Media Coverage: UBC Land Use Plan Public Hearing

On November 7, the UBC Board of Governors will be holding a public hearing for the draft amended Land Use Plan. This is following UBC’s release of the final drafts of Campus Vision 2050, the Housing Action Plan and the amended Land Use Plan last October 11.

Since early in the Campus Vision 2050 process, the UNA has supported calls for neighbourhoods that would be models of low carbon, sustainable, socially responsible, community-oriented urban planning. These priorities reflect UBC goals and values, but instead, UBC has advanced a Land Use Plan that prioritizes the sale of land leases for market housing, much of which would come in the form of unaffordable, high-rise housing at twice the density of current neighbourhoods. The UNA, along with other representatives of UBC residents, faculty, staff, and students, have registered their profound disagreement with this order of priorities, but these calls have gone unheeded.

The UNA Board’s full response regarding the draft amended Land Use Plan is contained in the official UNA submission to the public hearing which you can find here.

Media coverage:

• CBC (Video): UBC wants to double its population — with no local government 
• CBC Radio (Audio): Big land-use plan and public hearing on the agenda at UBC — but no locally elected politicians calling the shots
• CBC (Text): UBC plans to double its non-student population — but residents will have no direct say
• The Vancouver Sun (Text): UBC envisions doubling its number of residents by 2050. Has the time come for municipal status?
• The Campus Resident (Text): Public hearing will allow residents to voice their opinions on Campus Vision 2050