Urgent Appeal For Letters

 

Dear Park and Beach Supporter,

 

We need your help to preserve the environment and protect the parklands next to UBC. The latest is that UBC plans to build two more towers, one 18 and one 17 storeys, next to Pacific Spirit Park and Wreck Beach. These Phase Two Towers, if built, would be much more visible from the beach at low and high tide than the existing Phase One tower -- despite a plea from the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) that they not be.

 

The Phase Two design is NOT yet approved by the GVRD, and we need your help to save Pacific Spirit Park and Wreck Beach by sending a letter.

 

To make this really easy for you, we have provided you with a letter template below. Add any other thoughts you wish to include. Or compose your own letter if you like, and make sure to send to Paulette Vetleson and Judy Williams at the email addresses provided below.

 

Letter Template

  1. Click on one of these templates:
  1. Add your Return Address (Street, City, and Country)
  2. Add the Date
  3. Add your reasons the towers must not show from the beach. You can use your own reasons and/or any combination of the reasons in the backgrounder below. Or you can simply say that you agree with the position of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society (WBPS), which is the backgrounder below.
  4. Add your full name and either your phone number or e-mail address.
  5. E-mail or fax your letter to Judy Williams and Paulette Vetleson:
  1. In the letter itself, please keep all the names listed in the salutation.

Background

 

Visitors come from around the world and the greater Vancouver area to enjoy the view from the foreshore of Point Grey at Pacific Spirit Park and Wreck Beach. They look back across the tidal flats and admire the natural setting, even though we’re in a city.

 

Because of the efforts of 45,000+ petition signatures and letters to the GVRD (the local government body responsible for development that affects Pacific Spirit Park and Wreck Beach) we were able to help persuade the GVRD to protect park values, including viewscapes. As a result, UBC lowered the first of several planned towers in their Marine Residence Towers project from 20 to 18 storeys. That was Phase One.

 

Now we are at Phase Two. On July 29, 2005, the GVRD passed a resolution that prohibits future towers from being more visible at Wreck Beach. However, on October 5, UBC unveiled its plans for Phase Two which would visually impact Wreck Beach more severely than Phase One.

 

We now desperately need your letter specifically about Phase Two!

 

Creating And Sending Your Letter

 

You can use your own words, or you can adapt the letter template we have provided with your own reasons for wanting the views protected and no more high rise towers overlooking the park and Wreck Beach. You may want to talk about the importance of the park and beach and its drawing power for tourists from around the world. You may want to tell them that it is one of the most unique and precious places in the region, being so close to the city. You may want to talk about the healing powers of the beach and the benefits of not having to look back at urban concrete, glass and steel.

Other issues you may want to raise (please pick and choose):

  1. Visibility from the park and beach cannot really be understood unless blimps are raised in the footprints of the two proposed 18 and 17-storey towers.
  2. Hardship (UBC's justification to build the high-rise towers) cannot always be measured in months, money, and storeys because of the importance of our sacred places to our health and wellness. An example would be that it would be ludicrous to try to put a price tag on that which is irreplaceable.
  3. Ecological considerations of the flora, fauna, and birds. Their lives hang in the balance of buildings that intrude into their spaces, particularly from night lighting.
  4. The Canadian Wildlife Service needs to study the impact, not only of tall towers on migratory birds, but also of night lighting, especially for buildings that will be located in migratory routes.
  5. Grad students living in the now-completed Phase One Tower need an unbiased survey to determine if the tower fulfills their needs. The Graduate Student Services have asked for such a survey but UBC claims graduate students residing there are happy.
  6. Paved surfaces could increase water run-off that could further erode the fragile and unstable park cliffs above the beach.
  7. Increased visibility of towers from the park and beach, especially along gully sight lines.
  8. Impacts on screech and barn owls living in that area are undocumented, particularly from increased foot traffic around their hunting and nesting areas, and from lights at night. In August 2005, a family of screech owls were documented in the Trail 6 area.
  9. UBC advised the public at the October 5 Public Meeting that space exists for future student housing at Totem Park and on the South Campus site. This means that UBC could lower the proposed towers and still meet its student housing needs.
  10. The reasons the UBC administration has given for not wanting to put student housing at Totem Park and on the South Campus are that students need to all be located closely together, and that students would not want to walk the extra distance. Many students welcome the chance for additional exercise. A large university campus, such as UBC, needs a local transportation system for students and others.

 

Thank you for passing along this information to as many people as you possibly can. Also, if you have not yet signed our petition, please go to http://www.wreckbeach.org/towers and add your name, address and e-mail or phone number to the petition. The bottom line is that the Phase Two towers of the Marine Residence complex across from Pacific Spirit Park and Wreck Beach must be lowered from 18 and 17 storeys.

 

For sample letters, please go to http://www.wreckbeach.org/towers/sample_letters_october_2005.html

 

Thank you for your support!