Stopgap scl -EVERYBODY agreed at a Tuesday night public hearing that a. solution to the overcrowding at Dorothy Lynas elementary school had to be found. But not everybody was in favor of the short-term proposal ad- vanced by North Vancouver School District 44 and the St. Pius X Parish. The hearing into the proposed siting of an eight-classroom elementary schoo! at 1150 Mount Seymour Rd. drew. a standing ‘room crowd of East Seymour ’ parents and local neighbors. If the proposal is approved, District 44 will lease the school that St. Pius X will build until the population ‘‘blip’? of elementary school children moves up into the secondary school level. St. Pius X will then operate its + .own Catholic elementary school in * the facility. - | "District 44 board chairman Don “. Bell told the hearing that the eight classrooms will operate. as an an- nex to Dorothy Lynas, handling kindergarten to Grade 3, and possibly -Grade 4 pupils, drawn from the area. ; -But he reassured parents that siblings would; not be separated “under the plan. | In addition to the eight " elassrooms, the new school would ‘accommodate a subrary, offices, GV plans to regional By Martin Millerchip Contributing Writer an adventure play area and an all-weather playing field. The existing church hall will provide a gymnasium. But asked local resident Margaret West, ‘“‘If the school board has funds for a school, why put it into a band-aid type solu- tion that it will walk away from?” Bell said the schoo! board had been exploring other site options since 1991, including the future secondary school site in the Northlands area. But drainage costs of $% mil- lion on that site, coupled with the fact that all structures would eventually have to be removed to make way for a senior school, made the Pius X offer with its built-in gymnasium the timeliest and most financially attractive of- fer. “Tt will not be a substandard school in any way. ft will fit our needs. It will be a good school,” said Bell. The proposal was seen as a solution to the overcrowding at rethinks change powers » Municipal backlash to amendment . THE GREATER Vancouver - Regional. District (GVRD) “has. been forced to modify its -vision for a_ regional transportation ‘and land-use .- plan after many GVRD- “member. municipalities balked at its contents. - ‘By Cheryi Ziola * Contributing Writer ' Local -governments on the North Shore and elsewhere in the “Lower Mainland feared that the ~GVRD. plan would usurp tradi- tional municipal powers over, such areas as zoning, planning and de- - velopment ‘if the original plan was ‘adopted, “In: the::March’ 7 ‘North Shore oi ‘News, North Vancouver District _ Coun, Ernie Crist called the orig- “inal plan a ‘‘blatant power grab.’’ At the heart of the controversy “was the GVRD’s objective to seek an ‘amendment to the Municipal “Act to allow the GYRD to impose its {ransportation and’ land-use plans on municipalities. The amendment would have re- quired official community plans ‘drafted by municipal governments to conform to GVRD goals, But as a result of municipal, backlash to the proposed amend- §& High Profiles §% Horoscopes. hi We've seen the future and it’s Los Angeles. 99 —Delta Mayor Beth Johnson ment, the GVRD will instead seck a voluntary partnership with its 18-member municipalities to achieve regional goals. And while a municipality’s of- ficial community plan may not reflect GVRD° regional... desires, GVRD strategic planning manager Ken Cameron reassured municipalities that the GVRD would work together in a non- binding way to resolve their dif ferences, The recently proposed changes were heard at a Wednesday, March 10, meeting of the GVRD’s Strategic planning committee meeting at which mayors and councillors of various municipalities gathered to discuss the new plan. The GVRD first began looking at a regional plan in July 1990 in See Committee page 5 Lifestyles 8 Okanagan Feature i Travel i Vintage Years @ What's Going On Weather Monday, mostly cloudy with showers. Highs 10°C. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 0087238 NORTH VANCOUVER | DISTRICT COUNGIL Dorothy Lynas by many. who spoke. “You have to have this school. You can’t imagine what it’s like having 650 children going to a school built for 350," said Joan Viner. According to Julie Kevilovski, representing’ the Facilities Com- mittee of the Ecole Dorothy Lynas School Association, 587 children are currently enrolled at Dorothy Lynas, with two classes occupying the multi-purpose room and a portion of the playing field covered with eight portable classrooms. There are four additional classrooms under construction, but September 1993 enrolment is projected to be 630 children, who will stil! fill six portables and the multi-purpose room. Enrolment projections for 1994 are estimated to be 666 children. This severe overcrowding has a negative impact on the learning evironment for these students,” said Kevilovski. But Brockton Crescent area res- idents were not thrilled at the pro- spect.of a school being parachuted into their neighborhood. Sunday, March 14, 1993 - North Shore News - 3 Bill Tracey said everybody in the area wanied to see the Dorothy Lynas overcrowding issue resolved, but he asked North Vancouver District Council to consider whether the Pius X site was appropriate. Besides what they see as a ‘‘waste”’ of tax dollars on a tem- porary school,, many Brockton Crescent residents oppose the ac- cess plans for the site, which route all school pickup and drop-off traffic through their neighbor- hood. . The residents said a safer traffic pattern could be established through eastern access to the site off Mount Seymour Road. Such access would come through what is now a buffer strip of provincial parkland and would involve some tree loss. Tracey also asked whether a restrictive covenant could be placed on the land that would limit future school use by the parish to no more than the Grade 7 level. Stephen O'Neill, chairman of the St. Piux X Parish building committee, told the News that it was not within the siting process to limit use, but he said that it was not physically possible to add any more classrooms in the future without obtaining further - siting ool proposal hits controversy Seymour-area church site suggested as solution to Dorothy Lynas overflow permission. O’Nei!l said approval in princi- ple on the lease of the property had been reached between the parish and Victoria. He refused to specify the value of the lease but said that it was “substantially less than $2 mil- lion.”” He did, however, reveal that the length of the lease was one year longer than that contained in the staff report prepared for council. The most recent planning report available to council and the public states that the school would be teased io District 44 for five years with a possible two-year exten- sion. But O’Naill told the News the lease would be six years with a possible two-year extension. He defended the economics of the proposal and insisted that the value of the lease represented ‘‘an economic way to go. compared against a portable facility on tem- porary land.”” Council asked for a staff report on all items raised: at the public hearing, including the possibilities provided by a. school site in the Cove Cliff area. . O'Neill told the News that the project could only be delayed two weeks if a September opening was tobemet. — NEWS photo Mike Wakefiald F irefighter challenge WEST VANCOUVER firefighters want to challenge North Vancouver ‘City and District firefighters for pledges in ‘the second annual Super Cities Walk for Multiple: Sclerosis. Gord McLennan (centre) and (background, left to right) Mike Mullin, Jay Brownlee and George Shephard all plan to take part in the March 28 event. People wishing to make pledges can drop by any West Vancouver fire station. Police save suspected | car thief TWIGS, THORNY bramble and the helping hand of the police officer who was chasing him recently saved a car- theft suspect from a 40-foot (12 m) fall down a rock face in West Vancouver. According to a West Vancouver Police spokesman, the chase began on Sunday, March 7, at 1:56 p.m. after a Richmond man watched thieves drive off in his 1985 Toyota van from a parking area at the rear of Park Royal Shopping Centre’s south mall. About three minutes after the theft was reported to the police, investigating officers saw the stolen van travelling west in the 1800-block of Marine Drive. A pursuing police car attempted unsuccessfully to pull the speeding vehicle over. By Michael Becker News Reporter a The suspects eventually aban- -doned the Toyota in the 3700- block of Creery Avenue in the West Bay area. Following a foot chase, the police arrested the driver of the stolen van in the 400-block of : Marine Drive. But in a wild attempt to elude the police, the 17-year-old pas- senger of the van jumped over a rock face. He grabbed onto bush and’ ‘twigs to avoid falling down. the cliff to BC Rail tracks below. A West Vancouver Police cor- poral secured himself. to a wire fence and hung over the rock face edge, where he was eventually able to hold onto the dangling teen. The corporal and the suspect were subsequently pulled to safety by other police at the scene. The driver of the stolen van now faces charges of theft over $1,000, possession of stolen prop- erty over $1,000 and dangerous driving. The passenger of the stolen vehicle faces charges of theft over ." $1,000 and possession of stolen ; property.