The final monthly meeting of the previous UNA board of directors took place on Nov. 19 with a packed agenda.
The previous board, consisting of board chair Richard Watson and directors Bill Holmes, Murray McCutcheon, and Eagle Glassheim, had been together since November 2021.
A series of statements to address the board’s three years of work together kicked off what was a busy November monthly meeting.
Main Mall Greenway Project
The board was given an update on the Main Mall Greenway Activation project, which seeks to enhance the mid-campus greenway and remediate landscaping issues.
Bob Lilly from Lanarc Architecture Consultants – the firm contracted by the UNA to develop a new design of the Main Mall Greenway – made a presentation to the board, outlining two approaches for re-development of the greenway.
One approach discussed by Lilly focuses on a “sports theme” with table tennis and chess tables, with additional spaces for badminton and bocce . The other, a “Harvest Theme” concept, focuses more on natural spaces with a rainwater feature running through a portion of the greenway.
The board voted to direct UNA staff to prepare a report outlining a public engagement strategy for the project to receive input from community members.
In re-developing the greenway, the UNA has adopted guiding principles, including building a space for the community to connect, a space for recreation, sustainability and climate adaptation, and making the area a transition to the future Stadium community.
X Gets Axed
Directors voted to instruct the UNA’s communications staff to halt use of social media platform X when engaging with residents and the broader community.
Director Bill Holmes said a number of global media organizations, including the British newspaper The Guardian, have ceased posting on X due to the proliferation of content on the site that has been described as racist, inflammatory, and laden with conspiracy theories.
“There is symbolism in leaving the platform,” said McCutcheon.
The UNA has only posted occasionally on the site since it was purchased by Elon Musk two years ago.
The association currently engages with the community on social media using Instagram and Facebook.
Director Glassheim asked staff to look into other social media platforms as options for replacing X.
Old Barn Cooling Study
UNA staff briefed directors on a thirdparty report commissioned by the UNA that explored the feasibility of adding cooling capacity to Old Barn Community Centre.
According to the report, UNA staff said there would be challenges in implementing a solution that would enable the community centre to act as a cooling centre during the summer and in the event of extreme heat events.
The implementation of a new cooling and heating system would involve fan controls and outdoor heat pump units and lead to improved ventilation and reliability, with energy savings and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, the report said.
Staff said the UNA is working with UBC, the city, and the provincial government to explore retrofit grants and other funding sources to support the project, and they will report back to the board with an update.
Neighbours Agreement Negotiations Nudged
After more than 3.5 years of negotiations to finalize an updated Neighbours Agreement, it was reported at the board meeting that progress has stalled.
The Neighbours Agreement clarifies the UNA’s relationship with UBC and provides a framework for the governance of the university neighbourhoods that are under the jurisdiction of the UNA. It includes the rights and obligations of each party, such as UBC’s role in the UNA’s budgeting process, as well as provisions for UNA community members to have access to UBC facilities such as skating rinks and public swimming pools.
The process to update the agreement began in March 2021, and while progress has been made, UNA directors and representatives from UBC discussed the remaining steps to finalize the agreement during the Nov. 19 meeting.
The UNA – represented in the negotiations by a Neighbours Agreement Committee consisting of directors Holmes, McCutcheon, and resident Mike Feeley – communicated in a Nov. 11 report that the latest draft of the agreement contained changes made by UBC’s legal team that, while not “altering the substance of the agreement” were deemed “inappropriate” on the basis that they contained errors, “introduce redundancy”, and “violate good drafting principles”.
Those concerns were reiterated during the meeting.
Speaking on behalf of UBC at the meeting, Associate Vice President of Campus + Community Planning (C+CP) Michael White said the UNA must “… have a willingness to engage in compromise” to get the agreement finalized.
UNA directors ultimately voted to direct board chair Richard Watson to sign a copy of the agreement with UBC’s changes omitted. The directors also said they would be willing to sit with UBC and the university’s legal team to sort out the remaining issues, with an aim to resolving the dispute before the current board’s mandate expired in late November.
No progress was reported by the UNA as this issue of The Campus Resident went to press.