Wreck Beach
Vancouver, British Columbia
UPDATE: FALL, 2005
Construction of several high rise residence towers on the campus of the University of British Columbia threatens to destroy the character and perhaps even the very existence of Wreck Beach, one of the most popular and beautiful clothing-optional sites on North America.
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| NAC Action Alert: Wreck Beach - October 16, 2005 |
Thank you for choosing to make a difference.
SOME ADDITIONAL POINTS TO CONSIDER IN YOUR E-MAIL
Please use your own words or embellish the suggested wording below. You may simply and respectfully ask decision-makers to consider the requests of the Wreck Beach Preservation
Society, or you may elaborate on any of the following points:
1) SAY VERY CLEARLY THAT YOU OPPOSE THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TWO PHASE II TOWERS at their presently proposed heights and locations.
2) ENCOURAGE the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) to continue to defend the line of sight that will protect viewscapes from the beach toward the tops of the cliffs.
3) STRESS THE URGENCY. The University has indicated that the towers in Phase II are on a fast track. On October 6, 2005, The body which approves building designs on the UBC Campus, the Advisory Urban Design Panel (AUDP) approved plans that had been initially presented just the previous night at the October 5 public meeting. There simply was no time to have incorporated public input. The period for public input continues through October 31.
4) HOLD GVRD TO ITS RESPONSIBILITY. Call upon the GVRD to ensure that visibility of the towers is measured to the satisfaction of the GVRD. The University will claim undue hardship, but it will likely not bother to prove it. All alternative sites and building designs must be fully explored to GVRD's satisfaction before additional UBC building plans are considered.
5) OPPOSE ANY BIO-ENGINEERING (shaving of cliffs and planting of replacement vegetation) and interceptor ditches to protect buildings that should never have been built at the proposed heights and locations in the first place.
Use your own words, but ... your wording might sound something like this:
Re: Marine Residential towers. I strongly oppose the current proposal for this development. The level of housing is far too dense for the site, and the towers will have a profoundly negative impact on viewscapes from the beach and the Park, as well as on other Park values. I strongly recommend that UBC use an alternative location or design to reduce the impact of this development on the Park and beach.
More than any other issue, the potential loss of the wilderness-like setting has captured the attention of naturists and nature lovers from around the world. Simply put, the construction of towers looming over the beach would forever change the character of Wreck Beach.
MORE?
Here are additional resources.
Click here to visit the web site of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society.
Click here to see a letter to the Globe and Mail from Judy Williams of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society.
SPECIAL COMMENT FROM JUDY WILLIAMS:
Those of us leading the vanguard against the towers project overlooking Wreck Beach to be built by the implacable and intractable University of British Columbia (UBC) here in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, thank the 700+
Naturists and supporters throughout the world who have written and/or sent donations to aid in this united effort to stop the destruction of views from Wreck Beach by UBC towers. Between Oct. 2-4, in just three days, we
received 50 letters alone from North America with an emphasis from the Pacific Northwest and from across Canada. We also now have over 45,000 petition signatures which indicate from just this summer over 2000 UBC students and
700 alumni oppose the towers on this site and at this height.
We are making headway BECAUSE of your letters!
The fourth tower in the Phase II proposal has now been dropped from a 20-storey behemoth to a terraced 5-to-7-storey building extending perpendicularly away from Marine Drive. Every baby step of progress, we have made BECAUSE OF YOU, WRECK BEACH SUPPORTERS AND NATURISTS!! NOW, WE NEED YOU AS NEVER BEFORE TO WRITE BEFORE UBC ARROGANTLY BULLDOZES AHEAD WITHOUT PUBLIC SUPPORT OR THE APPROVAL OF THE GREATER VANCOUVER REGIONAL DISTRICT, THE GVRD, OFFIAL STEWARDS OF WRECK BEACH AND PACIFIC SPIRIT PARK IN WHICH THE 7.8 KILOMETRE LONG BEACH ACCOUNTS FOR 58 PERCENT USAGE OF ALL 1500 HECTARES OF THE PARK.
We have a chance to keep the pressure up between now and October 31, the end date of the time allotted by UBC for public input. But…UBC is now playing hardball and in an October 8 Globe and Mail Newspaper article announced that they would "move forward with plans to two more residence towers near Wreck Beach, saying that the cost of waiting is too high!" The Phase II plans were sent to the Advisory Urban Design Panel (AUDP), the day after the public meeting which means no consideration of public input was even attempted! UBC is attempting to ignore GVRD resolutions and public feedback. At the October 5 Open House and Public hearings they announced plans that would make the remaining two 18-storey proposed Phase II towers MORE visible from high to low tide at Wreck Beach. UBC is escalating pressure to proceed building without listening to the public. The University wants everything decided before the end of December. IT IS VITAL THAT YOU ACT NOW AND WRITE FOR THE FUTURE OF WRECK BEACH.
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