Category: UNA

Judge, Jury and Tow Truck Driver

Post author By Neal Yonson
Post date May 24, 2010
4 Comments on Judge, Jury and Tow Truck Driver

Coming to the Board of Governors in early June is a new set of Parking Rules for UBC. According to the document, the reasons they are looking to enact new rules are:

(a) revise UBC’s traffic and parking regime so that it interlocks with the new legislative framework;
(b) update and streamline the existing traffic and parking rules, which have been overtaken in many instances by changing technology, management practices and by the evolving character of the Point Grey campus;
(c) establish a uniform traffic and parking system for UBC and UBC Okanagan; and
(d) add flexibility in order to meet future changes

Someone who regularly drives to and parks a car on campus might now be interested to hear what changes are in store for them. In response, UBC would like you to stop paying attention, because this process is not a big deal and should be entirely uncontroversial because it’s simply formalizing current practice.

It is unlikely that the users of parking services at either UBC Okanagan or UBC Vancouver will even realize that the Proposed Rules have been adopted unless they take the time to read and compare them with the existing rules.

In fairness, that’s largely accurate: the new parking regulations are indeed mostly a restatement, in better legalese, of UBC Parking’s current parking regulations.

That’s the problem.

Development Government UNA

UBC, Metro Van to ‘divorce’

Post author By Samantha Jung
Post date May 4, 2010
4 Comments on UBC, Metro Van to ‘divorce’

An “amicable divorce.” This is what UBC VP External, Legal and Community Relations Stephen Owen is calling the most recent development in the university’s battle with Metro Vancouver over land use on campus. Decisions on property development will no longer be made by Metro Vancouver, but will now rest in the hands of the provincial government—something that UBC is more than pleased about.

If Bill 20 (see Part 3—Community and Rural Development Amendments), which is going through Parliament at the moment, passes, the decision-making power on land-use planning at UBC will be transferred to the province’s Ministry of Community and Rural Development. From there, the province will engage in a consultation with stakeholders (me, you, a dog named Blue and your neighbours in the University Neighbourhoods Association) to develop an appropriate governance model for UBC. This could mean more autonomy for UBC, and that it can control where and when it wants to build various projects on campus—instead of it operating like a city, as it does now, it could be a city.

Tags Metro Vancouver, Samantha Jung, Stephen Owen, UBC

Development Government UNA

City Steps Back from UBC Annexation Plan

Post author By Alex Lougheed
Post date October 29, 2009
3 Comments on City Steps Back from UBC Annexation Plan

The following is a guest post by John Tompkins, editor and publisher of the Wesbrook Journal, former editor of the Hampton Journal, and resident of UBC. If you would like to submit a guest post, contact us.

Lack of local interest is cited; new thrust is to provide UBC more services

The City of Vancouver has lost interest in the idea of annexing UBC, at least for the time being.

The City has not lost interest in expanding the range of services it provides UBC, however. On the contrary, City Council in October voted in favor of starting a courtship which, if consummated, could eventually see—among other things—Vancouver City Police take over policing duties at UBC from the RCMP. (video)

Campus Life Issues UNA

Come on feel the noise

The UNA just started a public consultation about their proposed noise bylaw which runs until November 9.

This process has been ongoing since well before the appearance of Bill 13, which would give UBC the ability to regulate noise all over campus. The University Neighbours’ Agreement, the document which defines the governance of the UNA, outlines how rules regarding noise, nuisance, parking, and traffic can be put in place. Although the UNA does all the legwork to develop the rule(s), UBC’s Board of Governors would be the ones to ultimately put them in place. The Neighbours’ Agreement is clear that any new rules would apply only to the areas falling under UNA jurisdiction, not all of campus.

The fact that Bill 13 exists is a tacit acknowledgment that the BOG never really had the legal authority necessary to enact any noise rule the UNA came up with (not that it would have stopped them, of course.) Since it’s likely Bill 13 will pass, this is probably a moot point but still worth noting.

Reading through the proposed bylaw the image that comes to mind, to borrow a phrase, is that of a wildly overlapping Venn diagram. It contains some very broad, very vague rules with seemingly contradictory clauses, odd exceptions and an uneven mode of enforcement. Naturally, this is a subject on which UBC Insiders cannot keep quiet.