Robert Renger

my master’s thesis (1976) The Rationale for Providing and Planning Urban Bikeways

This article on the murky history of the CURV development (which made lots of money for some people, but may never get built) now includes a link to audio of my interview with Jill Bennett on CKNW on 17-Jul-2025.

Vancouver’s Planning Dept sacrificed its integrity in a misleading report to try to bail out the CURV luxury condo development. To no avail. No matter. Millions in private profit have already been extracted from the property. vancouversun.com/opinion/column…

By routinely refusing to acknowledge mistakes made by Vancouver City staff, managers and Council have fostered a corporate culture that features a lack of accountability, leading to complacency, sloppy work, and arrogance. Specific examples in my article: cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2025/07/24/lac…

DCM Levitt pursued real-estate planning instead of following Council direction “to undertake an open and transparent community planning process…through a robust consultation process,” which Levitt said couldn’t be done due to “a lack of staff resources” tinyurl.com/35sart4s

Acting City Manager Karen Levitt, as Deputy CM was responsible for FIFA World Cup as well as Technology Services, Internal Audit, etc. She has also been the City’s lead in planning for the demolition and redevelopment of the existing False Creek South leasehold community.

Henson Developments, the original CURV rezoner/flipper in 2020-21 was pursuing an ambitious project in West Vancouver at the same time, as Peter Meiszner reported then. That property was also flipped to current CURV lead developer Brivia Group in 2021. urbanyvr.com/wentworth-land…

Does Chip Wilson/Low Tide Properties own property within or near any of these areas, such as Mount Pleasant, Railtown, and False Creek flats?

In case you’re curious — here’s the CURV Commission Structure.

B.C. Premier David Eby reshuffles cabinet Christine Boyle will take over the housing portfolio. Former housing minister Ravi Kahlon takes over as minister responsible for jobs. ctvnews.ca/vancouver/arti…

FOI is important for my research and writing. Sometimes COV provides heavily redacted documents. Other times it can’t find documents that should exist. OIPC can sometimes help reduce redactions (years later), but can’t help at all if the City has lost or destroyed documents.

HISTORY In 2013 developer Wall purchased the CURV site for $16.8M, selling it in 2016 for $60M to a buyer who flipped it one month later for $68M in a share-sale avoiding PTT. BC Assessment was only $15.6 M. In 2020 after 24.7 FSR approved, another sale, possibly for $100M.

CURV developer defaults on $91M+ mortgage So what if this development doesn’t proceed. It’s already made millions for land flippers, consultants & real estate agents. It’s boosted BC’s GDP (28.5% real estate & development — far higher than elsewhere). storeys.com/curv-vancouver…

There will be no criminal trials or civil jury trials in Vancouver, New Westminster, Abbotsford or Chilliwack from June 12-July 8, 2026 due to public safety, traffic and crowd control measures for FIFA, reports @bobmackin thebreaker.news/news/world-cup…

ALMOST COMICAL City FOI could only find 3 Agendas for meetings of its secret PEF (City Real Estate) Advisory Panel, 2 of them undated. I was told I had to make a new FOI request if I wanted the dates of those 2 meetings and of the meetings for which FOI could locate no agendas.

FIFA tickets @BCPlace starting at $3K. Just imagine how expensive they would have to be if taxpayers weren’t subsidizing them to the tune of $624M.

Imagine…people who voted for Lucy Maloney and Sean Orr thought they were voting for a change from ABC. And when they voted for Ken Sim/ABC they probably thought they were voting for a change from Kennedy Stewart. And Stewart was supposed to be a change from Vision Vancouver.

Yeah, I’ve had it wrong for a long time. > Council CAN defy the Planning Dept. > It’s just developers that Council can’t defy.

Vancouver has moved far beyond the antiquated City Planning they have in Brooklyn. Just imagine — they still expect: > buildings responding in scale to the surrounding neighbourhood > a large public open space with trees