APPROXIMATELY 200 KEITH-Lynn _ residents gathered recently to share concerns over the passible development of a road and two parcels of land be- tween Drayton Street and Heywood Street just south of the Upper Levels High- way. By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter The meeting was organized after some residents raised fears that the district plans to allow the construction of non-profit housing on the two wooded lots, which are considered a recreation area by residents and provide a buffer strip between the neighborhood and the highway. Residents, who are after per- manent park designation for the undeveloped land, are also con- cerned that the district will follow through on the development of Salop Road, which is identified on district maps but not yet con- structed. The roa‘! would connect with Drayton Street near Brooksbank School and Brooksbank Avenue at Heywood. In addition to providing access to the lots, »shich are simply des- ignated M and N, the construc- tion of Salop Road would con- vert Drayton, Whitchurch, Calverhall, Adderly, Cloverley and Shavington streets from dead-end to through streets. Said Whitchurch Street resi- dent Alastair Dunn, a member of the newly-formed Keith-Lynn/ Brooksbank Community Association, ‘‘We've circulated a petition, A group of us went door to door and overwhelmingly the residents want no change at all. They’d like to sve that iand converted to undeveloped park land. Leave it just the way it is now and we'll be very happy.” Whitchurch resident Burt Cowan said a partial petition of the 750-home Keith-Ly:in area yielded approximately 350 signatures supporting a no- development position. Said Cowan, ‘‘The district is being very close-lipped about it. It’s a pretty woods. We’re just beginning to fight and fight we will.” According to Cowan, a com- REP 1 ae sae ALAN GILCHRIST walks a canine companion oto P through a wooded area near the end of rayton Road in North Vancouver. Keith-Lynn residents, living near the woods, fear the district has plans to put housing and a road in the area. Residents are pushing for park desig- nation. mittee of Keith-Lynn residents had planned to meet Monday and discuss the status of the undeveloped land with a district planner. But the meeting fell through. “On Friday he told John Cusano (a Keith-Lynn committee member) that he had been told not to attend the meeting,” Cowan said. North Vancouver District Ald. Ernie Crist attended the neighborhood meeting held earlier this month and advised residents that no firm develop- ment plans have been set for the area. But he said, “The planning department has been charged with drawing up a community plan for Keith-Lynn, It’s a pro- cess. The social planner of course is always looking for suitable land for non-profit housing, so he obviously has been eyeing that land.” According to Crist, council will be considering the Lynnmour Official Comunity Plan, a plan which includes the Keith-Lynn area, some time in the fall. The fledgling Keith-Lynn/ Brooksbank Community Association will meet to elect of- ficers and discuss the issue with municipal officials 7 p.m., May 2 at Brooksbank School. Council axes tree felling NORTH VANCOUVER District Parks staff will fell no more trees along Mountain Highway until district council gets a detailed report on which trees are scheduled for the axe, which are scheduled for replanting and why. On April 17, 23 linden trees were cut down without prior warning to residents along the street fronting the area. As chronicled in the April 20 News, district policy stipulates that res- idents be issued notification prior to tree cutting. The linden and chestnut trees on Mountain Highway have been assessed by parks staff, in con- sultation with an independent tree consultant, as having exten- sive decay and core rot com- pounded by utility companies’ Proposed WV From page 1 school in the western part of West Vancouver came up repeatedly to loud and long applause. Kathleen Matthews, @ resident By MARTIN MILLERCHIP Contributing Writer line clearing. Prior to the April 17 cutting, there were 30 trees on the west side of Mountain Highway. The trees are scheduled to be replaced with 42 flowering plums. On the street’s east side, 14 chestnut, maple and oak trees are scheduled to be replaced with flowering cherries. News that oak trees will be replanted in Kilmer Park per- NORTH VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL suaded council to go further than organize a meeting to explain the felling and replanting program to residents. Council decided to defer all action until a complete report on the boulevard tree maintenance program, approved in the 1989 budget, is available. Said Mayor Marilyn Baker, ‘‘I was not aware, and I don’t think council was aware, of the extent of the tree removal in a program that was to include pruning, trimming and shaping of existing healthy trees."’ 3 - Wednesday, April 25, 1990 - North Shore News NVD Council prepares way for Cates area, mudflat parks OFFICIAL COMMUNITY PLAN ENVIRONMENTAL repercussions from Sunday’s world- wide Earth Day celebrations were felt at Monday night’s North Vancouver District Council meeting as surprising changes were made to the municipality’s draft Official Community Plan (OCP). In successive 5-1 votes (Ald. Murray Dykeman was _ abseni), council agreed to direct staff to draft the changes necessary to des- ignate the lands west of Cates Park as Parks and Open Space and the Maplewood Mudflats as Conserva- tion Area. The moves were unexpected because the review committees for both areas had made different rec- ommendations. The Cates Park Extension Review Committee had recom- mended that the OCP remain as currently drafted, while the Maplewood Review Committee had recommended that the mudflats be designated as Area Under Review. The review committees were struck last year when the OCP public hearing was adjourned in- definitely to provide closer exami- nation of the community’s wishes for the Cates and Maplewood areas as well as the Seymour-Lynn Inter-River area and a transporta- tion study. Council has already passed land-use resolutions for the In- ter-River area and resolutions for the ‘‘Best Network’’ plan of the North Vancouver Transportation Study, but planning staff have been anxiously awaiting an oppor- tunity to restart the OCP bylaw process in the hopes of receiving a provincial planning grant of $20,000 if the plan is adopted in the first half of 1990. Referring to the Cates Park ex- tension, Mayor Marilyn Baker said, ‘It’s my belief that a long- term designation of park-inten- tioned use in the Cates Park area to the west is appropriate. It does not stop the continued industrial zoning in use, but it does indicate in the long term that if there is to be any changes it is to go to park.”’ Both council and the Maplewood Review Committee have been waiting since October for a reply from the federal Ministry of the Environment on updating its 1975 study of the mudflats. A letter from Environment Minister Lucien Bouchard was fi- nally received March 20 after the review committee’s recommmenda- tion was tabled. Bouchard’s letter stated that since the ‘75 study ‘‘industrial ex- pansion elsewhere in Burrard Inlet has reduced natural foreshore areas, but left the mudflats largely untouched. As a_ reult, their significance has increased con- siderably. Updating the 1975 study would, therefore, only confirm what is already known. Environ- ment Canada considers the Maplewood foreshore to be an important natural feature of Bur- By MARTIN MILLERCHIP Wi NORTH VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL. rard Inlet, especially as it is the last major mudflat habitat that can be used by migratory birds wintering around Vancouver Harbor.”’ BE I NORTH Vancouver District Mayor Marilyn Baker ...park use appropriate. Ald. Ernie Crist described Bouchard’s letter as ‘‘positive and encouraging,’’ while characterizing the proposed designation of “Under Review” for the mudflats as ‘‘wishy-washy’’. District municipal planner Jim Masterton confirmed to Mayor Baker that there were no guaran- tees that the ‘‘Under Review”’ des- ignation would mean no develop- ment without a public hearing. Crist then proposed a motion that ‘‘This area be declared a Con- servation Area, and that this be conveyed to the Minister of the Environment and the Vancouver Port Corp. (VPC) and reflected in the OCP.”’ The VPC is the owner of the uplands next to the Mapiewood foreshore and there is some ques- tion as to whether it is bound by the municipal planning process. But Ald. Joan Gadsby said, ‘‘It sends a clear signal to the Van- couver Port Corp. on what we re- ally wish to see there.’” Ald. Craig Clark opposed the park and conservation designa- tions. He said that going against the recommendations of the review committees made their work ‘‘ab- solutely pointiess.’’ There will be an ail-day open house at district hall on Saturday, May 26 to allow the public to discuss the redrafted OCP before being asked for formal comment at a new public hearing, which will follow on June 12 and 13. school plan would displace preschoolers, parents claim Martin Roberts chastised the of Gleneagles, told the gathering that “too many facilities are located in the central core. We Must start to spend tax dollars and school dollars in the western part of the municipality. “*We need a high school on the Caulfeild Plateau.** Ery! Baker echoed Matthews’ remarks that Eagle Harbour should be retained as a community facility, adding that an elementary school would be built there as well. “West Van doesn’t end at Stong’s,’’ Baker said, referring to the grocery store at Dundarave. “We in the west don’t even have sidewalks.”’ board for its ‘‘cavalier attitude with the use of our fands,’’ adding that it was wrong to demolish Hillside and carve the property up for housing.