NEWS photo Neil Lucente A WEST Vancouver Rebel heads down-court with the ball as a couple of Lynn Valley Hawks regroup behind him during a game at the recent North Shore Indoor Soccer Tournament held at Sutherland Secondary Schoo!. The tourney was co-sponsored by the News and Crest Realty. NV City underlines reasons why it opposes OPPOSITION TO Neptune Bulk Termi- nals’ proposed expansion and complaints of a review process that is ‘‘arguably not a valid and worthwhile process’’ were outlin- ed in North Vancouver City’s written sub- mission to the Vancouver Port Corp.’s (VPC) public review panel hearings inte the expansion proposal. By Pamela Lang Contributing Writer City council rejected Neptune’s application twice in the past two years, refusing to rezone the property to allow construction of Neptune’s proposed $24- million potash storage facility. The first application was rejected after a public hearing, and the second was rejected when the city realized it would have no assurances that its en- vironmental concerns would be addressed, accorc:ing to the city submission. Five fundamental reasons for the city’s opposition to VPC approving the application were outlined: 1) The authors had a number of concerns about the Environmental Appraisal Document (EAD) for the shed project, including: e disagreement with the EAD statement that the project complies with municipal objeciiv.:s; Shed boosters cite front From page 4 Association. Playle_ criticized North Van- Foreman Employers’ shed expansion NORTH VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL ethe lack of any reference to a development agreement prepared by the city to address ‘‘en- vironmental standards, compliance, mitigation and compensation, monitoring, enforcement and penalties’; « the fact that environmental monitoring would be done by a Neptune employee; *the lack of ‘procedures or protocols to deal seach spills’’; © concern over an extra 135 trains per year; e and concern that the EAD was prepared by Nep- tune rather than an independent body. 2) The city’s submission states that ‘‘Neptune should be required to comply with environmental regulations before any development is allowed.”’ It cites three occasions in 1990 when Neptune vio- lated exvironmental regulations. 3) “VPC is not a municipality,’’ and its deci- sion-makers are not elected to be responsible to the people who live and work near Neptune. 4) The plan conflicts with the Port 2010 document, which, the city says, implies ‘‘that bulk commodity shipment is a poor use for the congested inner harbor and the Port’s urban neighbors.’’ 5) ‘‘The VPC Public Review process is inadequate to allow public or municipal input.’ economic benefits echoed the words of Saskat- chewan’s energy minister when he couver City Council, which has twice turned down rezoning re- quests by Neptune, for saying the 110-foot-high shed would be too high, while at the same time allowing 300-feet residential towers to be built in the city. **People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,’’ Playle said. ‘‘P’ve seen old refrigerators and stoves in people’s back yards, People don’t have the common courtesy to take their garbage to the landfill and yet have the audacity to come here and say Neptune should clean up its act.” Other support for Neptune’s expansion came from the Saskat- chewan Wheat Pool, Pacific Commerce Line and the Water- At the Jan. 15 hearing into the proposal, Saskatchewan's minister of engery and mines said his pro- vince could be forced to export its potash through U.S. ports if West Coast facilities are not improved. Willcox told Monday night's public hearing, which was com- missioned by the VPC, that the new storage shed will be able to handle up to four million tonnes of potash at a time. It will, he said, increase Neptune’s share of city municipal taxes from $1.1 million to $1.5 million per year and will create between six and 10 new jobs at Neptune. “The new facility is critical,’’ said Willcox. VPC spokesman Keven Little said that major potash producers, such as Saskatchewan, will look to other ports if Neptune is unable to accommodate the growing world-wide demand for the pro- duct. ‘We're in the fight of our lives to maintain moderi terminals,’’ said Little. ‘‘If we are unable to remain competitive, we will lose more cargo to the U.S. ports.’” Monday night's public hearing was the second of two scheduled by a three-member independent review panel, The panel will now spend two to three weeks compiling a report on its findings before making rec- ommendations on the Neptune expansion issue to the VPC. Wednesday, January 23, 1991 - North Shore News - 3 Alderman says NVD residents should brace for high *91 NORTH VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL NORTH VANCOUVER District homeowners should brace for a large tax in- crease this year. By Martin Mitlerchip Contributing Writer “To introduce this budget means an automatic loss of 1,000 votes in the community,’’ North Vancouver District Ald. Ernie Crist said Monday night as he unveiled a provisional 1991 North Vancouver District budget bylay that could see municipal property taxes increase by as much as 22 per cent. “Budgets are never very popu- Jar,’ Crist said, ‘‘but somebody has got to doit.” The Municipal Act requires council to adopt an_ estimated (provisional) budget so that the business of the municipality may continue. But capital expenditures, grants, permanent staff increases or other special expenditures that are outside the normal operation of the district cannot be instituted without the prior approval of council. “I must caution the municipali- that we are living in very challenging times and unfortu- nately we have no recourse to taxation other than the homeown- er. So what it will mean is a hefty increase in taxes for this coming year,’’ Crist said. The bylaw estimates the general operational budget of the district to be $49,465,811 in addition to $5,125,700 for the water utility and $2,835,800 for the sewer utili- ty. Crist said the figures repre- taxes 22 per cent provisional budget introduced sented an increase of 10.3 per cent over last year to maintain services at the same level and a 2.7 per cent increase for additional sevices. **Approximately two thirds of that money has to come from (municipal!) coffers, and that would translate into a much higher increase in property taxes of 18 per cent for the basic ser- vices, plus an additional four per cent increase in taxes if we go for the new and increased services we think we need,” said Crist. Crist laid some of the blame for the increases on higher levels of government ‘‘putting additional levels of funding on our shoulders.”” Ald. Rick Buchols com- plimented Crist on his pres- entation, but called the increases “«unconscionable.’* Added Buchols, ‘I think this budget could cost 2,000 voies.’” He said that council should evaluate what the community real- ly wants and not be put in the position of reacting to pressure groups ‘‘that may not represent the mainstream of opinion.”’ West Vancouver District and North Vancouver City councils adopted provisional budgets in early December. At that time it was forecast that North Van- couver City residents could see about a six per cent increase in taxes. West Vancouver did not release an estimate of possible tax increases. Public to vote on park dedication NORTH VANCOUVER District voters will be asked to assent to a bylaw ‘‘dedicating’’? Lynn Canyon Park at the upcoming March 9 byelection. Ald. Paul Turner received unanimous consent Monday night from diz:sict council fer his mo- tion directing staff to draw up a bylaw dedicating Lynn Canyon Park for park purposes under sec- tion 533 of the Municipal Act. The previous district council had moved to preserve Lynn Can- yon Park under section 532. But park status under section 532 could be removed by a two-thirds majority of council and the ap- proval of the Minister of Municipal Affairs, although any group or individual opposing removal of park status has the right to appeal to the minister for a public vote. But Turner said that section 533, ‘“‘would provide the highest level of protection possible for a park. That by putting this as a question for public assent, once that assent is received it would re- quire 2 bylaw to undedicate our park.” FN a ieee index ® Budget Beaters......... 44 UW Mailbox .............. 7 M@ Business .............. 43 &! 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