14 — Wednesday, Au Barrie Wali Contributing Columnist ALMOST a year and half after the issue arose, West Vancouver District Council con- tinues to stumble through the “to be, or not to be” of bed and breakfast operations. Following a single cam- plaint, the issue first came before council in spring 1997 Since then, it has appeared with some regularity on council agenda, and in the process, become something of a staff and council cause célebre. What appeared to be a reasonable planning staff rec- ommendation was given short shrift at the July 27 meeting when council unani- mously voted it down. Instead, staff were instructed to go back to the drawing board and return in the fall with proposed bed and breakfast zoning regula- tions. Among other things, bed and breakfast operators wish- ing to be considered for re- zoning — regardless of how well and invisibly they’ve operated in the past — will need to put up a $2,500 deposit, with the prospect coughing up a great deal _more if public hearing and ’”. Organizational costs go . beyond. .. ~.. ° To add insult to injury -- despite the fact the criteria to be considered call for a maxi- mum of two bed and break- ~ fast rooms and four guests per dwelling — council also decreed that water supplied ~ UNBEATABLE . CURRENCY _ EXCHANGE RATES! US Gash Sell Rate’ HERITAGE. DUTY FREE 1.5235 12, 1898 — North Shore News ed and (d ah, to such premises will be metered year-round. That hardly seems fair when meet B&Bs operate only ber May and September. Most of West Vancouve:' s 20-or-so B&Bs operate from two-person “empty nests.” Under the proposed two- room, 0Wo guests to a room limit, that means that in the majority of cases, there’d never be more than six peo- ple in the home — even dur- ing the peak May-September months. It’s difficult then to sce the logic in penalizing their usually retired owners with sharply increased water charges — let alone business licences and other fees —- when there surely are many so-called “conforming” single family homes in the munici- pality with considerably more than six occupants — all year round. That smacks of discrimina- tion. So too does council’s focus on bed and breakfast enterprise while it continues to ignore other, much larger issues of community non- conformity. Has it occurred to coun- cil, one wonders, that given past councils’ laissez-faire attitude to, and perhaps even tacit encouragement of B&Bs over the past dozen years or more, its approach is akin to using a sledecham- mer te crack a very small wal- nu And that its proposed re- zoning “solution.” with all ithe expense and time-con- sumption it entails, almost certainly will spring the lid of a much larger Pandora’s Box of unlicenced home-based business and secondar — and have great pote turn neighbor against neigh- bor in the process. Why then, we must ask, are small B&B operators being singled out to jump through expensive and oner- ous hoops when scores, if not hundreds of “illicit” suites and other home enterprises are allowed to operate with- out let or hindrance? In all good conscience, can every member of council truthfully say he or she does- n’t rent a secondary suite or operate any kind of business trom home? At the July 27 meeting, Councillor Victor Durman made the point that “many of them (B&Bs) opened iliegai- ly” and implied that it’s now time to whip them into line. The fact is, there never has been any legislation in West Vancouver that cither permits or proscribes B&Bs. How then has it been possi ble for them to operate ille- gally? To apply perspective, many, if not most of the existing 20-odd West Vancouver operators entered the business with the encow agement and urging of vari- ous levels of government, when in the run-up to Expo g's) breakfas 86 they were begged to throw open their doors to help accommodate the visit- ing, overflow throngs. As the huge su of Pp s ensuing rep- utation for hospitality now attest, many of today’s B&B operators foolishly took senior and local governments at their word and in more than a few cases, spent tens of thousands of dollars to convert their homes for the purpose. As the increasingly brow- beaten band of West Vancouver B&B proprictors now know to their cost, offi- cialdom’s imprecations betore and during Expo were little more than a delayed sucker punch — and the B&B pro- prictors in West Vancouver at least, .ave every right to feel betra.:d by their elected offi- cials, With some modification, West Vancouver assistant planner Joel Lawson’s recom- mended solution was a good compromise, which likely would have satisfied most people without stirring up a hornet’s nest. Now, with ar least two council members unable to resist the temptation to tweak Lawson’s well thought out proposal, the end result will likely end up as a cumber- some and time-wasting dog's breakfast that will satisfy no one. —— Barrie Wall writes from West Vancouver. He recently retired from corporate life. 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