Planned
changes to one of UBC’s residential neighbourhoods, dating back to a Land Use
Plan from March 2011, have evoked concerns from residents about the future of
their community. In the Land Use Plan, a large portion of the Acadia
neighbourhood on campus, which is currently student family housing, is
designated to become "non-academic". Essentially, this changes it to
market housing, open to anyone who can afford it.
Ashley
Zarbatany has lived in Student Family Housing at UBC in the Acadia Park
neighbourhood since 2009. She used to live in the Acadia Courts, a group of
buildings in the neighbourhood, but had to leave when the roof collapsed and
she and her family were exposed to asbestos. Zarbatany relocated to a
townhouse, where she pays around $1,300 a month for a two-bedroom suite. “I
love the townhouse, but it's so expensive for a student,” she says.
Sections
of the Courts are now being taken down. Though they were originally meant to be
15-year temporary housing, they have been home to students for approximately
40, she says. The residents were given their notice of eviction last year.
Lisa
Colby, the Director of Policy Planning for Campus and Community Planning, says
that, “all eligible residents will be provided alternative housing options
within Acadia Park by July 1, 2012." This is of concern to Zarbatany: “Who
are they qualifying as "eligible" students?” she asks. “There are
still many students who have not been given placing, and this is a serious concern,
as many of them are not yet finished their degrees.”
These
events led her to dig up the March 2011 Land Use Plan. A section of the plan
explicitly designates specific areas of housing on campus for different
purposes. Acadia Park is defined as providing “a range of rental and long-term
lease housing to the broader community.”
Lisa
Colby, the Director of Policy Planning for Campus and Community Planning
confirms this: “A portion of the area that is currently student family housing
will become a non-student family neighbourhood, creating a complete community with
a variety of residents.”
Zarbatany
doesn’t feel that this kind of community will work, when there are people who “paid
over $600,000 for a condo or townhouse, to be situated beside student families
who are being crammed into these small high-rises, who are paying much less,”
she says. “I just don’t really see how that would foster a healthy community
dynamic.”
Colby
says the reason why they have chosen to develop Acadia this way is because it
is a low-density area, and many of the buildings are older. “Over the next 30
years, it’s an ideal opportunity to renew and redevelop the neighbourhood at higher,
more appropriate sustainable densities.” According to Colby, there will
eventually be more student family housing in Acadia offered at student family
rates.
She
adds that the reason why the information on Acadia for the public is not
developed is because they haven’t begun the actual planning process. “Before
any development takes place in Acadia, a Neighbourhood Plan for the local area will
be undertaken.” According to Colby, the planning process will take place later
this year, or at the beginning of 2013, and will provide “numerous opportunities
for stakeholder and community [to offer] input into the planning process.”
As
for the release of the Land Use Plan in March 2011, Zarbatany says, “students
were not properly consulted or engaged in this process. This change was not
advertised widely and many students were upset to learn about it after the zoning
had already taken place.” Her main concern is that when they rezone to
non-academic, “they essentially guarantee that the housing market will
determine the price of housing.”
Residents
of Acadia who were concerned about the changes attended a workshop on the recently
released Housing Action Plan (HAP), which took place on Mar. 29. The HAP was
created as “a policy initiative to increase housing choice and affordability on
the Vancouver campus for faculty, staff and students.”
Zarbatany
found the information at the workshop lacking, especially when it came to
providing solutions for students. “They seemed to be focusing more on faculty
and staff housing shortages and how to develop that.”
What
they did offer for students was that the University would work with the
students’ society of UBC, the AMS, “to lobby the provincial government to
increase our student loan so that we could receive more for our rental
allowances per month,” she says. “Instead of solving the affordability issue,
they’re saying that they’re going to make it so that we get more debt, which
makes no sense.”
Zarbatany
is also concerned changes to Acadia will compromise its suitability for
families. “Something that makes Acadia so wonderful now is the green spaces …
We have a lot of space here for the children so they often go out and play on
the street, on the car-less roadways that we have,” she says.
According
to Colby, green space will be discussed in the planning process, and the
University is “committed to providing ample and appropriate green space and
amenities to all its neighbourhoods.”
“Once
the density is higher there will not be much that you can do to increase green
space,” says Zarbatany. “All of the important decisions will have been decided
before the neighborhood plan is even undertaken. … The neighbourhood planning
process is meaningless unless it has control over rezoning."
"Affordable
student family housing has a definitive impact on many students decisions to
attend this school,” says Zarbatany. “We don't want to see student family's
needs be prioritized last after real estate developers interests.”
//Claire Vulliamy, arts editor
//Claire Vulliamy, arts editor
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