Sui

THE KNIG HTS of the

_ White Picket Fence are gird
‘ing again for battle in a war
they can never win — at any

-Fate not in the Lower
- Mainland.

hat After, years of dithering and shak-

‘ing 0 over “illegal” suites North ‘Van
_: District Council has once more

/ eaved in to the NIMBY (Not-In-My-

; Backyard) lobby. It recently defeated ,

a motion by Coun. Emie Crist to
’ . legalize secondary suites in single-
family zones subject to rules regard-
: ing off-street parking, size, number
’ * per house and owner residence. . '
‘ Instead —‘on an issue that has ‘
been fruitlessly studied to'death .
‘since the late 780s — council will.
-blow a further $9,000 of public.
money for yet another study “t
“develop information relating to the.
“costs, regulation and use of sec-

ondary suites.”

‘mer mayor Marilyn Baker. who
viewed suites occupied by other:

* than the owner’ 5 kith ‘and kin as a
terminal social ‘cancer threatening |
the entire community.-So Marilyn _,
ordered naughty homeowners to:
Tegister and pay for continuing to ’

“ sin until-1995 — after which their’ 7

suites would be finally closed
down. 3."

. “Unfortunately, since 1988 only
“297, of the estimated 4,000 or more :
-vaffected homeowners have accepted
her invitation to self-destruct.
“Nothing short of an army of jack-

_ boots knocking on doors i in the -

Boug Foot
, Compirciier
905-2151 (1933) .

"Publisher « Boy
985-2131 (yt)

1139 Lonsdale Avenue”

North Vancouver B.C.
: “V7M 2H4
North Shore’ Managed.

yy

,

IT Works DKE THIS,
INSTEAD OF PAYING THE
ENIRY FEE AT THE
BORDER , Roger WiLL. +
HURL You ino AMERICA

Noel .
Wright /

and yon

night. —with a bill of millions for
taxpayers —- can uncover the other
93%. Efforts ’to register “illegal”

’ suites have already cost $200,000.

And what 'to do now about the 297
who were too honest for.their own
good?

“No matter — stop densifica-
- tion!” is the battle cry of the single-
~ family-zone warriors. With or with-

“gut a white picket fence, the neat

/50-foot lot and freestanding rancher
~gecupied only by those of shared
‘blood is the rock on which North
American civilization is built.

- True once, but not for much
longer in a metropolis like Greater
Vancouver —~ bursting at the seams
with new arrivals every week, and
where real estate prices, bloated by
middle-aged Baby Boomers, are
now far beyond reach of most of
the Generation X-ers following
them. And if young adults raised in

_ North Van can today never hope to

Chris Jchnson
Operations Manager
985-2131 (141)

Timothy Renshaw

PERE ede Ai

“ent col

ORTH

Coun. Ernie Crist's

secret, has been

program of illegal suites.

te nonsense

; buy a traditional single-family
home here, who WILL buy those
homes, once their present aging
owners need to offload them?

Newcomers from the Pacific
Rim, of course, Remember, too,
how many Asian buyers prefer to
tear down modest villas and rebuild
with massive lot-size edifices for a
dozen or more family members.

Whether we're talking highrise
condos, townhomes, monster hous-
es for new immigrants or today’s
no-trouble old couple in the base-
ment, densification is already here
—- and more is on its.way ata gai-
lop.

So go easy on our 12,000-
14,000 individual neighbors in
North Van District — half of them
tenants, half homeowners crucially
in need of help with their mort-
gages — who now rate as technical-
ly “iNegal.”

Densification in North Van over
the next decade or so will make
them look—in retrospect—more
like omaments than threats to the
White Picket Fence.

MANY HAPPY returns of
Tuesday, Feb, 28, to News

Classified Manager Val
Stephenson ... And ditto (sort of) to
West Van’s Irene Little — whose
next real birthday ‘faiis'on Zeb. 29,
1996! «

WRIGHT OR WRONG: When
the Lord gave us the Ten :
Commandments, He made no men-
tion of amendments.

Managing Editor zi
985-2131 (116)

VANCOUVER
Council's secondary suites compro-
mise has served nobody well.

Rather than make things fairer for more
people, it has penalized the honest suite
operator and threatened low-income earn-
ers with eviction and dislocation.
move to legalize sec-
ondary suites in the district should have
been approved, not put on hold, as it was ‘at
district council’s Feb, 13 meeting. Crisi’s
statement that secondary suites “are a fact
of life” is right on target. But in the district
that fact, like an embarrassing family
shuffled off to back closets
where it is seen but not heard.

The district took a half-hearted swing at
solving the secondary suite issue back in
1988 when it initiated a voluntary sign-up

Linda Stewart -
Sales & Marketing Director
980-0541 (319)

District
the district.

Second suite
unregistered

scrutiny.

Secondary

SMM AE AUR cd NIN Ga WIRES Le REY ARRON OS

Under the program, suite owners paid to
have their suites inspected and registered by
They were also saddled with
additional water and sewage service fees.

owners who. chose. to remain
were spared these fees and

continued merrily along renting out their
suites free of buresucratic red tape and

Honesty turned out to be fer from the best
policy. And the district's indecision on the
issue has cost the municipality dearly: at
least $200,000 alone to cover the administra-
tion of attempting to register illegal suites.

suites remain:a much-needed :

form of cheap accommodation for a lot of...

only solution.

quotes of the

“We're not anti-teacher. We’re
anti-monopoly.”

Charter schools advocate Neil
Godin, speaking at a meeting in
North Vancouver promoting the
idca of establishing alternatives for
public education in British
Columbia. (From a Feb, 19 North
Shore News story.)

“I think they are avoiding
alarming the public, It’s ostrich —
tactics.” |

Watershed historian Will Koop,
on the Greater Vancouver Regional
District’s attitude to logging old-
growth timber in the Lower :
Mainland watersheds. (From a Feb.
22 North Shore News story.)

“Dve aged about 10 years in .
that year.”

North Vancouver City Coun.
Darrell Mussatto, who campaigned
on a youth platform to get elected

sin North Vancouver, City, on the

tonic effect of a year in municipal

mailbox

Dear Editor:

people, They cannot be legislated away. Full
legalization of secondary suites, subject to
some basic residential requirements, is the

week

politics. (From a Feb: 22 North
Shore News story.) ~

“T have as much right asthe |
next retailer to both advertise
and display my products...”
Firearms are legal. it’s not as if 1.
am trying to display pornogra- ..
phy or luring children into alife .
of crime.”

Gail Branson, manager of -«
Castle Armoury Ltd., on her right
to sell guns in North Vancouver :
District. (From a‘ Feb. 19 North.
Shore News story. }

“Do you have the right to take :
away the thrill of a little boy buy-°.
ing his first rifle with his father
and mother?”

Don Eddington, to North ;
Vancouver District Council during
debate over restricting the opening" ~
of gun shops in North Vancouver: *;
District. (From a Feb. 19 Novth..
Shore News story. Jules

The obvious misuse of funds and assets of Capilano College as reported °
in your.Feb. {2 edition is alarming and should not be allowed any white-."-

- washing treatment by college officials or their NDP supporters in Victoria.

The comments of college board chairman. Robin Wilson, were also.

« shocking when she considers the funds to be:“‘well managed.”.

Obviously a complete exposé should be made under the e provincial audi- °

tor’s jurisdiction.
Fred L. MacDonald '
West Vancouver

Peter Kvarnstrom
Display Manager
$80-0511 (103}

‘Valorie Stephenson Trixi Agrios -
Classified Manager |
986-6222 (202) '

Promotions Manager
985-21 31 qi 37)

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