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Site was supposed to be the off ramp for a 1960s freeway that would have demolished much of Chinatown and Strathcona
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The firehall at Main and Powell streets in the Downtown Eastside is the busiest in Vancouver. So busy, the city has proposed building a temporary firehall at 722 Gore Ave. to help with the calls about fires and drug overdoses in the neighbourhood.
But the location is one of the few green spaces in Chinatown and Strathcona, right beside the MacLean Park social housing project. It’s also next to the busy Union Street bike route.
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Dan Jackson of the Strathcona Residents Association is worried about the impact on the area.
“The (association) is concerned about 24/7 (firetruck) sirens directly next to the 278 units in Maclean Park social housing,” he said.
“We’re also concerned about the loss of the only remaining green space in Chinatown — a paved, fenced-in parking lot (for firefighters) hardly sounds temporary. We will be submitting a letter detailing our concerns in the next week.”
In an email, the City of Vancouver said the location “is the nearest available city-owned land to the current Firehall 2 that can accommodate the temporary annex.
“The Temporary Firehall 2 Annex must be in proximity to the current Firehall 2 to ensure Vancouver Fire Rescue Services can effectively continue to provide critical emergency services in the area.”
The city also noted the space is currently zoned as “a road right-of-way.” This dates to 1968, when Vancouver was looking to build a freeway from the Trans-Canada Highway in Burnaby through East Vancouver, Strathcona, Chinatown and Gastown.
“It was the off-ramp for the freeway coming down Union Street to go onto what was called the Gore Connector,” explains civic historian John Atkin. “That’s why the fence for the social housing (on Gore) is way far in, because it’s a 100-foot right-of-way. They expropriated all the houses, all the businesses on that side of Gore to create the 100-foot right-of-way for that connector road.
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“It’s been classified ever since as a road right-of-way, and that’s why there is no real attempt to do any improvements or anything, (the city’s) engineering (department) says, ‘It’s a roadway.’”
Atkin is a past president of the Strathcona Residents Association.
“When we were doing the (Strathcona) community plan back in the 1990s, there were a lot of questions around could we take that piece and turn it into a park, or could we turn it into housing?” he said. “There was actually a proposal to do housing there, and engineering said, ‘No, it’s a road right-of-way, and it stays a road right-of-way forever.’”
The freeway proposal was shelved after massive public opposition. The only part of the freeway system that was built was the Georgia Viaduct, which is supposed to come down in a redevelopment of the eastern end of False Creek.
The Nora Hendrix temporary modular housing project is already located on another green space on Union Street beside the Georgia Viaduct, which precludes it from being a site for the temporary firehall.
There is currently an empty space near the new St. Paul’s Hospital site, but the city said it would not work for a temporary firehall.
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“The new St. Paul’s site is not owned by the city and therefore not available to the city to deliver this important community safety facility,” states an email from the city.
The proposed firehall would be approximately six storeys high, and is essentially a giant tent.
“The site is expected to have a temporary tent structure for two firetrucks, a temporary building for staff living quarters, and parking space for staff,” said the city.
Citizens can comment on the 722 Gore project through Vancouver’s “Shape Your City” website. If it is approved by council, construction could begin this fall.
jmackie@postmedia.com
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