Members of the arts community are being urged to attend a city council meeting Thursday (December 18), where newly sworn-in councillors will vote on a staff recommendation to support a partial density transfer to retain the York Theatre at 639 Commercial Drive.
Heather Redfern, executive director of the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, which hopes to operate the venue if it is saved from demolition, says the recommendation would effectively kill restoration plans for the theatre.
Redfern has been working with a developer who is prepared to buy the theatre from its current owner—EDG Homes, which purchased the property in October 2007 as Vintage Development Corp.—in exchange for a 100 percent density transfer for the site, worth $10 to 11 million.
“Our proposition to the city was that they look at a density transfer for this not-to-be-named developer in exchange for him purchasing the property and paying for the restoration,” said Redfern. “There’s no city cash or money involved. It simply means transferring the density to another site....If council agrees to the 100 percent [density transfer] or sends staff back with the direction to make that work, that’s how this will work. Otherwise it’s done.”
Marco d’Agostini, senior heritage planner for the city, told the Straight there is no precedent for a 100-percent density transfer, and he is recommending a one-third transfer instead.
“In policy, we haven’t ever done anything like that,” he said. “A parallel example would be something like the Stanley Theatre, where it was a similar one-third model, where the city did a one-third contribution and the provincial and federal governments and fundraising contributed the other two-thirds. That’s the model that’s happened before and it’s been successful....An investment of that value [$10 million] into one site [the York Theatre], as far as staff’s concerned, is more appropriate at a one-third level.”
Redfern said the Cultch is in no position to attain additional funds from the provincial or federal governments. The provincial government already contributed $9 million to the Cultch’s renovation last year, and the relevant federal government funding program is due to sunset in March 2010, “and you can’t apply to that program unless you can show that your project will be completed by March 2010,” she noted. “We have made it clear right from the beginning that we are still fundraising for this project [the Cultch renovation], and we are not in a position to take on any fundraising at all for the York Theatre.”
Staff are also recommending that the current property owner be requested to hold off on demolishing the York Theatre until he is ready to begin construction, but Redfern said that was unlikely. In September, the city issued an emergency 120-day temporary protection order for the site, following an incident in late August in which materials were removed from the building’s interior, causing the city to issue a stop-work order.
“He has made it clear to us that his intention is to tear the building down as soon as possible,” said Redfern.
She called on members of the arts community to show their support for the theatre.
“What I’d really like is for people to show up at the council meeting, if they possibly can, and speak if they have something to add, like they would be a user of the theatre or they have a business on Commercial Drive that would benefit from the theatre being reopened, that kind of thing.”
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