Jacquie Simonds recently quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes to the Vancouver City Council: “I find great things in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”
Simonds isn’t so sure she likes the direction the city of Vancouver is moving.
The 76-year-old frequently drives up and down Mill Plain Boulevard.
On a recent trip, she stopped and snapped photos of all the buildings she believes are “turning Vancouver tacky.”
She presented the councilors with a packet full of black-and-white photos with descriptions as to what concerns her about the buildings.
The packet was titled, “Vancouver. One pair of eyes … Noticing …”
Don’t get her started on the new Chick-fil-A at 16400 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd. It’s likely her least favorite building: basically a box, built right up on the sidewalk.
“Very unattractive,” she said.
There’s a new hotel farther down the road, built with what she considers no design considerations.
“Another box,” she said, and with no landscaping.
There’s the European Wax Center, with the electrical outlets exposed for all to see.
And the new brewery that has decided to build a stone box to hold its garbage, right along the road.
“It’s quite a nice building, but we get to see the garbage bin as we drive by,” Simonds said.
On a drive up Mill Plain Boulevard with a reporter, Simonds said, “I see a pattern: indiscriminate building that doesn’t pass the test.”
Simonds is a former schoolteacher. She loves Vancouver, she said.
But she’s worried the explosion of building is being done without consideration of how it’s shaping the city’s character and aesthetics.
“There aren’t any green spaces for children. There’s nothing that feeds the soul,” Simonds said.
She’s on a mission for thoughtful construction. There’s a lot of empty lots, a lot of potential, she pointed out.
City Councilor Jack Burkman said Simonds’ points illuminate the value of having a master plan.
“I know the buildings you’re talking about,” he said. “Many of them are infill, and I have questions how to help those integrate better into the community. … But the reality is, the property owners can do what they want there.”
Burkman knows the drive well himself — it’s his neighborhood. Look around closely, he said, and you see areas that have used a master plan. The buildings all integrate together, there are walkways and landscaping.
“It’s all made to look like it’s supposed to go together,” Burkman said.
But glance in the other direction, and the cohesiveness disappears.
“You get to the other corner, and across the street there’s a big brick building … with mostly vertical walls and in my opinion little of visual interest.”
The city’s role in land-use planning is to create a comprehensive plan, and look at issues such as density. With a master plan, the developer takes charge and commits to what the property owners would like to create, which benefits them so they are locked in and don’t have to deal with changing regulations.
“A city, in theory, could come up with design standards or a design committee,” Burkman said. “I haven’t seen those go very well. Now, you’re talking about personal judgment about what’s pretty and what’s not. That’s tough.”
Greg Turner, Vancouver’s land-use planning manager, said with buildings like the Chick-fil-A, the building department reviews it to ensure it meets code and the planning department verifies it meets minimum setbacks and building height requirements.
Only certain sections of the city require design review of buildings on private property, he said, such as downtown.
In the meantime, Simonds said, she will continue to be one pair of eyes, noticing.
