FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
GVRD PARKS WORKING WITH WBPS AND PSPS TO DETERMINE
VISUAL
IMPACT OF UBC TOWER HEIGHTS ON ADJACENT PARKLAND:
Blimp to Revisit Visual Importance of Wreck Beach Views from the Beach,
July 29 and
Wreck Beach Supporters to Show Solidarity at GVRD Board
Meeting July 30, 9am
The Wreck Beach Preservation society (WBPS)
will again demonstrate the visibility of the UBC Marine Residence towers from
Wreck Beach by raising the Eye-in-the Sky Blimp to the 20-story heights of each
of the four proposed UBC towers.
The media are invited as witnesses on July 29 at 10:30 a.m. at the foot
of Wreck Beach Trail #6.
Judy Williams, Chair of the (WBPS) said Tuesday
that “GVRD Parks is working with both the WBPS and the Pacific Spirit Park
Society (PSPS) to revisit the visual importance of the heights of the UBC
Marine Residence towers relative to the beach area of Pacific Spirit Regional
Park.”
In
this revisit of the April 10 Blimp demonstration, Williams said heights of the
proposed towers from various locations on the beach will again be measured.
This time, both UBC and GVRD witnesses will be present since the 200 witnesses
of the April 10 raising were insufficient for UBC!
The crux of the impasse between the WBPS and UBC is that UBC
refuses to acknowledge the importance
of recreational activities and socializing on the tidal flats between
Point Grey and the North Arm Breakwater. “Part of the
problem,” Williams emphasizes, “is that WBPS filmed our blimp from low tide
whereas UBC filmed theirs from the high water mark. UBC also did not initially raise their blimp to 20 stories,
but only to the 18-storey height!
UBC also told our Society that ‘we would just have to get used to the
idea of seeing high rises from the flats.’”
NO!
We do NOT have to get “used to seeing high rises” where Vancouver
visitors have historically seen only pristine forested slopes by the sea! And
this is the message that park users will take to the GVRD Board meeting of July
30, 9 a.m. when the WBPS presents a petition of over 13,364 (and still
counting) names calling for the Board to consider options to persuade UBC to
reconsider their grandiose schemes.
“A number of persons concerned about the loss
of forested cliff skylines above Wreck Beach are expected to attend in order to show solidarity against
this ill-advised, and ill-planned
UBC towers project,” Judy Williams, Chair of the WBPS said Tuesday.
“This obscenity against Nature must be stopped
or mitigated! In the meanwhile, the WBPS continues to seek a meeting with UBC,”
Williams said Tuesday.
Persons wishing to sign our online petition may
access the petition at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/wreckbch/petition.html
James Loewen, Vice Chair: 604-689-9697