How would you feel if the city wanted to turn your residential neighborhood into a major urban area? That is what is proposed for our Vancouver Heights neighborhoods and, not surprisingly, we Heights residents aren’t happy about it (The Columbian, Feb. 10 and 20). In fact, we’ve created the Heights District Neighborhood Coalition, a five-neighborhood association in the McLoughlin Heights, to better express our discontent with the “Heights District Plan.”
The Heights District Plan would turn 205 acres into a mixed-use “urban center” including 1,650 residential units housed in six-story buildings, an additional 62,000 square feet of commercial development, and woefully inadequate parking that would force residents, employees and clientele to park in neighborhoods.
In short, the “Heights Plan” adds 4,500 people to quiet residential neighborhoods. Objectionable for the change of neighborhood character it would cause, it becomes even more so when the city won’t postpone the deadline comment period on its 500-page highly technical “Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)” in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.
This is a disturbing pattern by city planners who seem intent on alienating our neighborhoods. A comparison to baseball offers a useful analogy.
First strike: The “Navigation Center” (the center gives people without shelter somewhere to go from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. to eat, shower and do their laundry). Beautiful concept, so why a strike? Wrong site, inadequate funding, major management problems, neighborhood opposition, now run by the City Parks Department which has no “homelessness” expertise, and now it’s closed.
Second strike: the “Westside Bike Mobility Project,” where 400 parking spots critical for businesses and residents are to be removed for bikes. (“City must rethink plan to remove Columbia parking,” The Columbian, April 5).
Will the Heights District Plan be the third strike? On March 2, the city council recommended the Community and Economic Development Director extend the DEIS feedback deadline to May 20; however, on March 23, Gov. Jay Inslee issued the Stay Home, Stay Healthy order.
Nonetheless, City Hall keeps the clock ticking while neighbors cannot meet. When asked to extend its deadline for submitting written commentary, the only man who has the power to make that decision, the Community and Economic Development Director, cavalierly responded “We are not inclined …” (Chad Eiken’s email April 13). This is a decision the City Council cannot make, nor the mayor nor the city manager. Only Mr. Eiken makes the final call. Hey batter-batter, better check your swing on the Heights Plan and rethink things.
With the city projecting a $30 million to $60 million loss of revenue due to the pandemic (“City of Vancouver braces for massive blow to budget due to pandemic,” The Columbian, April 20), priorities need to be reassessed. Funding public safety and transportation should come first. Further, the city council should reopen its “Comprehensive Plan” and reconsider the “New urbanism” which its Planning Department apparently relies on.
If the city cannot maintain business as usual, why would they expect citizens to be capable of it? To close comments on May 22 as the city proposes would dishonor the Heights community by dismissing the impact of COVID-19.
Very real priorities like small business grants, payroll protection programs, loan applications, unemployment filings, mortgage extensions and tax payment deferrals are just a few of the coronavirus-related inconveniences that absorb people’s time and energy.
Please don’t make people choose between applying for economic lifelines and submitting written commentary on a 500-page DEIS. That is a position no person should be put in.
Please tell the city to put pencils down and postpone the Heights Plan for higher priorities.
Michelle Briede and Kate Fernald are co-chairs of The Heights District Neighborhood Coalition.
