MOUNT PLEASANT NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT NOW!
We love the ‘Heritage Heart’, the unique commercial/cultural district defined by the intersections of Main, Broadway, and Kingsway. We bet you do too.
Our Vision? When transit users emerge from the future Mount Pleasant Broadway Subway station, they will arrive at Mount Pleasant’s vibrant and distinct ‘Heritage Heart’, not a generic “could-be-anywhere” intersection.
BUT we are at risk of losing the ‘heart’ of Mount Pleasant and the local independent businesses and cultural groups who have homes there.
Did you know that the Heart of Mount Pleasant was ranked # 1 on Heritage Vancouver Society’s 2019 Top Ten Endangered Watch List? Mount Pleasant was also included on their 2021 Top10 Watch List.
The recognition of this district as the ‘heart’ of the community and the name “Heritage Heart” were born from the 2010 Mount Pleasant Community Plan (MPCP) and subsequent Implementation Package (IP), which were co-created by the City of Vancouver and the community through the investment of taxpayer dollars and hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours. They document the ‘heart’s’ importance as a vibrant shopping, cultural and gathering spot, not only to the neighbourhood but city-wide. Both documents also include the policy of “retaining the existing scale and character” of this small portion of Mount Pleasant.
To protect this treasured district, we asked, during meetings with the Broadway Planning Team (2020 – 2022) and during our presentations at the public hearing (May/June 2022), that the City and Plan formalize this policy by declaring the ‘Heritage Heart’/Main Street Village a Heritage District with a management plan.
The recently approved Broadway Plan (effective September 1, 2022) does identify the Main Street Village as one of 3 heritage districts/cultural landscapes (Heritage Section – 18.3 ps 445 – 449 & 18.4 p 450) and the Broadway Planning Team, who acknowledged that the heritage work started very late in the planning process, have made a commitment to doing further assessment and protection of heritage assets in consultation with communities during the Plan’s “lengthy implementation period”. This includes doing statements of significance for heritage districts, including the Main Street Village (Heritage Section – 18.3.2 – p 445).
But protection of this vital area, the “living room of the community”, needs to include a management plan that deals holistically with the social diversity, independent businesses, affordable rents, historic architecture, smaller store frontages, public spaces and unique personality of Mount Pleasant.
Where Main St. meets Kingsway in the “Heritage Heart”.
Please join us as we continue to call upon the City to include a commitment to declaring the ‘Heritage Heart’/ Main Street Village a heritage district within the Broadway Plan with its own management plan.
Here’s how you can join our campaign:
First, let your voice be heard, please sign and share our petition to protect our much loved unique commercial/cultural district!
Sign Change.org petition to City of Vancouver Mayor & Council to “Keep the beat in the ‘Heart’ of Mount Pleasant here.
Or, copy and paste URL to petition: https://www.change.org/p/vancouver-mayor-and-city-council-keep-the-beat-in-the-heart-of-mount-pleasant
Note: After you sign the petition, change.org will solicit for a donation on this issue, this is how change.org operates – they give exposure in exchange for money. Please do not donate to this issue through change.org.
Second, stay informed!
Yes, I support this campaign! Please keep me informed by adding my name to your contact list:
And finally, if you’d like to help us cover the administrative costs of running this campaign, please donate to our FundRazr page here.
We are a small but dedicated grassroots organization and, as such, any financial support, small or large, is very much appreciated. Thank you!
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Mount Pleasant Heritage Group 
It’s difficult when the planners don’t even respect the planning process. Why should citizens participate if the work is over ruled by planners just a few years later. It’s no wonder that Vancouver’s planning process is held in such disdain.
This is a neat and unique area of Vancouver which has managed to maintain it’s neighbourhood feeling and character. I feel privileged to work in the Heritage Heart area and I truly enjoy frequenting the many small shops and diverse eating establishments. Please incorporate the carefully envisioned ideas of the 2010 Plan developed by the community, with its focus on preserving the unique feeling of the area.
I support the petition and I’m familiar with the cause. I had a hard time finding the place to sign though. I think the petition should be right on top of the page and have a very brief and succinct demand. Keep up the good work
Thanks Laura, We have taken your suggestion to heart (pun intended) there is a petition link right at the top of the page now. And we will work on the “brief and succinct demand” part, too! Thanks!
We so enjoy the Mount Pleasant area. We always visit this area when we come to Vancouver. Have had many wonderful meals at the variety of restaurants.
Thanks for your comment, Pat. We really enjoy the wide variety of eating establishments in MP too! Let’s keep it that way!
oops. I filled out the “stay informed ” area thinking it was the petition. (I was in a hurry, didn’t pay attention.) It wasn’t until I read the comments that l realized I had to click on a link above that form to get to the actual petition.
Thanks Cathy! Glad you figured it out.