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NORTH VANCOUVER

leveloper

woos council
with tenant
subsidies

A NORTH Vancouver City developer has offered ‘o do

_ everything but supply its tenants beer for moving day, in an

effort to make the demolition of 28 Central Lonsdale rental
suites palatable to residents and North Vancouver City

Council members.

MacLean Management  Ltd.’s
proposal to build a 14-storey
highrise development near Eastern
Avenue and 15th Street, with
two-bedrcom suites ranging
around $170,000, came to council
with a proposed agreement te help
relocate tenants, pay moving
assistance, and subsidize some of
the relocated renters for a period
of three years.

Architect Tom Morten, a repre-
sentative for MacLean, defended
the company, saying it was not a
“‘parachute developer’ and has
been managing and developing
rental accommodation in North
Vancouver for 15 years,

“I'm a home builder, not a
home wrecker,’ said Morton.

Under MacLean’s proposal, the
company recognizes a commitment
to tenants who have been in the
building over two years by paying
the difference in rental costs ‘‘to
(the level of) market rent’’, and
then gradually phasing the subsidy
out over three years.

Morton said tenants currently
paying $300 in the MacLean’s
building might be subsidized for a
market rent of $500 in their new
rental accommodation.

There are currently cight or nine
tenants (out of 28) who have lived
in the building for more than two
years, he said.

- Ald. Bill Bell said he was pleased
with the developer's efforts.

“I find the way you’re dealing
with the renters very innovative,”’
Bell said. ‘*} wish other developers
would take this approach as well.”

But further reduction of avail-
able and affordable rental housing
has been a topic of concern in
North Vancouver for months.

Morton said his company would
not be including any rental units in
the 14storey building because a
study initiated by MacLean had
‘indicated that rental units would
be uneconomical.

He said it would cost the com-

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By CORINNE BJORGE
Contributing Writer

pany almost $1,450 per month to
rent the units, a cost that would
then have to be passed on to te-
nants, “und that’s not affordable
housing.”’

Morton said the city should not
look to developers for a sclution to
the rental housing crunch.

“Council should try and come
up with some means and en-
courage thc: building of new rental
accommod::tion,’’ said Morton.

He suggei:2d that by developing
city land for rental housing, the
cost of the land would not have to
be passed or: to the tenants.

But Ald. “rank Morris warned
against the cy concentrating soley
on new rental development, saying
the issue was also one of affor-
dability. .

“The rental structure for those
renting in new buildings will be
phenomenally higher than for
those renting old ones,’’ he said.

In a‘previous ccuncil meeting,
Morris had pointed to a provincial
proposal under discussion that
would reward developers for build-
ing rental housing in an effort to
increase affordable housing in the
province.

Several residents speaking at the
public meeting also said tiey were
concerned about view blockage
from the proposed highrise.

But city development services
planner Frank Ducote pointed out
that the proposed development is
in line with the recently approved
changes to the Official Community
Plana.

The rezoning bylaw that would
allow the construction of the 14-
storey building is currently in se-
cond reading. If the bylaw passes
at the next council meeting, te-
nants could be asked to leave by
the end of November.

Sunday, cloudy vith a chance.
of showers. Monday and
Tuesday, mostly cloudy with a
few showers. Highs near

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SANNIS SUBDIVISION —
Agreement reached
between Caulfeild

residents, developer

AN UNEASY agreement has been reached between a group
of disgruntled Caulfeild plateau residents and Sannis De-
velopments, the company eager to begin phase two of its

Sannis subdivision.

“I think we’ve got as good a
deal as we’re going to from this
developer,’? area resident Jill
Mingay said.

Mingay made her comment after
the Aug. 14 reconvened West Van-
couver District Council meeting at
which council approved the
greenbelt required and set aside for
the subdivision.

Residents of the project’s phase
one and developers had met on
several previous occasions to try to
iron out an agreeable layout for
the project’s phase two.

The problems stemmed primari-
ly from the fact that phase-one
houses were buiit on top of land
set out for phase-one greenbelt and
the amount: of greenbelt required
by the land-use contract for the
area was not provided.

At the urging of municipal staff,
Sannis agreed to add extra land in-
to the greenbelt provided for
phases two and three of the pro-
ject.

“I just don’t think it is fair that
they’re gcize to put it somewhere
else where ze won’i benefit from
it," Mingay said.

She and her neighbors will be
deeded ‘some 45 per cent of the
50-foot wide greenbelt strip allow-
ed between their homes and the
seven phase-two homes being con-
structed behind them, but the strip
consists of sheer rock cliff with
marginal ability for supporting
growth.

According to West Vancouver’s
director of. operations Barry
Lambert, the purpose of greenbelt
is to have land within the devel-
opment retained in its natural
state, which in this case is “rocky
cliff with some trees.’

Mingay and her neighbors were
eventually satisfied enough to sign
a letter of intent from Sannis
stating that the developer would
remove dangerous rocks and debris
(resulting from blasting), construct
a safety fence, warn them of
blasting, and spend up to $10,000
on planting screening material to
protect their privacy from the new
homes above.

But Ald. Carol Ann Reynolds
was far from pleased with the de-
veloper’s plans and calied for

By MAUREEN CURTIS
Contributing Writer

municipal action to stop more of
the overcrowded and trec-denuded
development that characterizes the
plateau.

“I’m looking at the bigger pic-
ture,’’ she said. ‘‘There are still
some 50 per cent of these lots yet
to be developed.’

The rest of council, (Ald. Andy
Danyliu absent) ignored Reynolds
and went along with Ald. Rod
Day’s statement made earlier that

WEST Vancouver Aid. Carol Ann
Reynolds ...“‘The rape of Caulfeild
is a disaster that we can’t just lie
back and take.’*

evening that phase one, for better
or worse, was done with, and that
it was time to ‘‘get on with’ the
separate matter of phase two.

But Reynolds argued that phase
one’s lack of greenbelt made the
developer ‘‘in default’’ of the con-
tract, and, added to the lack of
water in the area, she said legal
counsel might be able to find a
way out of the municipality’s
agreement with Sannis and push
for a more amenable layout.

“The rape of Caulfeild is a
disaster that we can’t just lie back
and take, she said.””

Reynolds said council should
develop bylaws that could have an

effect on the Sannis subdivision,
“so we don’t have to huve these
seven houses, cheek by jowl.””

But speaking for Sannis, land
surveyor Bill Chapman pointed out
that the 11,000 square metres being
set aside as greenbelt for phases
two and three, including the
forgoticen 1,035 square metres
from phase one, constitute somé
23 per cent of the land included in
phases two and three.

“Ordinarily, a developer is ex-
pected to donate only five per cent
of the development as park fand,’’
Chapman said.

But Reynolds said because de-
velopers are permitted to include
the greenbelt provision in the
calculation of the floor-area ratio
the snunicipality ends up with
larger homes on smaller lots.

She was also upset that neither
Chapman nor municipal staff were
able to give her exact figures for
the amount of greenbelt owing
phase one and how much is being
added into the project’s next two
phases to make up for that lost
greenbelt,

Chapman said he was not the
surveyor for phase one, and West

Vancouver municipal manager —

Terry Lester invited people to
calculate: the amount from the

_ schematic drawing provided.

“But we are getting that
greenbelt in phase two and three,’’
he said. : .

The reason provision of the
earlier steenbelt was omitted from
phase one construction remains
unclear.

“We can only assume that Mr.
Walker (former director of opera-
tions and approving officer) made
a decision that the phase-one
greenbelt should not be there but
be included in with phase two and
three’s,’’ Lester said. —

On the basis of what is now
perceived as a grave error, resident
Ronald Wilson was concerned that
similar mistakes might occur in
future Caulfeild Plateau, develop-
ment.

“It doesn’t necessarily inean
that it conld happen again but that
something can be done to prevent
it from happening,” said Ald.
Alex Brokenshire. : .

He said that any further changes
regarding development and the
land-use contract for the area
would be subjected to ‘timpeccable
scrutiny.’’

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