Please come to the Park Board Monday May 29 at 7 pm to protest the proposed expansion plans. Read the below article from the Georgia Straight.

Aquarium expansion plans in hot water

By matthew burrows

Publish Date: 25-May-2006

Vancouver Aquarium harbour seals may look relaxed, but plenty of tension is brewing over whether to expand their Stanley Park home by nearly a third.

An enlarged Vancouver Aquarium footprint in Stanley Park is looming, following confirmation from aquarium director John Nightingale that he is seeking to expand the 50-year-old facility by 2009.

“Well, we’ve proposed one [an expansion], but whether we continue to plan or not sort of depends on the park board,” Nightingale told the Georgia Straight in a May 18 phone interview. “The current aquarium footprint is 11,900 square metres. The proposed expansion is 3,420 square metres, which is a 28.7-percent increase. It’s actually in three separate areas, not in one blob. So a bit to the north, a bit in the west, and the majority where parts of the old zoo were, in front of the aquarium.”

An aquarium delegation, including Nightingale, made a presentation to the park board planning committee on May 16. On May 19, Coalition of Progressive Electors commissioner Spencer Herbert told the Straight he had major concerns the public was being denied a say on such a contentious issue.

“Any time you try to take some of Stanley Park, and take it away from the public and put a cost on it, there’s been controversy,” Herbert told the Straight by phone. “For the aquarium to want to take around 30 percent more of Stanley Park is, I think, going to be quite difficult for people to agree with. I think the aquarium does good work in trying to promote some conservation and some environmental understanding. They’ve said they’ll preserve the major trees, but preserving the major trees behind a closed fence leads to the question: who are we preserving it for?”

Piet Rutgers, a 26-year park board veteran and current planning and operations director, confirmed on May 19 that a December 1995 park board motion—passed by a Non-Partisan Association–controlled board—requires that “any request by the Vancouver Aquarium for an expansion of the area currently occupied by the Vancouver Aquarium under its lease with the Board of Parks and Recreation be referred to a public referendum to be held during the next general civic election”.

Added Rutgers: “The [1995] motion would suggest that there would have to be a referendum [to expand the aquarium], unless the board changes the motion. The board can rescind motions that they or previous boards make.”

NPA commissioner Marty Zlotnik is proposing to do precisely that. Following the May long weekend, Zlotnik submitted a motion for the May 29 park board meeting seeking to rescind both the 1995 NPA referendum motion and the 2005 COPE motion pushing for a plebiscite on the 2008 civic ballot regarding whales and dolphins being kept in captivity in the park.

On May 23, Zlotnik explained the motives behind the motion.

“I believe that Stanley Park is a fantastic facility and I think park space is a premium,” he said. “But I think the questions park commissioners are always asked is: how do we deal with our parks and how do we provide services to the citizens of Vancouver and how do we provide something that is interesting?”

Zlotnik said he also felt there should be public consultation now rather than waiting until the 2008 civic election. He accepts that there will be opposition such as that expressed by Herbert.

“There are people all over who have different opinions about what the park board’s job is, but in this case I think the aquarium is an important part of Stanley Park,” Zlotnik said. “I don’t think it is a commercial interest we should be terrified about.”

Herbert told the Straight on May 23 that the May 29 board meeting at park board headquarters (2099 Beach Avenue) will be tense.

“There should be a referendum,” Herbert said. “This meeting will be a hot one, especially if we can get enough people [speakers] out to convince the commissioners they’re going down the wrong path on this one. If they vote to get rid of the referendum, there won’t be one, but if we get enough people out, maybe there will be one.”

Herbert added that he believes the Vancouver Aquarium “has known about this for 10 years” and had a chance to come forward before the last civic election.

“The rules the park board set in place 10 years ago were, ‘If you’re going to expand, take it to a vote,’ and they could have done that last November,” Herbert said. “But instead they wait for an NPA board, which maybe would be more compliant, and get them to get rid of the rule that deals with more expansion.”

Nightingale added that the aquarium is “about a third of the way through a major decade-and-a-half-long revitalization”.