Here are some links — including media coverage — about third-party appeals and our situation in particular, from oldest at the top to most recent at the bottom:

  • Vancouver Courier, August 31, 2005 — "Friendly Ruling for Salsbury Garden" by Naoibh O'Connor. At an August 24, 2005 hearing, the City of Vancouver's Board of Variance rules in favour of community appellants, quashing developers' controversial permits to build two duplexes on the site of the much-loved Salsbury Garden.

  • The Republic, September 1, 2005 — "One Small Victory for a Park ... and one giant leap for democracy, activism, and organization" by Kevin Potvin. Heritage and green space are critical issues in the democratic process of citizen appeal. Kevin Potvin describes the steamy, noisy, ultimately exhilarating Board of Variance hearing.

  • The Georgia Straight, October 27, 2005 — "East Van Garden Threatened" by Jennifer Van Evra. Offers made to the developers by the City to purchase Salsbury Garden for use as a public green space are rejected. The developer serves the site's tenants with eviction notices. Community supporters explore every option to have the property protected.

  • Heritage Vancouver's 2006 Top Ten Endangered Sites — Salsbury Garden, with its hundred-year old workers' cottages and forest, is rated number six on Heritage Vancouver's 2006 list of endangered heritage sites. Heritage Vancouver volunteers fought valiantly to save the site.

  • Number Six on Heritage Vancouver's 2006 Top Ten Endangered Sites — Salsbury Garden, lost, but not forgotten. Here is the Heritage Vancouver write-up on the houses and garden.

  • Vancouver Courier, March 15, 2006 — "Salsbury Development Fight Not Over for Evicted Tenants" by Naoibh O'Connor. Former tenants of 1117 and 1121 Salsbury Drive seek damages for wrongful eviction by Salsbury Garden developer Richard Niebuhr. Niebuhr has applied for judicial review at the BC Supreme Court of the August 2005 Board of Variance decision that quashed his development permits.

  • The Republic, April 13, 2006 — "A Dangerous New Tactic Employed at Salsbury Garden" by Alex Tegart. Developer actively recruits street folks to be bouncers and enforcers on the Salsbury Garden site, and encourages homeless people to set up camp in the garden and to break into buildings.

  • Vancouver Courier, June 7, 2006 — "Marina Appeal on Hold" by Naoibh O'Connor. Concord Pacific Marina appeal to the Board of Variance will be heard on June 28. At issue, according to O'Connor, is the lack of clarity around the Board of Variance's jurisdiction and the rights of aggrieved citizens to challenge what they consider inappropriate decisions of the Planning Department.

  • The Republic, June 8, 2006 — "Mouse That Roared Faces the Boot of City Bureaucracy" by Kevin Potvin. Technocrats at the City Planning Department go to the BC Supreme Court to challenge the citizens' Board of Variance after it reversed a Planning decision. The City's own legal team joins forces with the developer's to fight grassroots community group at the Supreme Court. They argue that the Board of Variance ruled "outside its jurisdiction."

  • Vancouver Courier, June 30, 2006 — "Board of Variance Sets Marina Plan Adrift" by Naoibh O'Connor. The Board of Variance again rules in favour of a vocal residents' group in the Concord Pacific Marina appeal.

  • Vancouver Sun, July 1, 2006 — "Council Fires Board of Variance — Panel had blocked plan for a luxury marina in False Creek" by William Boei. Immediately after the Board of Variance decision to quash the Concord Pacific Marina permits, City Council, in an in camera meeting, agrees to fire the entire Board of Variance.

  • Vancouver Courier, July 7, 2006 — "Board Firing Bad for Citizenry" by Allen Garr. Garr argues that the firing of the Board of Variance — affordable for most citizens and at arms length from city politicians, from developers, and from bureaucrats — is bad for civic democracy. It means decisions are made without adequate discussion, analysis, or process.

  • Vancouver Sun, July 12, 2006 — "Variance Board Our Last Hope to Rein In a City Hall Run Amok" by Barbara Yaffe. Yaffe argues that the role of the Board of Variance is to protect citizens from the City's unreasonable development decisions. A judicial review is called to rule on the extraordinary firing of the Board of Variance.

  • The Republic, July 20, 2006 — "Board of Variance — The East Vancouver Salsbury Garden Plot Thickens" by Kevin Potvin. In the latest installment, things have heated up considerably; Vancouver City Council has fired the whole Board of Variance and the Board has taken the City to BC Supreme Court. The City's legal team and the BC government's Attorney General's office align themselves with the developers' lawyers against the Board of Variance.

  • The Republic, July 25, 2006 — "This Just In — Vancouver City Council Appoints Five Puppets to Board of Variance" by Kevin Potvin. BC Supreme Court finds in favour of the City Council's firing of the Board of Variance and then City Council immediately appoints five "puppets" to do their (and the Planning bureaucrats' and the development community's) bidding.

  • The Republic, August 9, 2006 — "Civic Democracy — Neighbourhood Democracy at Stake in Judge's Crucial Decision" by Kevin Potvin. The case of Niebuhr v. the Board of Variance, regarding Salsbury Garden in East Vancouver, and which finally wrapped up at the BC Supreme Court this week, will set the bar for the people's right to speak to power.

  • Vancouver Sun, September 23, 2006 — "Neighbours Lose Long-Held Right to Challenge Developers — Court rules Vancouver residents can't appeal decisions of the city's planning department" by Frances Bula. BC Supreme Court Justice Goepel rules that residents have no right to appeal to the Board of Variance; only property owners can appeal. The City's Board of Variance staff has been instructed to refuse all third-party appeals.

  • Vancouver Courier, September 27, 2006 — "Unfriendly Ruling Riles Friends" by Mark Hasiuk. Court ruling eliminates citizens' ability to influence development in their communities.

  • Vancouver Courier, September 27, 2006 — "Developers Win Big in Ruling" by Allen Garr. Garr says City got more than it bargained for: citizens' rights and the Board of Variance's powers are diminished, while developers', city bureaucrats', and politicians' powers are increased. Developers who want more from the City will still have access to the Board of Variance.

  • Vancouver Courier, October 6, 2006 — "Salsbury Saga Nearing End" by Mark Hasiuk. Community expresses its sadness and frustration over its loss at the BC Supreme Court and impending demolition of its beloved Salsbury Garden.

  • The Republic, November 9, 2006 — "Historic Working-Class Homes Demolished — And the fate of Salsbury Park hangs by a thread" by Kevin Potvin. At the site of Salsbury Garden, the two 1907 BC Mills houses are destroyed by developer Niebuhr, who then turns around and sells the property, not to the Park Board (which still considers itself to be negotiating with him to buy the property) but to another developer, the De Cotiis family!

  • Vancouver Courier, November 16, 2007 — "'Third-party' Penny will continue fight" by Cheryl Rossi. The Reinstate Third-Party Appeals group is taking its appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, but they need financial help from the citizens of Vancouver to make it happen. One correction: The group is hoping to raise the $25,000 they need by getting 1000 donations of $25 each. Instead of saying "a thousand $25 donations," the article says we want donations of "$1025" each! Darn. They do sound the same!

    • Links

    Here are some of the other sites we've linked to from this site:

  • Sections 572-573 of the Vancouver Charter, about the Board of Variance

  • The City of Vancouver Board of Variance By-Law No. 3844

  • http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/parks/BCMillsHouse.htm — This house is the same model as the two houses that were demolished on the Salsbury Garden site, BC Mills prefabs from 1907.

  • The November/December 2006 newsletter from Heritage Vancouver features an article about BC Mills Timber and Trading Company and the innovative prefabricated structures they manufactured. With the loss of the two BC Mills "Model J" workers' cottages on the Salsbury Garden site, there are only seven BC Mills structures left in all Vancouver.