Someone asked—

Hey Pat, I was driving down Agnes Street the other day and was checking out the progress on the restoration of the old Dontenwill Hall (336 Agnes) and remember reading in your April 3 post that you support the proposed HRA for this redevelopment, which provided some concessions to the developer as a means to ensure that survival of this ” the historically important building”. The thing that struck me as odd while I drove by was the recent installation of Vinyl windows and addition of a huge A/C unit on the front roof. Being under an HRA, shouldn’t the exterior materials used be in keeping with those available at the time of construction and should not there be reasonable attempts to place mechanical systems so that they do not affect the street appearance of the building?

This is one of those topics of which I don’t know much, so I need to do more research, and rely on the opinions and suggestions of our staff and the external experts who do know more.

The conditions of the HRA are outlined in the agreement,  which you can read as part of the agenda of the March 3o Public Hearing. The only thing in that agreement that directly references the approach to restoration is this clause:

Upon execution of this Agreement, the Owner shall promptly commence the preservation, rehabilitation, and restoration of the Heritage Building (the “Work”) in accordance with the “Dontenwill Hall – Heritage Conservation Plan” prepared by Pattison Architecture and dated August, 2014, a copy of which is attached as Appendix 2 (the “Conservation Plan”).

Which makes the appended Conservation Plan the document with the details to how the City and proponent have agreed to do the restoration. In there, it appears there were some 1990s vinyl windows that were allowed to stay as they were in good condition and structurally sound, however the agreement states that if those windows ever need replacing, they will need to be with period-appropriate wood framed units. I suspect cleaning them up and fixing up around them might make them look like new units, but I have been assured they are the existing ones.

The air handling system isn’t really covered in the HRA, as there is no reference to it in the Restoration Plan. Apparently, it came later in the planning. This is part I had to check into, and apparently there is a plan to do some screening of the units, but there is a bit of devil in details here. As the HVAC upgrades are not strictly related to the exterior renovation (which is what the HRA secures), and there are building permits and code requirements in regards to air handling that definitely did not exist in 1940, there needs to be a bit of  wiggle room in the final design if we want the building to be functional. Long and short, the HVAC unit does not violate the terms of the HRA, but the “spirit” of the HRA would support screening them to make them blend in better.

Note, the hall is still a “work in progress”, so we should wait to see how it all turns out.

Sleepless asks—

What is the deal with the downtown train whistle cessation program?

In early 2014, it was announced that an agreement had been reached with the railroad companies and that trains would stop whistling downtown as soon as the crossings are upgraded.

In mid-2014, councilor Puchmayr mentioned at a Downtown Residents Association meeting that the only thing holding back whistle cessation downtown was backordered equipment for the Fourth and Begbie St crossings, and that the upgrade work was expected to be completed “within a few weeks”.

A year later, in your May 25, 2015 Council Meeting report on this site, you mentioned that the target for whistle cessation downtown was now September 2015.

I just saw an update on newwestcity.ca, dated August 2015, which gives a new date of “end of 2015” for downtown whistle cessation.

So, what is the hold-up? Why is a simple crossing upgrade taking so long? Why does the target date keep getting pushed back? Is there any hope of the whistles ever stopping?

Of all those sources, I would trust the most recent one. The problems across the many crossings in the City are complex, and there are some crossings (Spruce Street and Braid, especially) where the issues may be unsolvable in the short term, but that is not true for Begbie and Fourth.

The best update I can give you is this one from the summer that you mentioned, but I am not on the Rail Committee, so there may have been developments since then.

The City really hoped to have the Begbie crossing done this fall, but there were some delays on ordering the required hardware, and now it looks more like spring. I know this isn’t what we planned, but the important pieces are in place – the Railway companies have agreed to a hardware plan that will permit cessation, the City has budgeted the money to do the work (and, in one case, Southern Rail has contributed some money to making a solution work), so it is going to happen, it is only a matter of time now.

I cannot emphasize enough how getting those first pieces in place was a significant effort by the City (again, this is one of those things I can take no credit for, as it mostly happened before I joined council), after a decade of unfortunate confrontation between the railways and a few well-meaning community groups, we now have a collaborative relationship that will see dividends as far as whistle cessation, and is already showing dividends in how emergency planning takes place on the Quayside.

So much like the 4th Street Elevator and the upgrades to council chambers, I am disappointed by the delays, but believe the work needs to be done, and am happy Council has supported and funded the projects. I apologize that we have not hit our intended timelines, and am starting to question how we, as a City, set our timelines.

Bill asks—

Carriage/Laneway homes … what is the current status of talks about this topic? I am in the midst of planning a demo/rebuild of a home here in New West for ~ April 2016. I’m wondering if future planning for a Carriage home (my parents or in-laws suite, or delinquent kids in their 30s) is a good idea. Thanks!

Although it sort of depends on where your house is and the details of the site, I suspect you are not currently permitted to put a Carriage House in. However, it just so happens the City is having discussions on this very topic as part of the ongoing “Our City 2041” Official Community Plan Update consultations.

There have been a series of public and stakeholder meetings on this topic since the big day-long workshop at the Anvil Centre that was held on November 7th that was attended by more than 200 people. There is one more Open House on the tour (this coming Saturday, November 28, 9am-noon, at Connaught Heights School) where you can look over the types of new housing and infill density being considered in the City in the coming decade, and provide your feedback on what parts of the City different forms may fit better.

There will also be (I’m told) a pretty solid on-line engagement tool being rolled out in a couple of weeks, so that you can provide similar feedback from the comfort of your couch (or wherever you typically sit while engaging in public consultation).

So if you are interested in carriage homes, laneway housing, cluster homes, quadriplexes, or other types of housing we don’t currently have an abundance of in New Westminster, you might want to check out this link for your opportunities to tell the City what you want to see.

Edjo asks—

New Area/Block Parking Meters and PayByPhone.

Is there any plan to enable to the new area/block parking meters to be work with PayByPhone as is the case in Vancouver (for years) and the River Market parking lot?

Yes.

The new meters were purchased with the capability to support this. Currently the budget for the system is being allocated towards installations and getting the meters across the City changed over to the new system. There will be a cost to implementing the pay-by-phone option, which will probably have to come through Council, so I don’t have a time frame for you, but that is definitely the plan.