Highrise Horror!

I tend to have a sarcastic twist to the way my mind works, something I continually suppress in this job.
Although maybe if I didn't, I'd have long ago found gainful (so to speak) employment with London, England's irreverent Fleet Street tabs.
For example, when considering the headline for Wednesday's lead story about council's approval of zoning that would allow 8-12 storey "highrises" downtown, I quashed my first headline thought: Highrise Horror!
My first inclination was to mock the apocalyptic nature of the debate around this issue. I had visions of the opening scenes of CSI Miami where a helicopter camera films while flying around the Miami Beach highrises glowing with the reflected light of the setting sun. In the streets below, murder and mayhem run amok because the city couldn't keep out the developers of office towers and glass edifices.
Every issue that comes before council carries nothing less than the total ruination of our idyllic way of life here on the sleepy east side of Vancouver Island. Or so it seems from the nature of the debate. The vitriol, the anger, the anguish – it all seems so dire. Is it really going to be so bad? Are we paving paradise to put up a tower? I'm afraid I don't think so.
Sure, Campbell River is in a spectacular natural setting and we shouldn't be ruining that but Campbell River is also an architectural disaster zone. We have old, dumpy buildings squatting on the shores of a gorgeous stretch of water, surrounded by majestic mountains. What man hath wrought on the shores of Discovery Passage disgraces what God hath rendered.
Considering that Campbell River is little more than 50 years old, it's commercial and civic buildings are already past their prime.
I find it laughably ironic that in the early 90s the electorate rejected a plan to build a showcase civic building on the former six acre site created for the community as part of the Discovery Harbour project. The irony arises out of the people now saying we need to something worthwhile with the remaining 3.5 acres. It should be a park, some say. It should serve the community, others add.
I remember former city councillor Bill Harrison telling me back then that the city wanted to put something on the property that is worthy of the site, a showcase for the city. Well the voters didn't want that, rejecting a multi-million dollar community centre that would probably look real good down there right now.
Now, we're in danger of losing the property to a private developer because the money might be more useful to the city now than the site. And, to entice the developer, the city wants to rezone it to accommodate up to 18 storey buildings because developers recognize what a spectacular site it is.
However, I'm predicting that after the public hearings on what to do with that site, we'll see the city backtrack and revisit the idea of putting a community facility there.
The city has wisely separated that piece of property from the other chunks of land downtown that might attract investment if they're zoned for higher density.
I'm sorry but I really believe that we can accommodate taller buildings downtown if they're done right. By keeping a close rein on proposals, the city can shape its downtown into an attractive, livable and vibrant section of town. Right now its dominated by the Tyee Plaza parking lot and the Discovery Inn. The DI has stood alone down there for years now, "towering" (at six storeys) above everything else.
There are forces at work urging the city to do this and Campbell River will be hard pressed to resist them. Look at what happened once the Discovery Centre Mall opened and the first big box stores rolled in. Then all those chain restaurants popped up all of a sudden. Like them or not, the way they suddenly appeared leaves me with the image of the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike.
And should the city resist the forces currently being held at bay by an unworkable downtown real estate model? Do we not want increased economic activity? The right kind, certainly. But something's got inject some life in our moribund city centre. A few years ago, people were complaining that commerical developments proposed for Dogwood and the Jubilee Connector were going to suck the life out of our downtown. Now, there's a proposal that could inject some life into downtown and everybody is up in arms. Sorry, some people are up in arms. Whether it's everybody is hard to say (see my previous column on that).
There seems to be such resistance to change around here. Rejuvenating our cityscape does not have to destroy our natural setting. Maybe some people will lose their view but I won't. I can't afford a view. But I think it will be relatively simple to sculpt a skyline that takes advantage of the ridge behind downtown and avoids plunking 18 story towers all over the downtown.
I live in Willow Point and attended on Saturday the opening of the "$10 million mile," as it was once so sarcastically coined. There's an example of civic projects making things better. Willow Point was a mess with that old, two-lane, gravel-shouldered bottleneck. Sure, it cost a lot of money, way more than originally forecast. But was that a budget overrun or an unrealistic evaluation of how much it would cost?
Regardless, Willow Point looks great. In fact, I predict that Willow Point is going to attract a lot of development attention because of the upgrade. What's the most desirable commercial location in town now? Willow Point is now pedestrian friendly, pleasantly landscaped and not a highrise in sight – ha, ha.
So where am I going with this? I don't know. There's potential danger with highrises, certainly. A hundred years ago or so they were hailed as the ultimate in human architectural achievement but then soon proved to be cold and lifeless edifices that were used improperly by lining them up one after another. The streets were deprived of sunlight and winds whistled down the concrete valleys like a wind tunnel.
So, Campbell River should use them judiciously.
Mayor Roger McDonnell is going to take some heat for saying Campbell River has to grow up but he's certainly right. He'll hear that phrase thrown back it him for years to come but people do have to recognize that this isn't a little fishing village clinging to the tidal shores of Discovery Passage. People want some kind of economic development but that will come with some kind of cost. A higher density downtown might be the price to pay.
But, you know, it's not the end of the world. It can be done right and we can avoid the highrise horror people sound like they're expecting.