Vancouver city council rejects motion to reopen Robson Square to traffic

Vancouver’s Robson Square will stay blocked off to vehicle traffic for the foreseeable future, after city council squashed a motion to reopen the area Tuesday night.

NPA councillor Melissa De Genova said her motion was rejected before Tuesday’s council meeting even began, adding the decision was an example of Vision Vancouver not wanting to debate the issues.

The motion called for the square, which was closed to all traffic in April 2016, to be reopened to transit and cycling traffic first, before possibly expanding the motion in the future to include other vehicles.

“And I guess Vision Vancouver didn’t want to tell me today that they also didn’t want active transportation there, which was a bike lane,” De Genova told CKNW’s Lynda Steele. “And I don’t think they’ve ever seen one that they don’t like.”

De Genova said council called the motion “out of order,” and also prevented fellow NPA councillor Hector Bremner from moving the motion on her behalf, saying he’d have to present his own motion separately.

The square has been a popular site for protests and community events for years, but has recently become a source of complaints due to a rise of illegal marijuana vendors setting up shop.

De Genova said if the motion had been discussed, the issue of illegal vendors would have had to be debated.

—With files from Jon Hall