UBC is well along the road of upscaling campus and laying out the next thirty years of campus growth. Called CampusVision 2050 this exercise is setting the stage for a revised land use plan that would see a 20% increase in overall campus floorspace (i.e. density) and population.1 Staff from campus and community planning have been busy hosting workshops, meetings, and engagement sessions as they run toward the consultation end date of February 7, 2023.
I was able to join in a session targeted toward UNA residents at the Wesbrook Community Centre Saturday February 4, 2023. The two and a half hour session was aimed at gauging community response to the six big ideas.
Saturday’s Workshop
The workshop started with a an introduction by Aslam Bulbulia, facilitator. Bulbulia opened his presentation with a land acknowledgement. He then commented that this is the first time Musqueam has been engaged in UBC land use planning. This is a '“deep change,” Bulbulia said. He reminded workshop participants that this was an opportunity “to go deep” and “hear other’s opinions.” He asked us to “be present, to hear one another.”
Gerry McGeough (Director, Planning and Design) followed Bulbulia with a presentation featuring the six ‘big ideas’ of the draft Campus Vision 2050 plan. In his presentation he emphasized the engagement opportunities for Musqueam and the role Musqueam has been playing in redesigning UBC’s land use plan. Included in the opening presentation was a brief history of UBC from extractive clear cut logging in the late 1800s to the agrarian redevelopment of the peninsula in the early twentieth century and then the suburban utopia of the mid-twentieth century. “Today,” Gerry finished, we are here to discuss “how we evolve into the future.”
Gerry then screened a commercial promotional video that cheerfully, almost too cheerfully, summarized the big ideas while a sprightly muzak sound track played loudly in the background. We had been directed to view the video before attending, but clearly Campus and Community Planning felt the video important enough to screen for us in person (just in case we had skipped it pre-meeting I guess). I include it here so, if you wish, you too can donate five minutes of your life.
The workshop attendees were heavily salted with campus and community planning staff (at least a dozen). There were also about a dozen graduate students (mostly from UBC’s planning school). The remaining 30 odd people were a mix of ages and included residents and non-residents alike. Also notable for their presence was Board of Governors member Anthonia Ogundele (who is closely involved with the visioning process) and AVP Michael White (in charge of Campus and Community Planning).
The rather small room in Wesbrook Community Centre was set up with six discussion tables each tied to one of the six ‘big ideas’ that are motivating the planning process. As workshop participants entered the room we were invited to select a table to sit at. Part way through the workshop we were invited to change tables for a second topic.
At the first discussion table I sat at there were eight people, including myself. Two were staff, four were students (Planning, urban forests, and economics), only one other was a UNA resident like myself. At my second discussion table there were nine people. Two staff. Three were Mandarin only speaking - a couple with a child enrolled at UBC and one person who aspires to have their child attend UBC. They were joined by a translator. Of the other two people (both of whom were architects) one was a visiting prof and the other a retired UNA campus resident.
Each table had lively discussions - though, for those of us with fading hearing, much of what was said was incomprehensible.
Next Steps
Feedback from all of the various engagement ‘opportunities’ is being collated by Campus & Community Planning staff. This will be condensed into a report for the Board of Governors’ March, 31, 2023 meeting. I fully anticipate the draft plan will traverse this consultative engagement process fully intact and be submitted pretty much as is to the Board of Governors for approval (which will likely be given, based upon Board minutes and what publicly available board deliberations can be found).
Following Board of Governors approval in March the university will hold public hearings. Following which they intend to submit a final plan to the Board in June. If the Board approves that, then the land use plan component will proceed to the provincial government for their approval. Assuming all those approvals line up, next fall Campus and Community Planning will then initiate the planing of a detailed ten year plan to start “evolv[ing] into the future.”
Technically, there are two 20% growth figures: one for anticipated academic floorspace growth and the other is planned residential floorspace growth above what is enabled by the current Land Use Plan. The development figures can be found in the draft vision for more starting on page 31