City Admits McCarthy Stadium Was Never a Minor Amendment

A MISTAKE WAS MADE

The City of Vancouver now admits that they made a mistake in considering Notre Dame’s plan for McCarthy Stadium as simply a “minor amendment”.
The mistake was first acknowledged at the Notre Dame Open House on Wednesday evening by the City’s Project Facilitator, Andrew Wroblewski. It was then confirmed in an email from him to a Notre Dame neighbour on Friday which read in part:

“To clarify, a minor amendment is not the scope of this permit. Usually a minor amendment requires very little staff review and rarely any public consultation; we admit that staff originally handling the file did not realize the history of the project or concerns of the neighbourhood (emphasis added). We have not issued a permit for the proposal.”

This is an important admission and we thank Mr. Wroblewski for sharing it with us.

It confirms what Notre Dame Neighbours, and all who signed our petition, have been saying all along: McCarthy Stadium is a big change from the 2008 permit and needs proper review and consultation.

It’s unfortunate that its taken this long to acknowledge our legitimate concerns. We’ve been accused of spreading misinformation by none other than Mr. McCarthy himself:

“We in the Notre Dame community were somewhat surprised and disappointed that certain opponents of the project chose to misrepresent the size and scope of the project,” McCarthy told CBC in an email.

It’s now clear that we have, in fact, accurately assessed the “size and scope of the project” and that it was the City’s mistake to consider it a “minor amendment” in the first place.

These are very positive developments, but more is needed. The City Planner, Gil Kelley is the person who will be making this decision. He needs all the accurate information about the impact of the project available to him. This would include your views, reviews by other City staff and panels like the Urban Design Panel.

NEXT STEPS

Notre Dame was given a big stage to present its vision for McCarthy Stadium at the Open House last Wednesday afternoon.

The City of Vancouver was prepared to give the project quick and easy approval. Now they acknowledge that was a mistake.

We know that building a 740 seat stadium is not going to improve our quality of life.

Please continue to make your voice heard. Even if you’ve signed our petition and attended the Open House, please take another opportunity to make your views known. In other words, “keep those cards and letters coming!”

It’s important that Andrew Wroblewski and the City know how we feel about McCarthy Stadium. Mr. Wroblewski can be reached by email at andrew.wroblewski@vancouver.ca You can also call (604) 673-8460.

If you would like some “talking points”, visit our website http://www.notredameneighbours.com and look for the post “Big Changes. Not A Minor Amendment”.

If you would like to sign our petition, please get in touch at notredameneighbours@gmail.com and we’ll arrange it.