NEW INDUSTRIAL PARK NVD reserves land for high-tech firms IN A BID to keep flourishing local high-tech companies growing on the North Shore, North Vancouver District is planting a specialized industrial park on district lands at West 14th Street, east of Lloyd Avenue. The development move is in- tended as a step to ease an indus- trial space squeeze which is resulting in many successful high- tech companies moving away from the North Shore and setting up shop in other communities. The high-tech industrial park will be made possible by way of the establishment of specific zon- ing regulations in a new district comprehensive development zone. The range of permitted business uses include research and devel- opment and specialized light in- dustrial and technological. A high-tech business survey, released last year by the North Shore Economic Development Commission (NSEDC), revealed By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter that 70 per cent of businesses poll- ed anticipated moving within the next five years. The availability of relatively inexpensive industrial land put Burnaby, Surrey and Langley at the top of their lists for new sites. Said Economic Development of- ficer Bonnie Pyplacz: ‘‘in terms of space and in terms of land costs it’s a crisis. It’s a fairly substantial crisis in the sense that the kind of companies we’re seeing leaving are not just ones that are really land extensive. ““Anybody who would need a NEW DIRECTORY LAUNCHED Companies listed LOCAL HIGH-tech activity receives a higher profile this month with the North Shore Economic Development Commission (NSEDC) release of a directory listing approximately 460 North Shore companies. The types of companies listed range from engineering firms to software development businesses. Said Economic Development Officer Bonnie Pyplacz: ‘‘I was surprised at the amount of soft- ware companies here. We also ran across the fact that a vast majority of the people in the directory have a masters or PhD. You don’t real- ize the number of well-educated people here on the North Shore.”’ According to Pyplacz, the pur- pose of the directory is two-fold. The listing wil! facilitate lecal businesses connecting with each other on the North Shore. And by identifying who is doing what and where locally, the directory can be used as a tool to match expanding” ECONOMIC Development Officer Bonnie Pyplacz ...surprised at the sumber of software companies on the North Shore. businesses with available industrial properties and vacant spaces. Pyplacz expects the new directo- ry to be available to the public ear- ly this month. Free copies will be issued to the North Shore municipalities, all local libraries and key people in industry associa- tions. The directory may also be purchased through the NSEDC. large warehouse, for example, could leave their office here and build a warehouse in Surrey or Richmond. But that’s not what has been happening. We're also losing software companies and precision tool companies,” she said. Many of the local precision tool companies service the shipping in- dustry. A less-than-rosy shipping industry picture has these kinds of companies seeking new oppor- tunities. But, points out Pyplacz, ‘‘Com- panies like precision tool com- panies also service high-tech as well. So their departure has im- ptications across the board.”’ North Vancouver-based Norvan Tools Ltd. has already made the decision to move elsewhere. The company, started in North Van- couver in 1972, designs and builds injection molds for the plastics in- dustry and designs and is active in precision tooling. Norvan used to service the ship- building industry. Today, con- tracts come in the form of tele- phone and medical products. Nor- van also created the joints for North Vancouver’s International Hard Suits Inc. newtsuit. With a growing business and no room to expand at its leased premises, Norvan and its 23 employees are packing up for a February move to Surrey. ‘‘We’re a bit overcrowded here. The people on either side of us aren’t moving, so we can’t take up a third bay,”’ said Norvan Tools Lid. secretary- treasurer Glen Defreitas. The company is constructing its own building in Surrey. Defreitas said most of the Norvan employees have bought homes in Surrey in anticipation of the business reloca- tion. But Pyplacz sees the district’s specialized industrial park initia- tive as a step in the right direction. “fYou have to look at things in- crementally on the North Shore, because there’s not a lot of indus- trial land and there never will be,’’ she said. “Even to solidity the head of- fices or the main offices of what are now strong surviving North Shore firms to a site like that (West 14th) would set a good ex- ample for upgrades and rebuilding in surrounding areas,’’ Pyplacz said. ab 3 ve os NEWS photo Cindy Goodman CEDARBROOKE VILLAGE residents believe it’s just a matier of time before someone is kiiled while at- tempting to cross Westview at a crosswalk situated between their apartment complex and the Westview shopping centre. Last week 14-year-old Cedarbrooke resident Shayna Lamont was struck dy a car, ‘The res- idents would like to see a pedestrian-controlled crossing light at the crosswalk. See story page I. 3 - Wednesday, January 3, 1990 - North Shore News NEWS photo Neil Lucente VINCE ALLEN skis on top of the only snow on the Lower Mainland. The icy stuff was piled outside of North Shore Ski Swap on Lonsdale Avenue recently to attract sales. Further up hill on the North Shore mountains, some runs at Seymour and Grouse are now open. Bio-medical waste bylaw date delayed IMPLEMENTATION of a Washington State bylaw bann- ing the importation of bio-medical waste from Lions Gate Hospital and other Lower Mainland medical facilities could be delayed until March 1990. The county ordinance was ini- tially scheduled to come into effect Jan. 1, but the Coquitlam com- pany that packages and hauls LGH bio-medical waste to an incinerator in Washington State’s Whatcom County launched a challenge to the bylaw in U.S. courts on the grounds that it was unconstitu- tional. On Dec. 18, BFI Medica! Waste Systems Inc. was granted a prelim- inary injunction against enforce- ment of the bylaw, but the U.S. district court in Seattle will recon- sider Friday whether that injunc- tion will remain in effect while the bylaw’s constitutionality is deter- mined. If BFI’s injunction is upheld, legal arguments over the bylaw’s constitutionality will likely be heard in February or March. Had the bylaw come into effect Jan. 1, BFI would have been forc- ed to ship bio-medical waste from its Lower Mainland customers far- ther south to its next available in- cinerator in California. The cost to LGH and other BFI customers of bio-medical waste disposal, which is already substan- tial compared with regular garbage disposal, would have greatly in- creased. Over the past three years, LGH garbage disposal costs have in- creased almost 660 per cent, primarily because the hospital began shipping its bio-medical wastes to the Whatcom County in- cinerator after air pollution prob- lems forced the hospital to stop burning that waste in its own in- cinerators. The cost to ship LGH_ bio- medical waste to Washington alone will be close to $150,000 this year; the cost to dispose of the hospital's regular garbage will be approxi- mately $35,000. Bio-medical, or potentially in- fectious, waste is produced by hospitals, dental offices, veterinary clinics and other medical facilities It includes human tissue, patho- logical waste, hypodermic needles, syringes, scalpel blades, serums, vaccines, blood and blood pro- ducts, animal carcasses and body By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter parts, and material from infectious patients. B.C. currently has no facility for its disposal. Foliowing the awarding of the temporary injunction, BFI spokesman Wade Musseau said he was extremely pleased that the Washington State bio-medical waste bylaw had been delayed. ‘It’s business as usual,’’ he said. “We will have the use of the facili- ty until March of next year. So it’s onward through the fog.”’ And Musseau said Tuesday that BFI was anticipating no problems in having its temporary injunction upheld Friday in U.S. courts. The delay in enforcing the bylaw, he said, would give BFI time to get its new ‘Autoclave’ bio-medical disposal system operating in Port Coquitlam. The facility will use steam to sterilize potentially hazardous waste. The sterilized material will then be dumped in area landfills. Musseau said the Autoclave will be able to process all but a small portion of bio-medical wastes as they are currently defined. It will also help eliminate the need for the 6,500 boxes used each month by BFI to package bio- medical waste for delivery to the Whatcom County incinerator. Pathological and chemotherapy wastes will still have to be in- cinerated, but Musseau said they constitute only 10 to 15 per cent of all bio-medical waste. “It’s really an insignificant por- tion of the waste,’’ he said. If the Whatcom County in- cinerator closes permanently to imported bio-medical waste, Musscau said disposing of patho- logical and chemotherapy waste “will be BFI's problem. Our cus- tomers won't have to worry about it.” According to Musseau, BFI's Autoclave will initially be able to process 40 tonnes of bio-medical waste daily. B.C. currently pro- duces 16 tonnes of bio-medical waste per day.