, May 26th thanks for the hard work of the Oakridge Langara Area Residents’ Association. I passed it along to the members of the Seniors Advisory Committee and within 24 hours had a thoughtful , but brief, analysis by one of our members, Eva Wadolna.
I am not a planner, nor can I articulate the myriad concerns about building heights or the percentage of ground-oriented green spaces, but I can tell you that the City’s outreach with this report falls very short.
The community, and our Committee, have simply not had the necessary time to absorb the implications of this report and to thoughtfully formulate responses.
Several months ago, the Seniors Advisory Committee members initiated discussion with the staff and directors of the Oakridge Seniors Centre. We immediately saw the need for in-depth consultation with them to determine their needs and how best we could support their negotiations with City staff and the community. Unfortunately, we had to concentrate our efforts on the pressing matter of amendments to the City’s Building By-law; the Oakridge development was next on our list of items to be addressed.
This is one of the most important projects in the City, with a potentially great and long-lasting impact on the quality of life for older adults, not to mention setting a precedent for other developments. Upon reading the report for this proposed redevelopment, we noted several problems that suggested to us that proponents and City staff do not fully comprehend the needs of older adults.
We know that the growing population of older adults will challenge the services of the seniors’ centre as well as the stock of affordable seniors’ housing, yet the report makes recommendations that do not seem to adequately address this reality. For example, it proposes to locate the seniors’ centre above the ground floor, which poses accessibility issues. It also proposes allocating of a portion of housing that will be eligible for SAFER subsidies, even though it is unclear that SAFER will continue to be able to provide such subsidies in the future.
I speak on behalf of your Seniors Advisory Committee when I ask that decisions around the future of Oakridge need much more study before our Committee can offer an informed opinion on this rezoning application. We are here to advise you whether developments like this can meet the needs of the growing population of older adults, but we simply cannot do so in the short time frame we have been given.
Council will debate and vote on this report at its regular meeting on June 11, 9:30am.
