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Old Posted Jul 27, 2007, 10:55 PM
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Riverview Hospital Redevelopment | vision

Quote:
B.C. targets homeless with Riverview Project

Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, July 27, 2007

VICTORIA -- The site of B.C.'s century-old psychiatric hospital may soon be transformed into a massive real estate development that will mix the affluent, the poor, the mentally ill and the disabled, the minister responsible for housing said Thursday.

Rich Coleman said the redevelopment of the old Riverview facility, situated on 98 hectares in Coquitlam, would include market housing, social housing and housing for the mentally ill and disabled, including beds for those who need institutional care.

While firm numbers for the size of the development have not been established, Coleman said he didn't think early staff proposals for up to 7,000 units were nearly high enough.


Centre Lawn Building at Riverview, B.C.'s old psychiatric hospital that may be transformed into a massive real estate development.
Photograph by : Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun, files


Coleman said he didn't know when the first units of the new project would be available, if it goes ahead, but said the project wouldn't be completed until after the Olympics.

Coquitlam will have a say on what happens to the site, Coleman said, adding nothing will be shoved down the municipality's throat. And he suggested Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who has suggested more immediate use should be made of Riverview, should butt out of the issue.

Once staff comes back with new plans, they will go to cabinet, which will agree on models for the proposed development by August or September.

This fall, the proposed models will go to public meetings in Coquitlam for input from residents there.

The redevelopment, which would be one of the biggest real estate deals in recent memory, is the B.C. government's 21st-century vision for Riverview, a controversial institution that Vancouver-historian Chuck Davis describes as having "started up about a century ago as the Hospital for the Mind ... operating out of a hay barn on 1,000 acres."

Coleman, a former real estate developer who oversees the provincial social housing file, told The Vancouver Sun Thursday he sees the institutions grounds as a new community that could be built as a P-3 -- the public, private partnerships model the Liberal government has embraced.

That P-3 model would attract private developers to raise capital to build and pay the government for social housing and beds, he said. In exchange, they would be given the right to sell thousands of newly built condos and homes at market rates on one of the Lower Mainlands last great swaths of undeveloped land.

Coleman says it will have to meet local zoning laws, pass public approval and preserve the bucolic green spaces that are one of Riverviews features.

But Colemans plans are big.

So far, early suggestions from government staff are that anywhere from 4,500 or 7,000 units be built at Riverviews expansive compound. Coleman would not say how many of those would be for the mentally ill or social housing, but said from the Ministry of Health, "Ive heard around 1,100 units is what they felt was the number they were thinking they needed integrated into the site."

But Coleman thinks his staff may be thinking far, too small given the land in question.

The minister sent them back to the drawing board, asking for more housing units on the site, adding that at a similar government site being redeveloped in Vancouver Little Mountain, which sits on six hectares (15 acres), is expected to create 2,000 units, many of them social housing.

"The reality is I dont think either one of those [Riverview] proposals is actually comprehensive enough to take to the public," said Coleman in an interview.

"Six, seven thousand units on 244 acres in an urban centre really isnt very many. So the question had to be , Are you prepared to take a look at real densities, where you protect green space and at the same time go up...?"

While Coleman stresses Coquitlam residents, and its city council, will ultimately decide what happens, hes thinking condos and towers may be the taxpayers best bet for utilization of the land.

"What wed like to do is have a comprehensive plan here where the amount of density that is on the site actually pays for the health care component so the taxpayer doesnt have to come up with additional capital."

It is unclear how the residents and political leaders will react to the idea.

But Coleman has said he believes the community, which has long housed Riverview, is ready for the debate.

Coquitlam Mayor Maxine Wilson said shes had general discussions with the provincial government on the use of Riverview, including a discussion a month or two ago with Health Minister George Abbott, but said she was only told the province is looking at ways to better use Riverview.

"If they [patients] were getting the supports they needed, had structure and were treated in a way that allowed them to be as independent as they could cope with, we would be very pleased," she told The Sun earlier.

"Our citizens ... have always been advocates that there be services for mentally ill clients and the phasing out of Riverview was inhumane and the gaps werent filled."

"At its peak, that site housed thousands of clients ...," she added. "Its always worked in the past."

Coleman has also suggested that Vancouvers mayor, who has been advocating the creation of more housing at Riverview to ease the social stresses in the Downtown Eastside, butt out. He said it is up to Coquitlam residents to decide how the mental hospital can be best utilized.

"Thats why I take some exception sometimes when the mayor of Vancouver makes his comments about Riverview," he said. "Riverview is located in the City of Coquitlam. Its not located in the City of Vancouver. The City of Coquitlam will have the public hearing process.... at the front end, in the middle and right through the rezoning process..."

"Were not going to push something down the throat of that community."

Coleman also indirectly criticized Sullivans earlier musings that some Downtown Eastside residents could be put into Riverview quickly. He was critical of people who "simplistically say move a bunch of people into the empty buildings and let them live there from the Downtown Eastside."

"It is a non-starter for us," he said. "I toured the site. And there would be no discussion in regard to doing that. One of the sites ... has asbestos, and would probably cost $5 million to tear down and remediate....Some of the old sanatorium buildings have, quite frankly, rats in them..."

Vancouvers dearth of social housing for the poor and shortage of institutional space for the disabled -- there are about 13,800 people on the waiting list for social housing across B.C., about 9,000 of them in Greater Vancouver-- has drawn international attention in recent months, as Vancouvers 2010 Olympics approach.

Downtown businessmen complained last summer that "aggressive panhandlers," many of them homeless and suffering from mental disabilities and drug addiction, have been hurting the citys tourism image and cost the province a major convention.

The Economist, a global magazine that has often praised Vancouver as one of the best cities to live, also took politicians to task last year for the grinding poverty in the downtown core.

Not long after that, Premier Gordon Campbell made a major announcement that he was reviewing how the government was dealing with its most vulnerable citizens.

Coleman said that led to both a review of how to better utilize Riverviews land and kick-started a sudden buying spree by the province of rundown hotels in Vancouvers Downtown Eastside that are now being redeveloped by Colemans ministry to deal with the housing shortage for the poor.

But that has not satisfied anti-poverty activists in Vancouvers Downtown Eastside, a neighbourhood that is home to some of the citys poorest and have accused he government of only reacting to the social crisis because of the approaching Olympics. On Thursday, one of Vancouvers most powerful advocates for the citys poor accused the Liberal government of not doing enough.

"Can the tourism industry stand 60 more international articles exposing government treatment of the Downtown Eastside?" the organizers of the Carnegie Community Action Project asked.

"In the last month, both the Washington Post and the UN Population Agency have recently exposed Vancouvers Downtown Eastside as an area where residents endure horrible living conditions in the midst of a wealthy city and country.

"If similar coverage continues for each of the 30 months until the Olympics, that would be at least 60 more international audiences to learn about how government treats poor and homeless people in Vancouver."

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/s...95&k=32320&p=1
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  #2  
Old Posted Jul 28, 2007, 4:40 AM
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It will take a hell of a marketing campaign to convince sane people to buy a condo on the grounds of a mental institution.

And we thought marketing Woodwards was gonna be a tough sell!
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Old Posted Jul 28, 2007, 6:01 AM
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Originally Posted by djh View Post
It will take a hell of a marketing campaign to convince sane people to buy a condo on the grounds of a mental institution.

And we thought marketing Woodwards was gonna be a tough sell!
Just think of what Rennie might think of next:


Woodwards: THIS IS YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD

Riverview: THIS IS YOUR ASYLUM
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Old Posted Jul 28, 2007, 8:18 AM
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I really like the concept of making use of Riverview. As was discussed on another thread, opening up more wings of that place and taking the really ill people off the streets of the DTES and giving them the help that they need would benefit the whole GVRD.

Having said that, if the plan is now to build condos, social housing, etc. right around the place where all of the ex-DTESers will inevitably move to, aren't we creating 2 new problems:
a) a nice set of new streets for B&E, dealing in the alleys and crazy behaviour that currently is associated with the DTES

b) we're just inviting the low-lives who patrol the DTES to pick up and move to essentially a more welcoming postcode, with all of their patrons and victims nicely concentrated. OK you've successfully "cleaned up" the DTES. But now you have the exact same people living in the social housing on the Riverview redevelopment! I just can't see regular Vancouverites choosing to live at or near Riverview, even if the prices are bargain-basement (there are so many negatives about commuting and living all the way out there, without much of the infrastructure you need in a regular community).

This project has to be planned properly to avoid this scenario occurring.
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Old Posted Jul 28, 2007, 5:53 PM
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And if properply planned... then they should build the Southeast option SkyTrain then =)
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2007, 3:55 AM
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They should just do the right thing and completely reopen it to house the mentally ill rather than building yet more condos.
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Old Posted Feb 14, 2008, 8:55 AM
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Riverview revamp grows in scope
Proposal calls for towers ringing new and old psychiatric facilities


Darah Hansen
Vancouver Sun

METRO VANCOUVER -- The B.C. government is planning a multibillion-dollar development with dozens of residential towers on the historic Riverview lands in Coquitlam, according to internal government documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

The resulting community - to be called the Coquitlam Commons -- would include everything from facilities for the mentally ill to high-end market housing.

The concept calls for the construction of more than a dozen residential towers of 20 storeys or higher on the eastern part of the 98-hectare site, which has been home to the Riverview psychiatric hospital for more than 100 years.

At least 25 more "mid-range" towers are included in the proposals, more than half of which would rise to 15 storeys or higher.

The plans include at least 10 additional condominium and apartment buildings.

Riverview psychiatric facilities, both existing and new ones, would be scattered in the centre of the property.

The plan could generate billions of dollars in real estate deals, with millions potentially flowing to the province.

The documents offer the first detailed glimpse of what the province is considering for the site.

The Sun reported last summer that a large development was being planned for the property, prompting the government to admit in July it was looking to trade land to private developers in return for a share of the profits to bolster social housing supplies.

At that time, the proposal called for as many as 7,000 residences to be built. Since then, the plan appears to have increased in scale, and Coquitlam councillors suggested 10,000 or more residential units could be in the works.

Housing Minister Rich Coleman downplayed the draft documents on Wednesday, insisting any development of the site is "a long ways down the road."

But he confirmed his office is planning to put a proposed site design out to tender to explore the "opportunities and options."

He said the public could get a chance to weigh in on the issue "over the new few months."

Right now, he said, "there is nothing designed for Riverview."


The fact that the government continues to plan for residential development at Riverview came as news to Coquitlam Mayor Maxine Wilson, whose council has been vocally opposed to any market development of the land.

The city is poised to give consideration to a resolution in support of maintaining Riverview as a haven for the mentally ill, as well as preserving its historic architecture and protecting one of the last major green spaces in the Vancouver region.

Wilson said Wednesday she expects to be supported by surrounding Metro municipalities.

"We all see it as the one place in the Lower Mainland that can house those with mental illness humanely, and allow for their reintegration into the community," she said.

Wilson said her council has no intention of granting any rezoning of the hospital lands to allow for residential development, and is banking on previous assurances from Coleman that the government will not override Coquitlam's wishes.

New Democrat MLA Diane Thorne (Coquitlam-Maillardville) said she has heard the same promises, but doesn't believe them.

"It's a done deal, that's what I'm afraid of," she said.

Thorne said her concerns about the future of Riverview grew more urgent earlier this month when the government resurrected interest in pursuing a southeastern route for the proposed Evergreen rapid-transit line, with projected annual ridership figures of 33.3 million by 2031.

Those ridership numbers could only be achieved through heavy development of Riverview, said Thorne.

Coquitlam council favours a northeastern route chosen earlier by TransLink for the proposed line. It has projected ridership figures of 31.8 million by 2031.

Councillors openly questioned the province's projections for the southeastern route at a meeting Monday.

"That's basically Riverview being developed," councillor Fin Donnelly said of the southeastern route.

Coun. Lou Sekora said it could only mean the development of 10,000 or more housing units at Riverview, adding "I wouldn't support that."

Thorne said her heart sank again when Tuesday's throne speech referred to plans to build a new facility to house mentally ill patients at the site of the former Willingdon youth detention centre in Burnaby.

She worried that could spell a future downsizing of psychiatric services at Riverview.
"There are just too many thing happening here," she said.

Health Minister George Abbott said the plans for Willingdon will add to the province's existing mental health services.

The proposed 100-bed facility will specifically serve those patients who suffer from both mental illness and drug and alcohol additions, and who tend to end up on the streets with few or no available options to receive the help they need.

"They are almost impossible to house in mental-health-supported beds, acting out in ways that are anti-social or violent," Abbott said.

Abbott said Riverview will continue to be used to treat patients with other mental-health needs. He also said new facilities will likely be constructed on the site.
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Old Posted Feb 14, 2008, 8:56 AM
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Column: Riverview an unsettling trip down memory lane

Column by Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun

COQUITLAM, B.C. -- A walk through the lush, rolling grounds of the Riverview psychiatric hospital is still an unsettling trip down memory lane, evoking a darker age in the care of the mentally ill.

It's a welcome brush stroke of pastoral green in Metro Vancouver's suburban sprawl, with large lawns and a world-renowned collection of temperate-climate trees known as the arboretum. On that level, it's idyllic.

But the eye is inevitably drawn to the crumbling buildings, massive examples of faux-Victorian institutionalism that dominate the grounds. They are dark and dank, full of asbestos and disturbing memories that bring to mind the hellish asylum in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. On a cold, grey day, I almost thought I glimpsed Nurse Ratched doing her rounds behind the iron-barred windows, clutching a ring of keys for doors leading into - but rarely out of - the asylum.

That's the sort of image - one that was accurate not so long ago for how society dealt with the mentally ill - that nobody wants for the new Riverview. We all want to treat the mentally ill with humanity and give them the hope the Victorian-era asylums smothered.

But in the age Nimbyism, when even small group homes often encounter the Not-In-My-Backyard reflex, it's easier said than done to remake a massive old asylum. That's why the provincial government is keeping the lid on what will be an entirely new approach to this social policy conundrum.

The idea the province has been quietly developing in private - plans have been circulating within the government - is modelled after what was done with an old asylum, similar to Riverview, in London, England.

Known today as Springfield Hospital, it initially opened in 1841 as the Surrey County Pauper Lunatic Asylum. The name said it all. Not unlike Riverview in its darkest years, it became notorious for the lock-them-in-and-throw-away-the-key philosophy to treating the mentally ill. Patients were in essence excluded from the rest of us. No wonder these buildings still seem to radiate bad karma.

But a heartening new approach was taken at Springfield. Why not bring the community into the asylum?

So the old Victorian buildings were redeveloped, a residential community of condos and apartments was built on - and around - the old asylum grounds. And the profits were used to build a modern psychiatric facility weaved into a real-world community. Patients' neighbours will be more than just the dreaded Nurse Ratched.

"Historically, Springfield Hospital's purpose was to facilitate the exclusion of the mentally ill [from society], and that was defined very broadly," Andrew Simpson, an official at the facility, has explained to The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health. "Now ... we are historically reclaiming the asylum. We are quite deliberately building a new bit of London around the asylum, reversing the process of exclusion."

It's a marvelous and humane concept. Rich Coleman, the B.C. Minister spearheading this project, deserves kudos for making the bold and progressive move to improve the lives of our most vulnerable. But there may be real questions of scale to deal with. Is the minister thinking too big?

The draft of the plans for Riverview obtained by The Vancouver Sun indicates Coleman is intent on a super-sized version of the Springfield model.

The heritage principles are there. There's going to be complete preservation of the arboretum, and refits of many of the landmark buildings. But there's also a multi-billion-dollar, multi-year building plan. There will be phalanxes of 20-plus-storey apartment towers, and dozens of smaller ones. My understanding is Coleman is even seeking higher density than on the draft obtained by The Sun, to maximize the taxpayers' profit from the real-estate development.

What we're talking about is something in the neighbourhood of 10,000 residences. That means 20,000 to 30,000 new residents for Coquitlam. Updated numbers floating around the government suggest about 2,000 of the residences would be for the mentally ill. They would live in the revamped institution, either as patients or benefitting from low-rise assisted-living lodges that would be scattered around the condos, a village square with retail store and even a school.

The government appears to be calling this Coquitlam Commons, a nice title that suggests the quaint British village model. But this, let's face it, will virtually be a new town in the middle of what is now a sprawl of suburban homes. A new town, it should be added, with a sizeable part of British Columbia's mentally ill.

That will inevitably raise questions about security.

London's Springfield is justifiably hailed as a triumph, but there have been serious problems. Last year, the hospital was criticized for giving "too much liberty" to a patient who walked out of the ward and murdered a 50-year-old banker cycling in a park. In 2006, a fitness instructor was murdered by another of the hospital's patients.

When it comes to marketing Riverview as a place to live, buyers are going to want assurances that won't happen here.

There are also major urban planning issues. This massive makeover of Riverview raises the question of increased traffic congestion. Don't be surprised if we see the creation of a SkyTrain stop in the new Riverview, once the new Evergreen commuter rail line gets built. I'll bet that will be one of the deal-breaking demands of Coquitlam's council if they embrace - or are forced by the province to accept - this plan.

In his old life, Coleman, B.C's minister in charge of social housing, used to be work in the real estate business. As a cabinet minister, however, he's now carving out deals on a scale he probably never imagined.

In fact, Coleman is probably only getting started. Riverview is probably just our first taste of how much this man might remake the urban landscape. What most people don't know is that one of Coleman's jobs is overseeing billions of dollars worth of provincial social-housing assets, many of them handed to the province by the federal government. Once, when I asked him what he had planned for that property, he said two words: "More density."

And that - along with the prospect of a cutting-edge psychiatric hospital - is what he's aiming to deliver.
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Old Posted Feb 14, 2008, 9:24 AM
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Go Coleman Go!
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Old Posted Feb 14, 2008, 9:58 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mooks28 View Post
...more than a dozen residential towers of 20 storeys or higher

At least 25 more "mid-range" towers more than half of which would rise to 15 storeys or higher.

The plans include at least 10 additional condominium and apartment buildings.

47 Towers/ Buildings????

Talk about density.


And talk about NIMBYS

Last edited by Stingray2004; Feb 14, 2008 at 10:47 AM.
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Old Posted Feb 14, 2008, 10:36 AM
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Thats huge.
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Old Posted Feb 15, 2008, 2:47 AM
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Riverview plans not current: Coleman
By Sarah Payne - The Tri-City News - February 14, 2008

The Riverview Hospital lands are safe — for now — Housing Minister Rich Coleman said Thursday, calling suggestions to the contrary "purely speculative."

Coleman was contacted by The Tri-City News to discuss reports in the Vancouver Sun and other media that the provincial government has drawn up detailed plans for dozens of highrise towers, mid-rise buildings and several condominium and apartment buildings on the 98-hectare site.

And even though the number of units suggested — about 10,000 — is the same as what Coleman hopes to see on the Riverview grounds, he emphasized the plans reported Thursday are irrelevant.

"The Vancouver Sun story is based on old plans that were developed by the health authority about a year ago,"
Coleman said. "They have nothing to do with what's going on today."

He further stated that no plans would be developed without consultation with Coquitlam council and residents.

When asked to confirm whether site designs were being assembled for tender to explore possible options, he said nothing of the sort is happening because the ministry is busy exploring other housing projects in the Lower Mainland.

Coleman also said the Evergreen Line's Lougheed Highway route and Riverview redevelopment are not linked, noting there have been no discussions on the issue between the Ministry of Transportation, his own ministry and Accommodation and Real Estate Services, which manages the Riverview lands.

Coquitlam politicians denounced the latest Riverview plans, their frustration mounting over what appears to be a veil of secrecy over the site.

"I still haven't heard anything substantive from the minister or the government," said Coquitlam-Maillardville NDP MLA Diane Thorne. "It's still information by the media, rather than any information for the community from the government."

Thorne suggested that with plans that seem to fulfill Coleman's wish for 10,000 units, which would bring about 30,000 people to the site, the latest rumours are closer to what the BC Liberals want for Riverview. In November a housing ministry representative said public consultations could begin this month but Thorne said she's hearing it likely won't be until the fall.

Coleman did echo Tuesday's throne speech when he said the government is pursuing another Riverview project — a mental health facility that would complement a retrofitted and reopened Willingdon, the old youth detention facility in Burnaby.

Thorne sees it as "another nail in the coffin of Riverview" and that opening Willingdon would simply mean more space for market housing at Riverview. She said she'll put forward a private members' bill calling for Riverview to be kept in public hands and remain a mental health sanctuary that would include transitional housing for the mentally ill.

Coquitlam Mayor Maxine Wilson said bringing an urban centre into Riverview is "extremely cruel."

"To put [mentally ill people] in an urban setting, when they're in a paranoid state and distrustful of people... they need to be in a healing setting. They need to get away from people, so putting 30,000 people there is totally inhumane."

Wilson said she wants to see a mental health research facility at Riverview that would focus on developing better treatments for the mentally ill, as well as a hospital-like setting for patients who need that level of care.

Coun. Mae Reid, who chairs Coquitlam's Riverview committee, said the city's 50-year economic development plan envisions a medical school campus — but no market housing.

"There isn't room for both," she said. "Why they would take a site like that and just put regular housing on it? It's just greed."

Council has stated it will not rezone the Riverview lands for market housing and Wilson said she expects widespread support from other Metro Vancouver councils to leave Riverview as a park-like setting for the mentally ill.

Still, Thorne questions whether the BC Liberals will pay much attention to such a decision.

"I don't have a lot of faith in the statement Coleman made that in the end the city will make the final decision," she said. "Call me jaded, but I just don't believe it."
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Old Posted Feb 15, 2008, 3:10 AM
deasine deasine is offline
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Developing Riverview can help the government offset the costs of building/improving facilities.
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Old Posted Feb 15, 2008, 3:36 AM
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I can't imagine many "affluent people" (or even middle class, really) wanting to be mixed in with the "homeless" or the "mentally ill". Not usually a big selling point.
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Old Posted Feb 15, 2008, 3:51 AM
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I can't imagine many "affluent people" (or even middle class, really) wanting to be mixed in with the "homeless" or the "mentally ill". Not usually a big selling point.
Leave it up with Rennie, i'm sure he'll think of something.
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Old Posted Feb 15, 2008, 3:53 AM
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The estimated population of this development is expected to be 20,000 - 30,000 people... greater than the population of Tsawwassen at around 24,000.

But there are logistic issues vis-a-vis tranportation. Firstly, unlike Vancouver, for example, whereby the arterial street system is laid out in a grid sytem, that is not the case in the Riverview area.

Obviously, the southwest Skytrain corridor would absorb a percentage of the ridership from the development but there will still be an increase in vehicular traffic. In any event, the northwest Skytrain link will also be required as Port Moody will apparently not permit further development until that commitment is in place.

Currently, Hwy 7 between the Cape Horn interchange and Coquitlam Centre is congested virtually all day long and will be upgraded to 6-lane freeway status east toward the Colony Farm intersection.

http://www.eao.gov.bc.ca/epic/output...d70a214df5.pdf

If that development does move toward reality, the Lougheed Hwy will also need to be expanded to 6 lanes eastward to the Barnet Hwy intersection, with interchanges, otherwise the Lougheed Hwy will be a nightmare to traverse.

In other words, a balance of Skytrain and highway improvements will be needed to serve that new population base.
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Old Posted Feb 15, 2008, 3:54 AM
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Leave it up with Rennie, i'm sure he'll think of something.
I think he'd reject this project, if they even come to him with it...

Or come up with something like, "Want to live in fear of your life and your personal belongings..."

Errrm, that doesn't work, either.
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Old Posted Feb 15, 2008, 5:48 AM
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Umm with the marketing rate for condos ranging from 10K-50K per unit and this development at 10K units.... that's $100Million minimum I'm pretty sure Rennie and anyone else would jump at marketing it.
In all honesty that property is large enough that you could build all those units and still leave a big enough space that the hospital wouldn't affect them.
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Old Posted Feb 15, 2008, 6:48 AM
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It appears that the Liberals are modeling the new Riverview after an old mental hospital in London, England:


A humane plan to reclaim the asylum

Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, February 14, 2008

A walk through the lush, rolling grounds of the Riverview psychiatric hospital is still an unsettling trip down memory lane, evoking a darker age in the care of the mentally ill.

It's a welcome brush stroke of pastoral green in Metro Vancouver's suburban sprawl, with large lawns and a world-renowned collection of temperate-climate trees known as the arboretum. On that level, it's idyllic.

But the eye is inevitably drawn to the crumbling buildings, massive examples of faux-Victorian institutionalism that dominate the grounds.

They are dark and dank, full of asbestos and disturbing memories that bring to mind the hellish asylum in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

On a cold, grey day, I almost thought I glimpsed Nurse Ratched doing her rounds behind the iron-barred windows, clutching a ring of keys for doors leading into -- but rarely out of -- the asylum.

That's the sort of image -- one that was accurate not so long ago for how society dealt with the mentally ill -- that nobody wants for the new Riverview.

We all want to treat the mentally ill with humanity and give them the hope the Victorian-era asylums smothered.

But in the age Nimbyism, when even small group homes often encounter the Not-In-My-Backyard reflex, it's easier said than done to remake a massive old asylum. That's why the provincial government is keeping the lid on what will be an entirely new approach to this social policy conundrum.

The idea the province has been quietly developing in private -- plans have been circulating within the government -- is modelled after what was done with an old asylum, similar to Riverview, in London, England.

Known today as Springfield Hospital, it initially opened in 1841 as the Surrey County Pauper Lunatic Asylum. The name said it all. Not unlike Riverview in its darkest years, it became notorious for the lock-them-in-and-throw-away-the-key philosophy to treating the mentally ill. Patients were in essence excluded from the rest of us. No wonder these buildings still seem to radiate bad karma.

But a heartening new approach was taken at Springfield. Why not bring the community into the asylum?

So the old Victorian buildings were redeveloped, a residential community of condos and apartments was built on -- and around -- the old asylum grounds. And the profits were used to build a modern psychiatric facility weaved into a real-world community. Patients' neighbours will be more than just the dreaded Nurse Ratched.

"Historically, Springfield Hospital's purpose was to facilitate the exclusion of the mentally ill [from society], and that was defined very broadly," Andrew Simpson, an official at the facility, has explained to The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health. "Now . . . we are historically reclaiming the asylum. We are quite deliberately building a new bit of London around the asylum, reversing the process of exclusion."
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Old Posted Feb 15, 2008, 7:24 AM
Lee_Haber8 Lee_Haber8 is offline
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Seems like they are trying to fix the mistake they made years ago when they released many of these ill people 'into the community'. This should help out the DTES.

Even with this redevelopment, I still think the southern skytrain route would be a huge mistake. The area on this route is not nearly as built up compared to the northern route and a large section runs parallel to two highways; no one wants to walk to a station next to a highway. The travel time is practically the same for both routes. Politically, Port Moody needs the northern route (and they've accepted Skytrain) and Coquiltlam and Port Coquitlam don't really care about which one is chosen; a win-win situation makes more sense than a win-lose one. Future development, like that riverfront front land redevelopment could be served by a light rail line that would head over the Port Mann to Guildford.
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