3 - Sunday, October 8, 1989 - North Shore News

BUT NVD MAYOR NOT GIVING COMMITMENT AND SOME RESIDENTS OPPOSE SCHEME

Northlands golf course pl

A PROPOSAL to turn a
large piece of undeveloped
land near Mount Seymour
Parkway into a public golf
course was met with warm
enthusiasm by over 300
people whu packed a public
meeting on the issue Wed-
nesday night.

By SURJ RATTAN
Contributing W'riter

The North Shore Public Golf
Course Society (NSPGCS) hopes
to convince North Vancouver
District Council to turn the Nor-
thlands arca into an 18-hole public
golf course.

The Northlands area runs
roughly west from Mount Seymour
Road to the eastern boundary of
the former Blair rifle range.

North Vancouver District Mayor
Marilyn Baker told the meeting
that North Vancouver needs a
public golf course, but stopped
short of saying whether or not she
favors the Northlands site.

**You (NSPGCS) have my sup-
port and recognition that there
needs to be a public golf course in
the municipality,’’ Baker said.
“The question is how to proceed
with this.”’

Earlier this year James
Glassford, president of the
Boundary Ratepayers Association,
wrote council objecting to the
NSPGCS’s proposal for a golf
course at the Northlands site,
arguing that property values of the
homes in the area would drop as a
result.

But Baker told the News that it
is too early to be worried about the
issue of property values.

“The question of lowering or
raising property values is not
founded at this time,’’ she said.
“The question of locating a public
golf course here (district) is some-
thing the council must come to
grips with. Let’s have a look at ail
of the options and alternatives.”

The district hired J.J. Simons
and Company, a public consulting
firm, to look into all of the areas
where a public golf course could be
built on the North Shore.

That report is now complete

plauded

NEWS photo Tom Burley

APPROXIMATELY 300 people packed Windsor Secondary School this week to discuss the proposed !Jorthiands golf course at a public meeting.
Above, residents study maps of the 18-hole public golf course.

and is expected to be discussed by
council at its Oct. 23 regular coun-
cil meeting.

Don Davis, NSPGCS chairman,
said he was not happy that the
district’s pianning department told
the consulting firm to look at ail of
the areas on the North Shore suit-
able for 2 public golf course.

“They (planning department)
changed the rules on us,’’ Davis
said. ‘‘We (NSPGCS) were told to
come up with three proposals (for
a public golf course site). We gave
them (council) three proposals and
then they said ‘no, we’re going to
look all over the North Shore.’ ”

He added that as far as the
society is concerned, the Nor-
thlands site is the only suitable
location for a public golf course.

“This is the best land we have.

We don’t think that if we put it
there (Northlands) and moved a
few houses out that it would cause
@ problem because the same
amount of money (from municipal
taxes) would come in from a golf
course,’” Davis said.

He added that he would like to
see the district turn the society's
proposal into a centennial project
because that would ‘‘open so many
doors to us financially” in terms
of applying for government grants.

Davis also said he wouldn’t
mind if either the district or the
North Vancouver recreation centre
operated the golf course, as long as
it was located at the Northlands
site.

He also dismissed a suggestion
by the Boundary Ratepayers
Association that ‘‘golf courses can

be built on hills, rocky or mcun-
tainous terrain and hence on land
that is generally unsuited for hous-
ing developmeni.”’

Davis said such terrain would
result in ‘‘steeper pitches’? aad
would pose a problem for elderly
golfers who may not be used to
walking along steep terrain.

He added that while the society
had originally considered the
nearby Blair rifle range property as
a possible site for the golf course,
it soon rejected the idea because
the land was not flat enough.

Phillip Tattersfield, a NSPGCS
board member, admitted there
could be problems with golf balls
being hit into a school and some
new homes that are slated to be
built along side the proposed golf
course.

Concerns raised over foreign students in WV

PARENTS AND West Vancouver District 45 Schooi Board
officials raised concerns at a recent board meeting over the
increasing numbers of foreign students being educated in

the district.

Hong Kong and Japanese stu-
dents make up nearly ail of the
fee-paying foreign students in the
West Vancouver School District 45
this year, the board and parents
were.told.

The foreign students, not to be
confused with English as a Second
Language (ESL) or exchange siu-
dents, presently pay $5,500 tuition
per year, plus a $500 ‘‘finder’s
fee’’ for which the school district
arranges housing with a local fami-
jy, school superintendent Doug
Player said.

But Player also said he was con-
cerned about whether the board
should be in the business of
educating foreign students, and
whether the larger numbers of such
students might coalesce into cli-
ques and end up not mixing with
Canadian pupils.

Several parents expressed con-
cern about the low fees, the
district’s apparent concentration
on Asians, and the question of
teachers’ time being taken away
from Canadian students.

The rationale of the foreign stu-
dents program is to raise revenue
for the school district, (o boost
enrolment statistics, and to add an
international flavor to the student
body, Player said.

But he aiso pointed out that

By PATRICK RAYNARD
Contributing

North Vancouver and many other
school districts have no such pro-
gram.

DISTRICT 45 school superintend-
ent Doug Player ..."*In West Van-
couver at only $5,500 per (foreign)
student per year, some people feel
that we are not seriously in the
business.”*

In the U.S., of those school
districts that take foreign students,
some charge as much as 345,000

per student per year, though this
undertaking includes a guarantee
of an American university degree if
the student stays a minimum
number of years.

“‘In West Vancouver, at only
$5,500 per student per year, some
people feel that we are not serious-
fy in the business,’’ Player said
when one parent expressed the
opinion that the district should
charge several times that amount,
because Asian parents who can af-
ford to send their children overseas
to be educated are also likely able
to pay far more for tuition.

To send a Canadian child to a
good school in Japan would cost
the Canadian parents at least
$25,000 per school year, the board
was told.

The West Vancouver School
District presently spends about
$4,000 per year to educate each
resident student, board secretary-
treasurer John Cassey said.

Player, who became superin-
tendent fast summer, also ques-
tioned whether district schools
need the fee-paying foreign stu-
dents to provide an international
flavor.

“We certainly don’t at Sentinel
and Chartwell,"* he said. (At Sen-
tinel alone, one administrator told
the board, the number of ESL
students has risen from 39 to 7] in
the last year).

“If we bring in too many fee-
paying foreign students, they will
just stick together rather than mix

with the rest of the school, and
there will be little cultural inter-
change,’’ Player said.

Asked one parent, ‘‘Why are all
the foreign students from Asia,
and not from countries like France
or elsewhere in Europe?’’ to which
Player replied that the school
district. has cstablished an Asia-
Pacific initiative because of the
feeling that Asia is where B.C.’s
trade is increasingly going.

One educator present remarked
that most of the fee-paying Hong
Kong students in, West Vancouver
will eventually become residents
because the fear of the Communist
takeover of the colony is very
strong.

Several parents expressed con-
cern that the foreign students
could take a disproportionate
amount of teachers’ time, leaving
less for resident students, but
Player replied that the district has
hired agents in Hong Kong to
screen applicants for academic
standards and ability to function in
English.

Nevertheless, Player said, the
board will have to address the issue
of teacher and administrative time
the foreign students program is in-
creasingly demanding.

“My secretary spends at least an
hour a day on this,”’ he said.

West Vancouver Secondary
School has 16 fee-paying foreign
students this year, Sentinel Sec-
ondary has 12, and Chartwell
Elementary has one.

“On the first par five there is a
possibility of slicing into the
school, and I think that is a rea-
sonable possibility. On the second
par five there is a possibility of
slicing into some homes and we
will consider putting up some net-
ting,’’ Tattersfield said.

During the meeting the NSPGCS
signed up new members at a cost
of $5 a membership.

Davis, who expected to have a
total of about 1,000 members by
the end of the evening, said the
more members the society has, the
better its chances are at winning
political support for its proposal.

‘When you take a computer list
of 1,000 names, who have all paid
$5 each and show thai to a politi-
cian ... believe me, you will get
some consideration.’’

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