Dunbar’s first neighbourhood plaza was installed May 6 on West 27th Avenue east of Dunbar Street. Access to the Domino’s Pizza parking lot has been maintained, and emergency vehicles can still get through.
By Carol Volkart
Dunbar’s first neighbourhood public plaza is a modest affair — four pastel-painted picnic tables on one blocked-off car lane on 27th Ave. east of Dunbar Street. But its arrival this month was accompanied by a rather large question:
Why weren’t nearby residents asked about it?
“There was absolutely no consultation with anyone in the community, we who live here and must drive here,” said Bruni Goodson, who lives down the 27th Ave. hill from the plaza. Even a resident with no strong feelings about the plaza, a tenant of the 27th Ave. apartment building that now opens directly onto it, was bemused at why the city didn’t talk to residents before installing it.
The resident, who preferred not to be named, noted that it means there is no vehicle access to the apartment’s door for unloading groceries or for elderly visitors who might need help getting into the building. There’s a lane behind the building, but it is narrow and will be even busier because of the plaza, said the man, watching with interest as drivers tried to find alternatives when they came to the “road closed” sign blocking the street on the first day of the plaza’s installation.
The door of this 27th Avenue apartment building opens out onto the plaza.
City officials say plazas like this are free places for the community to gather and will help make the area more welcoming and vibrant.
Goodson and her husband Tony are concerned about traffic and safety problems they say will result from a plaza at the height of a hilly area with steep, narrow, car-lined streets to the east. Residents of her block will have to take circuitous routes to their own homes, and garbage and delivery trucks will be affected, she said. (Provisions have been made for emergency-vehicle access and the Domino’s Pizza parking lot has been left accessible.)
“It’s a safety thing; it’s a really unsafe location.”
She’s also concerned about potential noise problems from programming at the plaza and the extra cars that programs might bring to the area. Even though her own home may be too far away to hear the noise, it will still bother closer neighbours, she said.
So why weren’t there discussions with neighbours before the concrete barriers and picnic tables went in?
“You bring up a good point about consultation,” the city’s plaza management team responded in an email when the question was asked.
The team said the plaza was requested by the Dunbar Village Business Association as part of a program in which the city “partners with businesses, residents and community organizations to create public seating and gathering spaces that support public life across the city’s neighbourhoods.”
When a request is received, potential impacts on traffic, safety and access are studied, and the transportation department and Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services must approve any plaza plans, the team’s response said.
“If there are no major concerns and the location looks like it could be viable, we work with our partners and rely on their relationships within the community to gather support and feedback from those nearby,” the email said, noting that all plazas begin as temporary projects.
Before they’re installed, notification letters are sent to businesses and residents, and during the first summer, “we collect feedback and conduct monitoring and surveys to understand how the plazas are being received, how they can be improved, and if they should remain. We also work with our partners to address feedback that might come up, such as noise concerns or cleanliness.”
The consultation process with neighbours comes after, not before, the plazas go in. “We find that the feedback we receive post-installation is especially valuable because the plaza has had a chance to settle into the neighbourhood and we have a chance to address any complications that may come up,” the team’s email said.
An April 22 letter alerting area residents to the pilot project explained how that works: “At the end of the summer, a community survey will be mailed to you and other nearby residents and businesses. It will ask about your experience with the pilot plaza. Your feedback will be shared with our community partner and will help the City decide if the plaza should stay and what improvements may be needed. This decision will consider community support, how the plaza is used, safety, etc.”
Goodson wonders just how temporary the plaza will be, and how often, once installed, they have been removed. A 2025 Vancouver Sun story about the popularity of plazas noted that a few haven’t worked out. One near a liquor store was pulled out because it created too many problems for deliveries, and one in Marpole was shut down after an encampment and public disturbances caused complaints from neighbours.
This isn’t the first time neighbours have reacted strongly to the idea of a plaza at 27th. When it was first proposed in 2023, a flurry of objections went to the city on the grounds that many area streets were already blocked off by sewer and water construction work, and another blockage would make it even harder for residents to get around.
A July 2023 letter in response to the Goodsons’ objections at the time said that after more internal review, a decision had been made to postpone the plaza “until the local street network is restored and available for regular use.”
So why install a plaza anyway?
“The new plaza will create a public space for people to eat, visit, rest and connect with neighbours,” says the city’s April 22 notification letter to residents and businesses. “It can also bring more foot traffic to businesses. Neighbourhood plazas offer a free place for the community to gather and help make the area more welcoming and vibrant.”
The day of the plaza’s installation, a trio of area residents, one of whom has been vociferously opposed, walked up the hill to inspect it. They were enjoying a joke about the new addition to the community: “We might just bring a beer up there and drink it on the plaza.”
More information about the city’s plaza program is at https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/plaza-stewardship-strategy.pdf
Appreciate this article & the others you have written Carol. I do worry about people now not being able to easily access their residences. Also now there will be even more traffic coming down West 26th which is very narrow & used heavily already, especially close to Dunbar. Memorial Park West has picnic tables & better parking so I feel that was a better plan than spending tax dollars on another experiment that I think will fail.
A very fair article, Carol. My main concern is definitely safety due to the very narrow lane which dead-ends at 27th. There is no through-lane. Vehicles accessing and egressing the homes located between Dunkirk and Dunbar must egress (those on the north side of the street), or access the front of their homes (those on the south side of the street) via the same narrow lane with its tight corner. There are multiple garbage/recycling/service trucks that have to navigate that lane and then a tight corner to get to 27th. Same with the small parking lot behind Domino’s; trucks that pick up the big bins behind the restaurant had an extremely difficult time getting in and out of that spot. One of them gave up and left. Another real concern is that the tenants in the apartment building have no vehicular access to their front entrance.
(As for the DVBA, my feeling is they should be encouraging people to frequent the various coffee shops and cafes. And we could sure use a restaurant here in central Dunbar. Really miss The Cheese.)
Thanks for the interview and the permission to use your names, Bruni and Tony. You raise very valid points.
If I lived in this building I would be very upset, it is already hard enough finding parking in Dunbar, now the residents will be forced to park farther away. Very inconvenient for them.
What will bring people to this street? The only view is the sides of buildings, a parking lot, and traffic on Dunbar Street and the alley.
Have garbage cans been put in place? If not, there will be increased litter on the street as well.
Waste of money.
Thanks for the article, Carol. I certainly share the concern about building access for the residents at the corner of Dunbar & 27th (there used to be a doctor’s office on the 2nd floor too), especially after our street/parking/drop-off issues over the past two years while city street work dragged on and on and none of us had much access to our homes. And then there’s the issue of the back lane behind Shoppers ending there. It remains to be seen how much (and by whom) the new seating area will be used, with just four tables arranged as they are. I passed by Dunbar andW27th twice this weekend–Saturday early afternoon, there was no one there, but last night after 9 pm there were two young people eating pizza. Of course it has only just been set up so people don’t know about it yet. Originally, I thought the plan from the City was to have it west of Dunbar on W27th, but that would have greatly interfered with Stong’s parking, deliveries, etc., and it is already a very busy corner there. I live on W. 27th near Collingwood. Among other things (actual use as intended, noise, garbage…), I wonder how Dominos drivers will manage their back and forths (backing up to get out of the parking and heading down W27th). In the past 18 months, several guests and workers parked in front of my place have had their car mirrors knocked off by cars or trucks going too quickly up or down W27th, which is busy but very narrow, and one family member’s small van has been side-swiped not once but TWICE, resulting in a lot of damage and ICBC claims. The first time it was a City-contracted truck doing street work on W26th at the time (the driver just kept on driving until someone working on my roof who had witnessed it yelled at him to stop to get his insurance info); and the second time it was a hit and run. I understand that many neighbourhoods are creating these outdoor seating areas, which increased during Covid, but usually not just in one narrow lane (in front of the entrance to an apartment building, and across from a busy pizza delivery company’s parking spots). Not very well conceived in my view at this particular intersection but I’ll provide feedback at the end of summer based on what I observe between now and then. I’ll also be keen to see if it has any calming effect on traffic on W27th or how it affects the corner at W27th & Dunkirk and also W26th…
Thanks for the comment, Patsy. Judging from the thoughtful responses so far, I’d say it might have been a good idea to talk to residents first. Maybe people could have come up with a more workable alternative.