Arcane rules prevent would-be performance venues from becoming viable, councillor says
By Randy Shore, Vancouver SunMay 1, 2009
Save On Meats at 34 West Hastings in Vancouver was to be developed into a gallery but the plan has proven too expensive.
Save On Meats at 34 West Hastings in Vancouver was to be developed into a gallery but the plan has proven too expensive.
Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Sun
The city will take a first step next week toward lowering the barriers faced by artists and small venue operators with an eye toward creating more performance spaces in the city.
Under the city's bylaws, changing the use of a building to open a gallery, an eatery or a boite triggers a whole mess of required upgrades to meet fire and seismic codes.
Add to that a punishing property tax regime and layers of licensing rules, and creating a profitable performance venue is almost insurmountably difficult
"I have one space in Vancouver with a rent of $700 a month and a property tax bill of $1,500 a month," said Vancouver entrepreneur David Duprey, who operates several buildings with gallery and artist space.
The average income for a working artist in Canada is less than $25,000.
A seismic upgrade that Duprey had been considered to revitalize the former home of Save-On-Meats would have run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The math is more than challenging and it's one of the reasons that so many buildings in the Downtown Eastside have been boarded up for years, he said.
Duprey operates several buildings and a restaurant, mainly in ground-level storefronts with artist studios occupying the remaining space in the building.
Parties and performances help draw customers, but arcane rules often prevent owners and operators from staging events.
On Tuesday, Coun. Heather Deal will bring a motion to council, proposing the creation of a working group to advise council on various ways to lower the bureaucratic and taxation barriers and to change the liquor bylaws and special occasion licences, which can often be the difference between setting up a profitable new venueor putting some more plywood on the windows.
Obviously there are base levels of safety that have to be maintained, Deal said.
"But we have rules now that don't allow more than two people to perform at cafe-galleries or restaurants and we have to break down those barriers and stop treating these spaces like they are all such different things," said Deal.
The city is in year one of a 10-year plan to develop a more vibrant culture industry in Vancouver and job one is making sure artists and performers have studio and performance space.
A two-day workshop that was held in March was the first step toward arming the culture community with the tools needed to navigate the complexities of project development and the bureaucracy.
"It's incredibly difficult to go through the process with the city and most artists just won't go through it," Duprey said.
"If you have a 30- or 40-year-old retail space that people are working in right now and you want to change the usage to say a gallery, it suddenly means you have to bring everything up to 2009 standards."
"Heather is really on to something here," he said.
"If we can lower those barriers, it will really make a difference in neighbourhoods like the Downtown Eastside, where we have a lot of boarded-up buildings."
rshore@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Save On Meats at 34 West Hastings in Vancouver was to be developed into a gallery but the plan has proven too expensive.
Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
By Randy Shore, Vancouver SunMay 1, 2009
Save On Meats at 34 West Hastings in Vancouver was to be developed into a gallery but the plan has proven too expensive.
Save On Meats at 34 West Hastings in Vancouver was to be developed into a gallery but the plan has proven too expensive.
Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Sun
The city will take a first step next week toward lowering the barriers faced by artists and small venue operators with an eye toward creating more performance spaces in the city.
Under the city's bylaws, changing the use of a building to open a gallery, an eatery or a boite triggers a whole mess of required upgrades to meet fire and seismic codes.
Add to that a punishing property tax regime and layers of licensing rules, and creating a profitable performance venue is almost insurmountably difficult
"I have one space in Vancouver with a rent of $700 a month and a property tax bill of $1,500 a month," said Vancouver entrepreneur David Duprey, who operates several buildings with gallery and artist space.
The average income for a working artist in Canada is less than $25,000.
A seismic upgrade that Duprey had been considered to revitalize the former home of Save-On-Meats would have run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The math is more than challenging and it's one of the reasons that so many buildings in the Downtown Eastside have been boarded up for years, he said.
Duprey operates several buildings and a restaurant, mainly in ground-level storefronts with artist studios occupying the remaining space in the building.
Parties and performances help draw customers, but arcane rules often prevent owners and operators from staging events.
On Tuesday, Coun. Heather Deal will bring a motion to council, proposing the creation of a working group to advise council on various ways to lower the bureaucratic and taxation barriers and to change the liquor bylaws and special occasion licences, which can often be the difference between setting up a profitable new venueor putting some more plywood on the windows.
Obviously there are base levels of safety that have to be maintained, Deal said.
"But we have rules now that don't allow more than two people to perform at cafe-galleries or restaurants and we have to break down those barriers and stop treating these spaces like they are all such different things," said Deal.
The city is in year one of a 10-year plan to develop a more vibrant culture industry in Vancouver and job one is making sure artists and performers have studio and performance space.
A two-day workshop that was held in March was the first step toward arming the culture community with the tools needed to navigate the complexities of project development and the bureaucracy.
"It's incredibly difficult to go through the process with the city and most artists just won't go through it," Duprey said.
"If you have a 30- or 40-year-old retail space that people are working in right now and you want to change the usage to say a gallery, it suddenly means you have to bring everything up to 2009 standards."
"Heather is really on to something here," he said.
"If we can lower those barriers, it will really make a difference in neighbourhoods like the Downtown Eastside, where we have a lot of boarded-up buildings."
rshore@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Save On Meats at 34 West Hastings in Vancouver was to be developed into a gallery but the plan has proven too expensive.
Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
