Closing Point Grey Rd

City of Vancouver is proposing to close off the Point Grey Road to commuter traffic or to reduce it to one-way, Westbound, street.

Point Grey Road is an important part of regional transportation infrastructure used for over two and a half million commuting trips each year.  It connects the second-largest employment hub in the metro Vancouver area with Downtown, the North Shore and further communities.

Workers, students and residents of neighbourhoods West of Kitsilano are about to face increased commuting time and more congestion while the residents of Kitsilano away from the Golden Mile can expect  more traffic on their streets.  Transit passengers will have fewer bus stops and more time spent on a bus as it attempts to crawl through traffic bottlenecks.

Demystifying water rates in UEL - within 5% of Vancouver rates

Recently, there has been a lot of chatter west of Blanca on the subject of water rates, markups and general confusion surrounding water rates.


Below you will find a comparison of water rates between the City of Vancouver (CoV) and the UEL.

UEL has two water rates:  one is a peak rate for Jun-Sep period -  $1.3185 per cubic meter, the other is an off-peak rate for the rest of year -  $1.0544   per cubic meter (CM). (source: UEL Admin, 2010 rates)

This translates to a "blended" rate of $1.14 per 1 CM of water in UEL.

A four person household living in a bungalow in UEL uses 555.5 cubic meters of water per year according to UEL water bills. 

Therefore, such household pays $374.21 per year for the water, or $1.03 per day.

Compare that against the CoV.

CoV charges $2.01 per 100 cubic feet of water (2010 figures).  1 cu.ft. = 0.028317 CM so the CoV charges $0.71 per 1 CM of water.

At a first glance it looks like UEL residents pay 61% more for their water - $1.14 vs. $0.71 per cubic meter.

BUT, do not despair ...

.... CoV is also charging a "meter charge" per quarter.  Meter charges depend on the diameter of the water pipe and were set as follows in 2010 (they are higher now):

17mm = $26

20mm = $26 

25mm = $31

http://vancouver.ca/fs/treasury/utility/meterRates.htm

Typical household is connected to a 25mm pipe.

Thus a compareable household in CoV would pay $232.51 for water and $124 for "meter charge".

A grand total of $356.51 in CoV vs. $374.21 in UEL, a 5% difference.

Laneway housing and increased density - observations from our neighbours at Dunbar

In early March, our neighbours to the East at the Dunbar Residents Association held a presentation on laneway housing.  A subject relevant to UEL residents as the UEL Administration is attempting to introduce unrestricted, rental suites in UEL.


part 1

part2

West Point Grey - community vision

Last Fall, the City of Vancouver published a document called "West Point Grey Community Vision".  It may be of interest to the residents of Little Australia as it has a number of points that are likely to impact our neighbourhood.

Some interesting points include:
• reduce lanes on 10th Avenue to one each way between Alma and Blanca (with left turning lanes)