Skip to content

Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Neighbourhood Watch

Read more articles by

A selected image from the Spacing Vancouver Flickr pool. Image courtesy of Byron Barrett

A weekly roundup of noteworthy news in municipalities across B.C.

There’s a new community market in Burnaby aimed at helping immigrant and refugee women develop their business acumen while some money.
Started by Burnaby resident Lubna Abdelrahman, the market runs the last Saturday of each month in the gym at Edmonds Community School.

A 70-year-old heritage tree in Surrey inches closer to being cut down as the Heritage Advisory Commission endorsed a staff report calling the removal of a Royal Oak, planted near 32 Avenue and 152 Street in 1939 for a king’s visit.

Good news for Victoria taxpayers: city council approved a reduction to a 3.25-per-cent property tax hike, instead of the initially planned for 3.5-per-cent increase.

A world-class rock-climbing destination and provincial park – Skaha Bluffs – soon will be 308-hectares larger courtesy of a land transfer to BC Parks from the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) and TLC, The Land Conservancy of British Columbia, Environment Minister Terry Lake. Located south of Penticton, the lands contain coniferous forest, riparian areas, rugged terrain and some shrub-steppe grasslands. This habitat also helps support up to 15 species-at-risk, including bighorn sheep.

Those UBC Engineering students are at it again…..or are they?

I’m sure this news hasn’t gone without notice: Metro Vancouver motorists are now paying an extra two cents per litre to TransLink every time they fill up. The TransLink tax increase from 15 to 17 cents a litre took effect April 1 and is expected to generate $40 million a year.

The controversy over executive bonuses at TransLink continues with Premier Christy Clark vowing that it will fall under the scrutiny of an already-promised audit of the transportation authority.

Fears of traffic gridlock are growing as Port Mann tolls step closer and closer to reality.

Two massive developments on the Bose Farm, in Surrey, – 253 apartments on the west side of the site, and 80 homes and 114 townhomes on the east side of the property – have appeared before city’s heritage watchdog in the last two months for review of builders’ plans to rescue historic buildings on the site.

***

Recommended