BAD manners have brought the peasants to - the Larco gates with torches blazing. Bad manners and a public ‘relations gaffe of monumen- tal proportions. The two don’t sell well in genteel West Vancouver, No sir. The Larco lads are finding that out big time. It took several days for the municipality to respond to the explosive Sept. 29 big box meeting in which Larco laid down the law. Maybe not as fast a response as you might get in other, shali we say, less mature neighborhoods. ‘. But when it came, it came with a vengeance. _-, Led by West Vancouver Council’s Allan Williams, the municipality rolled out the heavy guns: a call for a report into Park Royal traffic access and egress. : Not just how much traffic - will be generated by the _ Umail’s planned Phase IV - expansion, you understand, but how best access and egress can be squeezed off from the show-piece shop- ping mal! that has been one - of West Vancouver’s biggest selling points since it opened “on Sept. 1, 1950. Ouch, neighbors. |. Why the extreme guerrilla . action from so civilized a quarter? Bad manners. That’s my read. They predominated at the Sept. 29 mecting. . 1 W.A, (Wink) Andres deliv- red the goods in’a response to public concerns over the westward invasion of big box - stores. .- - . : >” His delivery is still being ‘digested. by the West Vancouver. fold. And it has : soured a fot of stomachs in mailbox __- the process. The Larco senior vice- president basically told the crowd that Lasco, as Park Royal’s owner, was well with- in its rights to expand. Larco can do what it wants on the south mall site. Native land, you know. Not West Vancouver's baili- wick at all. The traffic mitigation options in Larco’s expansion -plans were mere courtesies to the municipality. Gifts from on high, as it were. And those recreational facilities everyone is whimper- ing about? Not the responsibility of the shopping mall. Technically Mr. Andres is dead right. : Larco needs no OK from West Vancouver District or any of its residents to pro- ceed with its plan. Its appearance at the Sept. 29 meeting, a toothless off- the-record affair, was mezely a formality. A courtesy. So called. Bad form, 1’d say. Coun. Williams apparently agrees. The former B.C. attorney general was aghast —~ he and many other West -Vancouverites along with” him. © . At the Oct. 6 West Vancouver District council meeting, he called Larco’s “inflexible position,” its plans to go ahead with the project regardless of what West Vancouver has to say, “not good cnough ... not good enough for West Vancouver and not good enough for your council.” A major player in provin- cial politics, Williams is well- suited for a game of hardball, political or otherwise. And he is in a game with some big ieague hardball players. The Larco lads, Shiraz, Amin and Mansoor Lalji, are major property developers. Larco is a multi-faceted real estate company with wide- spread holdings in Whistler and around the Lower Mainland. They have a reputation for — we shall be diplomatic here — driving hard bar- gains. Since taking over Park Royal back in 1990, they have done much to transform what was a dowdy and frumpy mall into an appeal- ing, modern shopping centre. Their latest expansion plans would remove some of the more convoluted intra- mall traffic knots that cur- rently plague the place. According to Larco’s fig- ures, the expansion would also create an estimated 750 full- and part-time jobs and enerate an additional 600,000 in new tax rev- enues. Approximately 36% of that total would be split between West Vancouver dis- trict and the Squamish Band, with 75% going to the dis- trict and the remaining 25% going to the band. So there are some posi- tives buried in this mall mess. But bad manners and arrogance have overshad- . owed them. Big boxes gift- wrapped are still big boxes. And the bad taste remains in the mouths of West Vaticouverites from Larco’s previous south mall upgrade, A ENED A ON NRE URN NBC Tap N. Shore bridge vision ‘Dear Editor: “Michael Becker reports in the Oct. 8 News, about “the West Vancouver Chamber of Commerce’s proposal for a First Narrows Crossing Authority. One item in chamber pres- ident John Clark’s July 31 letter to Highways - Minister Lois Boone addresses the ‘issue of tolls, but does not endorse a toll as an - inevitable source of payment. Mr. Clark continues in his letter: “If there must be a toll, then let. it be controlled by the participants and ultimately paid back to them.” My indication of support for the concept was a statement in principle, not specifics. At no time have I, or my three Liberal colleagues, endorsed a site-specific toll, and we continue to oppose it. The two North Shore chambers of ACADEMY FOR MATHEMATICS & SCIENCE ony NAR @@. Academy for: SSK CAPILANO MA commerce and the four North Shore mayors also oppose it. Bridges don’t come free, and we must all search for the most cost-effective and equitable way to pay for them, as we must pay for any other public project. John Clark has invited all concerned about the Lions Gate Bridge, including the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Parks Board and the Squamish Nation, to oversee the project, and meetings are taking place in this regard. The governnient, through Mizister Boone, has a very narrow view of a solution. The par- ties directly affected have a vision and will col- lectively fight to advance it. Jeremy Dalton, MLA West Vancouver-Capilano Ver Now OFFERING a ¥ Qualified & Experienced Tutors y¥ Individual Attention v Personalized program ¥ Enables 100% understanding V Grades K to 8 English V Grades K to 12 Math v Grades 11 & 12 Science ' | FREE MATH EVALUATION - a Pe, Mathematics. & Science “Yard floor _ dabave Fabriclahd}, am when the treed lot adjacent to Ambleside park was clearcut in 1993's festive sea- son to make way for a golf driving range — a golf grinch thar stole Christmas. But regardless of the degree of outrage swirling around their company’s cor- porate moves, Larco’s princi- pals remain resolutely — nay religiously — publicity shy, especially when the robust exchange of opposing opin- ions is flying in the press and elsewhere. Most of the time that’s a good policy: who needs high- rollers clogging up the air- waves and cluttering up newspaper columns with their bombast? But not this time. The largely reasonable folk of West Vancouver don’t like getting told to like it or lump it. They have some major safety, esthetic, commercial and community concerns that need addressing. And when they have com- plaints they take them to the top. They don’t want propa- ganda from hired hands. Thus far they have not made that executive connec- tion. Meanwhile the peasants are at the gates, and the tem- perature in the air is rising. 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