6 — Wednesday, September 14, 1988 - North Shore News am offi, WIOMent Of cm, ft mae — BW CPG Caa INSIGHTS sum WERE aoE We W over twin towers caper THE DUST WILL TAKE SOME TIME to settle following the report of David Bakeweil’s task force on the twin towers project at 320 Taylor Way. It’s NOT the story of West Van council’s finest hour. The 12-member task force, set up two months ago by Mayor Don Lanskai! in response to public out- ery, examined the handling of the controversial lease agreement with the developer, Newcorp, up to that point. Its strictly factual findings, though restrained in language, paint a picture of apparent over- sights, lax attention to detail and departures from established guidelines by council members and municipal staff. The report, submitted last weckend, reveals the following: * Council granted Newcorp its 99-year lease in May before secing any detailed drawings. It saw only concept sketches. ® Council ignored a guideline calling for it to give ‘‘serious con- sideration to the merits of pro- posals over a wide range of lesser densities’. [ts 1987 ad calling for tenders indicated no interest in lower-density proposals, * As the concept stands at the moment, the Floor Area Ratio is 15 per cent or more in excess of the 1.75 guideline. Other departures from the guidelines are reduced setbacks and towers some 30 feet higher than the 180 ft. Kapilano 100 building — which the task force says should be the absolute maximum. © “Some doubt" also exists as to whether Newcarp is even obligated to build a second tower (there have been conjectures that it might simply ‘‘flip’’ that property to a third party). ® Despite rosy council estimates, final costs of site clearing and the 6th St. underpass are still unknown and should have been borne by the developer. ¢ For rent, council so far holds two revocable Letters of Credit totalling $1 million. It should have required IRREVOCABLE Letters of Credit, says the task force — which also notes that usual clauses on landlord rights in the event of developer bankruptcy are omitted from the lease. Much more in similar vein. Too little time (under eight weeks) for tendering. No prior view impact studies. Lack of an accurate traffic survey base. The task force stops just short of saying nothing was done right but it's hard to escape that impression. So what next? The majority report does not call for council to risk a costly lawsuit by reneging on its binding agreement — although a minority report by Tom Reid DOES urge it to ‘‘pay off the applicant's ex- penses”’ and return to Square One. Meanwhile, council has mailed to all West Van residents its own special report, which predictably presents a cheerful, soothing ver- sion of events. Task force chairman Bakewell sees council — given enough guts — as still being in control through the development permit process. Guided by the Advisory Design Panel, it CAN dictate exactly what Destroy PCBs HE KNOWLEDGE highly toxic PCBs Shore has caused that hundreds of litres of are stored on the North widespread alarm in the is built. If Newcorp can’t comply, that’s ITS problem, lease or no lease. Municipal Manager Terry Lester has suggested that council would “not be unreasonable”’ to Newcorp. Today, council members who value their political hides might be smart to disagree. Their sole duty is to West Van — to get a ‘‘gateway’’ the community can live with — and if this means being “unreasonable’’ to Newcorp, tough luck. That’s the loud, clear message they can expect at next Monday’s public meeting in West Van Senior Secondary School. The nasty alternative being to buy out of the lease with tax- Payers’ money! eos € IN LIGHTER VEIN: Interior de- signer Heidi Holmer tells you about the effects of ‘“‘Color in the Home”’ next Monday, Sept. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Seycove Library ... Unusual art exhibit this month at NV District Hall, 355 West Queens, is Ursulas Medley’s masks and caricatures ... NV City firefighters’ culinary skills get a big hand over at Vancouver General Hospital Burn Unit — to which they donated their prize money won in the summer Clam Chowder Contest ... And 54th anniversary greetings tomorrow, Sept. 15, to North Van’s Jim and Dona Morgan. ae en WRIGHT OR WRONG: Wisdom starts with disillusionment. Photo submitted FRESHEST FACES in West Van Potice Dept. ...1988 Police Academy grads (i-r) Wayne Giesbrecht, Doug Buchanan, Jeff Young, Dave Thomson. Cst. Giesbrecht also won the Oliver Taomson Award for top physical fitness in his class. YAR CAMAe Cpoart ul a wh ev community — and righily so. The locations and amounts of stored PCBs were released in a federal government inventory last week after the St-Basile-le-Grand disaster in Quebec. The federal government disclosed that there are 279 storage sites in B.C. containing more than 282,000 litres of the extremely dangerous PCBs — seven sites are located on the North Shore. Ottawa plans to end the use of PCBs in Canada within five years and to tighten regulations for storage of the toxic chemical. The provincial government announced if would conduct on-site inspections of facilities with more than 100 litres of PCBs. The efforts of the governments are laudable yet they are not enough. AH traces of the chemical must be destroyed as quickly as possible. In the meantime, the two governments should work together to monitor all PCB sites. The St-Basile-le-Grand disaster has finally opened the government’s — and the public’s — cyes to the hazards of PCBs. It is up to the public to ensure that the government does not use half measures to rid the environment of those hazards. 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 Display Advertising Classitied Advertising Newsroom Distribution a Subscriptions + FRIDAY . Peter Speck Managing Editor Barret! Fisher Associate Editor .. Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart North Shore News, tounded in 1969 as an independent subutban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111. Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, ts published each Wednesday, Fiiday and Sunday oy Narth Snore Free Press Ltd and atstributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885 Subsenptons Motth and West Vancouver, $25 per year 59,170 (average, Wednesday Mailing rates available on request. 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