Oakridge towers too tall, worry residents

Amassive development and rezoning plan alongVancouver's Cambie corridor isdividingOakridge-area residents, some of whom feel the proposedtowers are just too tall.

A scale model for the new housing andretailcomplex with 2,800 new homes and350 storeswas unveiledThursday night at an open house event atthe Oakridge Centre Auditorium.

The proposal, as it stands,would replace the area around the Oakridge mall with 13 new towersincluding oneskyscraper reaching 45 storeys high.

Nancy Cho has lived in Oakridge since she was a child, and said while shelikes the overall plan, she's oneof many local residents concernedsome of the towers will beto be too tall for the community.

"I think 45 storeys seems really high," she said.

"When I go to Toronto andI see those high, high buildings and you kind of just feel walled-in. You don't want to make that intersection feel really closed-in."

Olivia McEwan shares those concerns, butalso saidsometimes change isn't all bad.

"It's a bit much, but so was the Canada Line when it happened, and Cambie was all muddled-up, and now we love the Canada Line.So, you don't know," she said.

Darren Burns, a principal at Stantec Architecture Ltd., said it's important to keep in mind that the final design needs to mesh not only with the current neighbourhood, but also with the futureof the city.

"I think you have to look long-term and think what the city will look like in 2050," he said.

He also saidthe design is not final and the City of Vancouverwill continueto seek public feedback on the project and its application to rezone the areaover the next 12 to 18 months.

"I think that during the process of rezoning there will be opportunities to change the plan and modify the plan based on the feedback," he said.

The city is holding asecond public open houseat the Oakridge Centre Auditorium, on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. PT.