A group of residents in the newly created Hawthorn Place Neighbourhood were gathered in one of their homes on Hawthorn Lane. They were waiting for a University designated guest, the late Jim Taylor, to turn up. Hawthorn was the first residential neighbourhood to be developed after Hampton Place. While Hampton was all strata owner condos, Hawthorn was initially faculty/staff rentals. At that time the University Neighbourhoods Association (UNA) did not exist.
Jim Taylor was a lawyer and and UBC law prof. As a Hampton Place resident and community leader in the 1990s he led a successful GST repayment fight for Hampton residents. As a close ally of then UBC VP-External Dennis Pavlich (also a law prof), Jim was called upon to speak with Hawthorn Lane residents who had spent the previous year lobbying UBC and UBC Properties Trust for more effective inclusion in local area decision making processes.
At Hampton Place, UBC Properties Trust had evolved a Council of Strata Chairs that met on a regular basis. This forum worked well enough for the early years of UBC”s turn to residential development. It didn’t, however, work in the context of a primarily rental neighbourhood. Issues became muddied between Properties Trust role as landlord and its role as community planner and erstwhile local governor.
Meanwhile in Hawthorn Place, which in 2001 at move-in was comprised of two rental buildings, a local resident’s association called Hawthorn Lane Resident’s Association was created (HLRA). The association had emerged in the face of disappointment with the lack of responsiveness on the part of UBC Properties Trust and the ensuing disregard of residents’ experiences. Jim had been dispatched to talk to representatives of the HLRA and explain how their concerns would be met in a new society called the University Neighbourhoods Association.
UBC was setting up the UNA with a directly appointed board of directors (that included Jim). UBC hoped that the UNA would deflect the concerns of residents and refocus them more in the the way the Hampton Council of Strata Chairs had done. Thus began the UNA a bit more than two decades ago.
Today the UNA board is comprised of only elected (as opposed to only appointed directors). The UNA administers two community centres with all the attendant programs. Road maintenance and related services are being shifted from Properties Trust to the UNA. The budget the UNA manages is in the millions of dollars.
To learn more about the role of the UNA in University governance I spoke with two people who are intimately involved in residential governance issues, UNA Chair Richard Watson and UBC’s Associate Vice-President, Planning, Michael White. These gentlemen have a great deal of experience in UBC/UNA matters. I also spoke via email with a community resident active in advocating for bringing sustainability more fully into land use planning on campus.
Richard Watson, elected UNA Director
Richard Watson and I meet one sunny morning in early October, 2023. We sat outside on the patio at the Old Barn Community Centre, the UNA’s first built community facility. We clarified that Richard was speaking as an “elected UNA Director who is the chair.” But he was not speaking as a “spokesperson for the board in any matter. I can give an opinion,” Richard said, “as a Director,” but he can’t speak for the board unless they have formally made a decision.
Once that was clear I asked Richard what he thought the three most important roles of the UNA Board were. He replied “advocate for residents, to guide and take action, and to oversee the administration of the UNA (not administrate).” Richard captured his approach nicely by saying the UNA board should be “nose in, hands off” when it comes to the management of UNA services.
Richard elaborated the UNA’s role as an advocate for residents. “Not,” said Richard “as lobbyists, but in listening to residents” and then engaging in UBC decisions that are of concern for residents. In terms of guiding and taking action Richard explained “this is about the participating roles of elected directors; it refers to proactively doing the things that help keep the UNA organization effective in its role.”
On the topic of municipal government Richard opined that he was interested in a third way, something between what we currently have and full scale municipal government.
Michael White, AVP Campus & Community Planning
Michael and I met over zoom October 17, the day after UBC’s Board of Governors voted to send the amended UBC Land Use Plan to public hearings. With this major municipal like process under way it seemed particularly relevant to ask Michael what role he saw the UNA playing in campus governance. Rather than speak about decision making, Michael focussed on service provisioning.
“The UNA plays a critical role in our unique governance arrangement here on campus. And more specifically, the UNA plays a fundamental role in providing a range of services, community services, programs, and acts as a voice for the community in an advisory capacity to the Board of Governors. And there's lots of good examples of the impact that the UNA has on resident experience and resident livability and resident services. … There's a strong degree of partnership between the UNA and the University for providing that overall experience of place for residents.”
I asked Michael whether the university was obligated to work with the UNA, a society UBC itself created.
“The relationship,” Michael said, “is codified between the UNA and the University through the Neighbours' Agreement, which is a contract between the two, and it spells out the roles and responsibilities of each in terms of providing services, amenities, and that overall experience for residents in the neighbourhoods.”
So essentially the UNA is a service provider under contract to UBC.
“Well, like any contract,” Michael said, there's two parties to it, and so one of the parties wants out of the contract. There's always a way. I think the key though, is that in a unique governance arrangement, we have a collective commitment to support the experience of residents on campus, the experience and all the services and amenities that go along with that for living on campus. And so I think it's pretty fundamental to have the UNA playing this role for the residential experience.”
I asked Michael to speak about actual decision making authority that the UNA might have with respects to land use planning.
“So with land use planning,” Michael said, [decision making authority] “resides with the University, and the land use plan itself resides with the provincial government. There is a provincial requirement to engage with the UNA when changes to the Land Use Plan are contemplated, and UBC also engages with the UNA on a regular basis when creating various plans, such as Neighbourhood Plans. There is also a resident member of the Development Permit Board that is vetted and nominated by the UNA.”
In a nutshell the UNA has no legal involvement beyond an advisory capacity in land use decision making.
I asked Michael about decision making from a different angle.
I noted that Michael used the word ‘engagement’ an awful lot, not just with the UNA but across the board when talking about land use plan decision making. “Is UBC,” I said, “obligated in any way through its engagements to actually incorporate, pay attention to, or change its plans based upon what the UNA says?”
“I think the proof is in the pudding,” Michael said, “in terms of a lot of organizations claiming to undertake thorough and authentic engagement. I think that's a good test for us. If you look at the work that we've done through Campus Vision 2050, for example, the needs and interests and concerns that have come up from the UNA but also residents at large, I think if you look through Campus Vision 2050 that the team has responded in addressing those needs and concerns in a very thorough way. So to me, that's the best test. A lot of organizations will claim to have effective and authentic engagement, but the outcomes, I think, are the true test of that. There's been a lot of anxiety around affordability. There's been a lot of anxiety around climate action. And I think if you look at the commitments around housing through the proposed changes to the Housing Action Plan including 40% neighbourhood buildings being rental (two third being faculty/staff discounted), or if you look at the Neighbourhood Climate Action Plan that's being developed right now, and we're looking at net zero operational emissions for new buildings by 2030 in the neighbourhoods, these are substantial commitments.”
Is a Nice Experience Enough?
[Disclosure: I have for many years been a critic of the ‘unique’ governance arrangement in play at UBC and the consequent ‘democratic deficit’ the lack of real, effective local government entails: “Electoral Area A should be divided into a more effective arrangement. The Point Grey portions should move toward some form of municipal government whether as a combined area or, perhaps, as two separate municipal structures. There are a number of possible ways that could be done. But the key thing to me is that elected representatives should be based in the localities that they strive to represent” (Menzies blog post, 2008). I am also an elected faculty member on the UBC’s Board of Governor.]
It may well be right that most residents care less about making governance decisions than they might about having a great “residential experience.” Clearly the administrative tasks assigned to the UNA is a big enough task for the current board. Adding real land use decision making would require a lot of capacity and funding not currently available to the UNA.
The current body that holds the authority to make land use decisions is the UBC Board of Governors. The Board is required by law to put the interests of the University ahead of any particular competing interest. This raises concerns for some community residents as it means the Board is duty bound to act in ways that may not be in the best interests of residents to advance the university’s interests. The UBC Board of Governors is the de facto municipal council for UBC.
A community resident active as a supporter of sustainability in land use planning at UBC, had this to share via email:
“I think the issue is that while our elected governance (UNA, Electoral Area A Director) do a good job on the local issues that they have authority to deal with, they do not have decision making power on key matters such as Land Use Plans. This means they cannot do anything meaningful about issues such as amenities, infrastructure or resident concerns about social and environmental sustainability. As you are of course aware, that authority rests with the UBC Board of Governors, which has no members representing the Neighbourhood / UEL residents. The UNA's representations are often ignored by the UBC Board, such as the letter to the Board from the UNA Land Use Committee regarding Campus Vision 2050 early last year, which creates a democratic gap in a situation where there is no other municipal governance to represent residents.”
“Residents also have no access to the Board, in the way that we would expect to have access to a Council. Board meetings do not have any way for residents to submit concerns or questions, and attempts to reach the Board such as open letters go unanswered, for example the UCSD letter with over 890 signatures from UBC residents, staff, faculty and students that was sent in May of this year. I recognise there is a tension between the purpose of a University Board, which should focus on academic matters and the running of the university, and the needs of a residential community, but the only reason there is an unincorporated residential community here in the first place is because the University has chosen to create one in order to profit from the sale of leasehold land. That is an understandable business model, but it does create responsibilities that I don't think have been properly addressed.”
UBC’s residential community is already the size of many towns in BC that have their own elected governments. By the time Campus Vision 2050 is completed, the residential areas will be as big or bigger than about 60% of the towns in BC. The current ‘unique’ arrangement might work very well for UBC. It in no way can be considered a democratic arrangement. UBC might be a 21st century global academic leader, but in terms of governance UBC is a 19th century company town.