2 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 20,2016 EDITOR CHANTELLE DEACON tlarge SV ALYSE KOTYK photo All units are now sold to small buisnesses and construction is underway, in Vancouver at the IntraUrban site near Marine and Cambie. Low prices attract buyers Some Vancouver small businesses have a place to call their own By ALYSE KOTYK ntraUrban, an industrial strata, is 100 per cent sold, giving some Vancouver small businesses a chance to own their own space. The development project, at Laurel Street in South Vancouver, offered small units, an accessible location and a low entry price point. The 167,000 square foot building is currently under construction and is one of very few Vancouver developments of its kind. Construction is in progress and businesses will start to move into their units as early as June 2017. “Ownership opportunities in Vancou- ver on the industrial side come along very few and far between,” said Chris MacCauley, senior vice president at CBRE Limited, the company responsible for the project’s marketing. “There’s a lot of pent up demand from local small businesses that would like to own the property for their business.” MacCauley said all units sold out just two weeks after construction started in June. IntraUrban’s location is key as it’s near the Marine Drive Station, an acces- sible business hub. David Fawley, devel- opment manager at PC Urban, the com- pany that manages the project said it’s important to local businesses that they own a space with a Vancouver postal code. He also said that while there are some other developments on the hori- zon for businesses to buy into, they tend be much larger and more expensive. “The price point, the entry point is af- fordable,” he said. “It’s an attractive, ur- ban, industrial location.” A variety of businesses are taking ad- vantage of IntraUrban including event companies, commissaries, garment manufacturers, homebuilders and hob- byists. “Tt’s really a mix. We got a lot of peo- ple who were kind of getting in more expensive areas or transitioning areas in Vancouver, mainly like the Mount Pleasant and False Creek industrial ar- eas,” said MacCauley. “It really was a broad spectrum of businesses. They all service the Vancouver market which was really important to them.” ONE OF a kind 1 Intra Urban is Vancouver's first commercial strata 2 There is smaller or larger spaces at IntraUrban, ranging from 1200 square feet to 3300 square feet 3 IntraUrban features contemporary design and high quality constuction Source: IntraUrban.ca Mom, son face tough choices A South Vancouver woman is worried a lack of special needs funding could affect her autistic son’s future education By MELANIE GREEN South Vancouver single mother of Ae 11-year-old special needs son ad to wait six years to get him into an after-school special needs pro- gram. Preschool teacher, Sunny Abebe, needs one-to-one support for her autis- tic son, Yoni. In September, he started at Queen Alexandra Elementary, on Clark and Broadway, which is outside of their catchment. Abebe said she might lose her job because she has to continuously leave work early to pick her son up on time. “T invested 17 years of my job to get where I am. Do I quit to go on social services, just so I can help my son? That makes no sense,” Abebe said. British Columbia has around 58,000 special needs students — according to British Columbia Teachers’ Federation 2012 report. Parents can opt for schools in other catchments to best meet their child’s needs. Existing programs have long wait lists because they are minimally staffed with limited seats. Special needs includes being gifted, deaf or blind, or having learning dis- abilities, behavioural disorders, autism and mental illness. Professor of public health at Univer- sity of British Columbia and elected advocacy representative Dr. Farah Shroff said the burden of cuts to ser- vices falls on distressed mothers, call- ing for more skilled staff. “There’s some excellent profession- als out there, but their services aren’t covered by tax dollars,” said Shroff. Andrea Kennedy, parent and advo- cate, moved from Pitt Meadows to Sur- rey to meet her son’s needs. “Tf [children] don’t get those special- ized services, [they] fall continuously behind, leading to depression or sui- cidal ideology,” she said. David Thompson Secondary School has programs for autism. When asked about wait list times, Principal Marea Jensen told The Voice to contact the Vancouver School Board communica- tions department, who declined to com- ment. Burnaby is at odds about the potential greenway that may be approved in their community aa MORENO ZANOTTO By ANNA TILLEY A HUB Burnaby member Burnaby cycling organization is r4 4 Pest: the city to redesign a pro- . posed 1.2-kilometre greenway that They didn *t it says is dangerous and likely to lead to cyclist-pedestrian collisions. consult HUB Burnaby, the local branch of a with the non-profit organization that promotes ° cycling, believes the shared-pathway cy clin g . system being designed for the new community Willingdon greenway, which will con- nect Hastings Street and Brentwood MORENO Town Centre, is not just unsafe, espe- ZANOTTO cially on a street with a hill that will see cyclists travelling at high speeds among pedestrians. But the new pathway will also do nothing to encourage cycling growth. “Essentially just getting people to cy- cle out of the way of cars and putting them on sidewalks doesn’t work for in- creasing cycling,” said Moreno Zanotto, a HUB Burnaby member. Zanotto said Burnaby’s approach is one of the reasons why the proportion of the city’s cycling trips has been stuck at 0.7 per cent for the last 30 years, while Vancouver has ten times the amount. But Burnaby Coun. Anne Kang said the city has designed the path to pro- vide an enjoyable green space. “If you specifically want that path from the Heights to Brentwood, then you'll have to just share and really slow down and be cautious because there will be 18 blocks of people on playgrounds, people having zen time, and beautiful gardens designed for people to look at,” Kang said. The Willingdon Greenway, planned for 2017 construction, will be a linear park and travel corridor along the east side of Willingdon Avenue, with a four- metre-wide path for all users. Burnaby has approximately 70 kilo- metres of shared bike pathways on 15 routes, 50 kilometres with nine bike-on- ly routes on quieter streets, and less than 10 kilometres of separated cyclist paths. Another concern for HUB Burnaby was the city’s lack of community en- gagement. “They didn’t consult with the cycling community. They presented it at an open house, with a week before they posted a note on their website,” Zanotto said. SUBMITTED photo The potential vision of the 1.2-kilo- metre greenway in Burnaby.