cs
}

OTR Re gin, poses ote

ans ee LE all ORL an ol te

Ro gen ad ala

TREE LAE ATES NEA LNT TTA LA I PN IO

SELBY RET

ey

‘
fb

RRR MN Zope mi atzen mg trae a eR Ha ENR OmE MENTE OE ARNE ont ERROR Sp ANTS eH APR Rrbenre rae

TRANSPORTATION REPORT
noad overhauls
needed to meet
population growth

MORE PEOPLE will have to start using public transit and
improvements must be made to several major transportation
routes in order to meet North Vancouver’s future transpor-
tation needs, a preliminary report has found.

And some of the routes that are
in need of upgrading to handle an
anticipated traffic flow increase,
according to a team of engineers
and consultants, include Marine
Drive, Lonsdale Avenue, Lynn
Valley Road and Mount Seymour
Parkway.

In addition to the road im- ~°

provements the engineers say two
more seabuses will be needed to
take North Vancouverites into the
year 2000.

The preliminary findings are the
work of the Transportation Net-
work Study, a transportation task
force put together by both the City
and District of North Vancouver.

While its final report is not ex-
pected to be completed until next
summer, the task force’s prelimi-
nary findings were released at a
public information meeting
Thursday night.

North Vancouver City engineer
Chuck Gayle, chairman of the

ERIS?) |

... Auring the last
five years North
Vancouver’s
population grew by
about six per cent
while the nuinber
of vehicles
increased by 16 per
cent.

ee See
transportation task force, said
North Vancouver will have to
make some major changes if it is
going to meet the demands put on
it by the transportation and popu-
lation increases expected between
now and the year 2011.

During that period, which is the
time period of the task force’s
report, Gayle said North Van-
couver’s population is expected to
increase by 30 per cent to 135,000.

He added that the number of
vehicles being driven in North
Vancouver streets is increasing
each year and as an example said
that during the last five years
North Vancouver's population
grew by about six per cent while
the number of vehicles increased

. by 16 per cent.

“Those are some pretty stagger-
ing numbers on the demand being
put on our (transportation) system.
Our lifestyles, social patterns all
bear those statistics,’ Gayle said.

He added that by the year 2011
the task force has assumed the Se-
cond Narrows Bridge will be
widened to eight lanes, the Upper
Levels Highway will be widened to
six lanes between the Second Nar-
rows Bridge and Capilano Road,
and an Upper Levels Highway in-
terchange will be built at Westview
and Lonsdale. (The Lonsdale in-
terchange is currently under con-
struction.)

The task force’s preliminary
findings also indicate improve-
ments will be needed to Lonsdale
Avenue between the Upper Levels
Highway to 29th Street; and
Queens Avenue to Marine Drive
between McKay Street and
Bewicke Avenue; to Lynn Valley
Road between the Grand Boule-
vard and Williams Avenue; and to
Mount Seymour Parkway between
Lilloet Road and Berkley Avenue.

By SURSJ RATTAN
Contributing Writer

Other findings of the task force
show the traffic flow on Marine
Drive, and. to a certain extent of
the Upper Levels Highway, can be
reduced if the Lower Level Road is
extended across the Capilano River
south of Park Royal, and that ad-
ditional crossings at the Seymour
River and Lynn Creek would ease
traffic congestion on the Mount
Seymour Parkway and Lillooet
Road areas.

Task force member Wally
Atkinson said more people will
have to start using public transit
and more bus routes will be needed
as the population and transporta-
tion demands of North Vancouver
increase.

“Public transit is taken for
granted, particularly by
automobile drivers,’’ said Atkin-
son, who added the present transit
system is carrying one-third of all
of the North Shore’s rush-hour
commuters to downtown Van-
couver, while vehicles carry the
rest.

“The Second Narrows Bridge is
not carrying enough transit trips.

* There’s lots of room for growth,”’

said Atkinson.

In the future Atkinson said there
will be a need for direct bus service
from North Vancouver to the
Broadway area in Vancouver and
the University of B.C. and Simon
Fraser University, as weli as ‘‘a
faster way to get to Lonsdale
Quay.”’

The task force has also found a
need for several park and ride
locations in North Vancouver that
should put ‘“‘particular emphasis
on coordination of locations with
express services.’”

The North Vancouver Transpor-
tation Study has been broken into
two parts, the first part being net-
work planning, which is a ‘‘global
review’? of the transportation
issues and networks in North Van-
couver.

Gayle said the network planning
report should be completed and
presented to both North Van-
couver councils in December. Part

a hae: freon
TASK force member Waily Atkin-
son ...residents wil! need to make
more use of public transportation.

of that process will be to include
public input into the report, which,
Gayle said, was the reason for the
public information meeting.

The second part of the report
will deal with a transportation
master plan and will focus on how
to achieve some of the specific im-
provements identified in the first
part of the transportation study.

Gayle said it will be up to both
councils to decide what kind of a
transportation plan they want to
use to steer North Vancouver into
the future.

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

THREE WORKMEN hurry ta complete the exterior of a aew apartment building under construction in West

Vancouver.

NV City moves to freeze
rental suite demolitions

NORTH VANCOUVER City Council moved Monday to
support a six-month moratorium on the demolition of single
and multi-family rental housing in the city.

The motion comes just a week
after North Vancouver District
Council took similar emergency
measures and declared a one-year
moratorium on the demolition of
multi-family housing. The demoli-
tion freeze is made possible by
municipal emergency powers
detailed in Section 290 of the
Municipal Act.

In a related motion, council also
supported an initiative which
would see the Union of B.C.
Municipalities attempt to secure
from the province the power to
create a new rental accommoda-
tion zoning category.

According to 1986 census
Statistics, 64 per cent of city
dwellers are renters. Of a total
17,175 private dwellings, 10,920
were listed as rental dwellings. No
new rental housing has been con-
structed in the city since 1980.

By MICHAEL BECKER

Said city social planner Cheryl
Kathler: “‘A lot of builders will
build a strata building to ensure
that they can either rent them or
sell them. The game is for in-
vestors to maximize profit in as
quick a time as possible. Renters
don’t fit into that equation.”’

According to Kathler, much of
the city’s actual rental stock is in
the form of rented strata-title con-
dominium units. Of the city’s
4,283 1986 strata units, 1,911, or
45 per cent, were rented out by
their owners. ‘‘It’s considered as
part of the rental stock, but it’s
not secured,’’ Kathler said.

Kathler said the local rental
squeeze is part of a regional prob-
lem. ‘It’s been a crisis for some

‘PAVE WATERFRONT PARK’

North Van residents suggest ways
to improve local parking problems

NORTH VANCOUVER’S Waterfront Park. should be
turned into a parking lot, while the parking lot at Lions
Gate Hospital should be expanded.

Those were two of several rec-
ommendations a North Vancouver
City parking committee heard at a
recent public information meeting.

The city called the meeting in a
bid to hear ideas on how to solve
the problem of parking shortages
in several city areas, particularly
the Lower Lonsdale region, as well
as to make public the city’s Report
on Parking Policy.

Derwyn Owen, chairman of the
city’s parking committee, said the
Lower Lonsdale area is short be-
tween 900 and 1,000 parking

Business

Classified Ads. .
Comics.....-.......... 58
Dr. Ruth...............48
Editorial Page...........6

By SURJ RATTAN
Contributing Writer

Thomas Makris, a restaurant
owner in the Lower Lonsdale area,
suggested the city look to the
Waterfront Park as a means of
solving the parking problem in the
area.

“This park is not used at all by
people. There’s lots of parking
space there. This place (park) is
vital to North Vancouver because
the businesses are all there,’’ said
Makris.

Food..........0600656624
Bob Hunter............ 4
Lifestyles........

North Shore Now.......29
Sports................ 47

TV lListings............40
What's Going On........20

Second Class Registration Number 3885

time now. It has to be dealt with at
a regional level,’’ she said.

Ald. Barbara Sharp pushed for
the demolition moratorium. ‘‘The
intent is to have the provincial
government impose legislation to
do something about the housing
crisis. They have to increase fund-
ing for social housing. Even if we
give leased land for social! housing,
the developments still fall short,’’
she said. This motion is a step in
the right direction.””

But Ald. Rod Clark, who voted
against the motion, called the
council decision a ‘‘knee-jerk reac-
tion.””

“I’m vehemently opposed to
this,’ Clark said. ‘‘We’re saying
we're open for business and then
we close down at the eleventh
hour. I have a problem with
changing the rules half way
through the game. We’re just go-
ing to be saving a lot of substan-
dard buildings already slated for
demolition.’” ‘

He also said the city should
force the insurance Corporation of
B.C. (ICBC) to hand back a chunk
of parking it took away from the
Lonsdale Quay Market shortly
after the market was built.

‘““When the market was built

ICBC produced a lot of parking

spaces for that. Now ICBC has
taken that away. | don’t know how
they can do that... it’s like they
were playing a game with us,”’ said
Makris.

Ken Bassan, another Lower
Lonsdale businessman, agreed the
city should enforce the shared
parking agreement between ICBC

See North
Page 5

WEATHER

Wednesday, cloudy with
rain. Thursday, periods of
rain. Highs near 10°C.

7 "7

ee

a re re

feR at