Prior Street CAC Modification Approval

Can you hear me?

Great. Yeah, my name is Mike Biscar. I am a resident of Vancouver. I'm opposed to this application. My wife and my three kids, we live in downtown, very close to the site. And to be clear, when I say opposed, I think as a family living in downtown Vancouver, I think we are absolutely... supportive of changing the use of the site from industrial to something that makes sense and I'm not an economist but my understanding is that the moment that council approves this application and this change in use the value of this land is going to go up significantly and will make um you know the 185 million that concord pacific paid for it uh 10 years ago seemed like a steal and so if if if that's the case then i i'm hearing all the conversation about the community benefits that ought to be included when the rezoning application comes and i think that ought to be spoken about now i think that ought to be a requirement now I think everybody knows that we're facing an affordability crisis. As someone who's trying to raise a young family downtown, there is an unbelievable shortage of child care space. We're friends with so many different families living downtown who have no place to put their kids. You know, we just look at – we have no space for schools. Our son was waitlisted. Many families go through the waitlist. It's become a regular occurrence where every year it just becomes the normal thing in February. Parents are told that their kids are going to be waitlisted for kindergarten. That shouldn't be happening here. You know, when – When we have the value of the land that we have in Vancouver, I don't understand how, and there are some people getting so wealthy off of the value of that land, why we can be facing some of these affordability issues for families in the city. You know, $10 a day child care is almost unheard of in Vancouver. It's something that I think that the city ought to be grappling with. It's not just a provincial issue. I think the cities ought to be looking at situations like this and their changing uses of land. I mean, this is really one of the main powers that you have in the city is what this land ought to be used for. And it seems to be wasted when we're approving these reuse on the idea that we might get some benefit later down the line. And so I think that we, you know, I think in terms of childcare space, I think in terms of the lack of school space, I heard conversation about that. I don't understand why that can't be approved now. I don't understand why there can be a proposal now that this be changed from used to build an elementary school. I don't know where all the kids are supposed to go when we drive by the massive project across the street. I don't know where all these kids are supposed to go to school. We've got wait lists now. um at the schools in downtown and just outside of downtown across berard bridge um i i you know we we have families that that are being priced out of the city um i haven't heard anything about the quality of the jobs i've heard a lot of conversation tonight about the fact that the amount of jobs is going to increase um i i can't speak for others but i don't know that there's any commitment here uh... now or will be in the future that these are going to be good jobs that people can make a living wage uh... pop you know uh... what people are making thirty forty dollars in vancouver can't live in the city so i don't have someone making minimum wage on the site is going to be a working in a retailer restaurant is going to be able to afford and live in the city where they work. So we seem to be wasting an opportunity to have a conversation that if we're going to be switching this from an industrial use, then what is the commitment that we're getting now, not down the line maybe, but now that there's going to be genuine community benefit to address some of the affordability issues that people are facing across the city. I also wanted to say that, again, and this is something that, you know, I'm a part of the Union for Hospitality Workers, United Here Local 40, and this is something that we've spoken about again and again. I heard it come up that one of the possible uses of this space is for a hotel. We've tried to make pretty clear that we think that the narrative from the hospitality industry that there's a hotel room crisis has... um been significantly exaggerated uh is how i'll put it um and so again i think that And Concord Pacific is one of the major players in the hospitality industry. So if they own the site, that seems like a real possibility. Again, we ought to be having a conversation about community benefit now. That is sort of one of the main opportunities that you as a council have to address the affordability crisis in the city. And I don't see that you're taking advantage of that at all. That's why I'm opposed to the application. Thank you.