Metro -UBC issue in the Georgia Straight

The Georgia Straight continues its coverage of the UBC/Metro Bylaw/Governance issue with a story in the Straight's real estate section. According to the Straight:

At the heart of the recent tensions between Metro Vancouver and UBC is a draft bylaw that lays out guidelines for development on campus.

The Metro Vancouver document spells out a range of permitted uses, maximum heights, and floor-space ratios in eight land-use zones within the campus, as well as a process for UBC to apply for uses not permitted by the bylaw.

The regional body’s move to regulate campus development has drawn a strong reaction from UBC president Stephen Toope, who described it in a November 14 e-mail to the university community as a threat to academic freedom. He argued that it will harm the university’s ability to begin projects quickly enough to satisfy outside funding sources.Metro Vancouver seeks UBC on-campus development bylaw | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com

At the Joint UBC-GVRD Committee meeting last evening (live twitter report of meeting) it was very clear that metro is no longer satisfied with the status quo. According to Director Derrick Corrigan, it's time for Metro to make a decision. 'If we are left to govern, we will govern like a local area government,' Corrigan stated. He went on to say to the UBC Board of Governors at the meeting that "if you don't like what we have proposed then be your own government."

Faculty member Irving,UBC BoG rep, pushed hard on the point of whether or not Metro had unilaterally backed out of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Metro and UBC. Electoral Area 'A' rep Maria Harris seemed to be saying that yes, Metro had stepped away from the MOU, then that no they hadn't. At which point Director Corrigan interceded and said that Metro had not yet stepped away from the MOU. However, and in face of the ongoing problems with UBC over development concerns, Metro was no longer going to take the heat without have the measures in place to regulate the process. If there is no alternative presented that puts local government in place then Metro will step in to take up it's legal responsibility to act as the local area government for the UBC area.

It seems that the status quo is finally no longer an acceptable option to Metro and that this is becoming more apparent to UBC administration.

A source close to the top levels of UBC's administration commented to me after the meeting that it's obvious that the governance structure at UBC will have to change and that the province will need to be involved.

UBC Tow Tank (old news, but interesting)

Some of the things that appear to have been lost with the spread of development south of 16th at UBC. The UBC Tow Tank for testing vessel hull designs was dismantled to make way for development. Question is -was it reassembled anywhere else on campus?

Late Update: No return of the tow tank, but a return to hull testing Oct. 29, 2019 [posted here October 30, 2021]

UBC Residents to pay bigger tax bill this year?

As a result of an agreement between UBC and Metro Vancouver in the mid-1990s that paved the way for development at UBC, university town residents may well be seeing big jumps in the UBC Levy, the portion of 'property taxes' paid in the university neighbourhood areas.

The service levy, first applied to Hampton Place residents as a term of their lease, was designed to cover UBC's costs for providing a range of municipal-like services to residents living in the new housing developments on campus. As housing expanded from Hampton to fill in the parking lots in the mid-campus area (now known as Hawthorn Place) the service levy morphed and, by the date of the 2000 GVRD/UBC Memorandum of Understanding, the ubc service levy was being presented as the tax base upon which the proposed society (University Neighbourhoods Association - UNA) would manage municipal-like services for residents on behalf of UBC.

Leasehold residents in the University Town (UNA) area pay a rural provincial property tax (which includes school taxes, among other things) and the UBC Service levy. The total of these two 'taxes' are set to the Vancouver municipal tax rate (note, the UEL residents have a different deal and have consistently fought to keep their equivalent fee down). Here's where the problem starts to emerge. Vancouver has been retrogressively shifting the tax burden from business properties to residential properties (the trend established by the NPA has been continued by the erstwhile left-liberal Vision Vancouver council). Plus, Vancouver City has picked up a huge Olympic debt load. Taken together it is being suggested that Vancouver residents will end up facing a 4.1% tax increase this coming year (plus facing serious cutbacks to services).

To make matters worse, Metro Vancouver is itself predicting that home owners will face a 50% increase in their taxes (with service cuts) over the next five years.

The long and short of it is that University Town residents may be paying bigger tax bills this year and we have little opportunity to say anything about it. The decisions being made about property taxes are happening in jurisdictions like the City of Vancouver, who have no responsibility to our local concerns.

It's time that decisions that directly affect our community are made by our community directly; not by non-elected university administrators, or city councilors who will never have to face us in an election. It's time for an autonomous government that has the power to make local decisions that count.