City Report Confirms School Will Rent McCarthy Stadium And Recommends Approval of the Development Application
In their report to the Development Permit Board, City staff recommend it approve Notre Dame’s application for a destination sports facility. This includes allowing the private school to rent the stadium to sports organizations and other groups.
Notre Dame Neighbours have long maintained that building a rental facility was always the school’s ultimate objective. Until now the school has hidden behind vague references to “community access” and claimed that the stadium would be for student use only. The new City staff report makes it clear: the school can allow the field to be used for “practice sessions rented out to local sports organizations, or in limited cases, community related events as approved under special events licences.”
Get on the Speakers List! Come to the Board Meeting!
This new admission comes only days before the Development Permit Board is expected to rule on the school’s plans. This means that if you don’t want to live next to a destination sports facility, you need to get on the speakers list or plan to be at the meeting on Monday, June 10 at 3:00 pm. Speakers will have up to five minutes, but there is no need to take that long. A simple, “I object to Notre Dame’s development application and ask the Board to reject it” will do.
Written submissions can also be made, but being present at the Board meeting will have greater impact. If you don’t feel comfortable speaking in public, your presence will let the Board see how important this issue is to our community.
There is a chance the Development Permit Board can be convinced to decline Notre Dame’s application, if enough concerned citizens show up.
Allowing the school to rent McCarthy stadium, means we will be living with the noise, the increased traffic and the parking problems. It will be able to rent it out year round, seven days a week, until 8:00 pm. The parking lot the school plans is not large enough to accommodate visitors to a stadium of this size. Visitors will be driving around looking for parking on our already crowded streets.
The best chance to stop this from happening is for you to take action. To get on the speakers list contact contact Ken Cen or call him at 604-829-9582. You can also contact Cathy Cermeno or call her at 604-873-7770.
The Development Permit Board will meet on Monday, 10 June 2019 at 3:00 pm at Vancouver City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue, on the Ground Floor in the Town Hall Meeting Room.
You can read the all the Notre Dame documents given to the Board here. You’ll have to click on the “Meetings” tab, open “2019” and scroll down to “June 10, 2019”. The first item, to the right of the Agenda is the staff report. Other items include site drawings, a new (to us) arborist’s report, the hasty 2018 traffic update and other documents.
Please make every effort to attend the meeting. If you cannot, then write or call Ken Cen or Cathy Cermeno with your concerns. Tell the Development Permit Board you don’t want to live next to a destination sports facility and demand it decline Notre Dame’s application.
Notre Dame Neighbours 