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Stroll through
North Van history

Home & Garden: 13

August 3, 1990

Cypress Ridge course

raises

Property owner wants
wilderness designation
removed from his land

THE DEVELOPMENT of a controversial 27-hole golf
course proposed for the Cypress Ridge area of West Van-
couver has sparked demands from another property owner
to rezone a nearby lot so that he can develop an en-
vironmental field studies centre.

Dr. Raymond Rodgers, presi-
dent of University College Van-
couver, said he is upset with the
“hypocrisy’’ of West Vancouver
District. Council towards ‘‘so-call-
ed wilderness”’ in the area.

Rocgers charges that, on one
hand, council is pursuing a policy
of buying property from
Hollyburn Ridge cabin owners to
preserve the area as wilderness,
while, on the other hand, council
is encouraging the development of
a golf course on an adjacent 350-
acre parcel of untouched forest.

Meanwhile, Lot B 16, the one-
acre site Rodgers wants to develop
on DL 1123 (a 66-acre district

44 You don't spend a
great deal of work on
lobbying when you're
banging your head on

a wall. 99

— Dr. Raymond Rodgers

site), is already surrounded by
visible signs of civilization, he
said.

In a July 25 letter to council
Rodgers states that to the fot’s
“west is the paved highway. On
its south is a gravel road. Fifty
metres or s@ away is a CN/CP
communications dish. And 100 or
so metres downhill is a hydro line.
Now across the road there will be
a golf course.

“There is nothing ‘*‘ wilderness”
about DL 1123,” the letter states.

Rodgers first approached West
Vancouver District in 1987 to
discuss rezoning the property from
wilderness cabin to a designation
that would permit the university
to build a 3,000 square-foot oul-
door recreation and environmental
field studies centre.

At the time, Rodgers had
received a positive response to his
requests for funding from

INSIDE ake

By Elizabeth Collins
News Reporter

billionaire Sir James Goldsmith.

But Rodgers said his request
was ignored by West Vancouver,
and he subsequently Jost the
potential source of funding.

“‘There’s been a consistent
message from council or the
municipality stating that DL 1123
shali be wilderness. You don’t
spend a great deal of work on
lobbying when you're banging
your head on a_ wall,’’ Rodgers
said, explaining why he didn’t
persevere with his request for
rezoning.

Since then, the controversial
golf course development issue has
prompted Rodgers to resume his
demands to build the environmen-
tal field studies centre.

But Kevin Pike, West Van-
couver’s director of parks, said
the district is firm ou its policy of
retaining that area as park.

‘*We are not interested in any
way in rezoning that land for any-
thing except park,”’ Pike said. ‘‘A
more built-up ecology site is not
something we would want to see."*

He said council’s policy is to
buy out cabin-owners whenever
possible in order to make the area
into wilderness park.

Ata May 14 public hearing on
the Cypress Ridge golf course
proposal, Rodgers told council he
supported both the golf course
and the preservation of the old-
growth trees that are contained
within the golf-course site, but
couldn't see why he was denied
rezoning for his lot consisting only
of scrub trees.

In a later interview, Pike said
that the golf course is a separate
and long-standing is:ue.

“The golf course has been
something that’s been talked
about for at least 20 years. It's
mentioned in the Official Com-
munity Plan,’’ he said.

In response to Rodgers’ further
requests, Stephen Nicholls, West
Vancouver District’s director of
planning, replied with a standing
offer to acquire his property for
$17,250.

But said Rodgers, “I think it’s
insulting.”

new controversy

NEWS photo Mike Wakefisld
DR. RAYMOND Rodgers and his wife, Lola, in front of what Rodgers caustically
calls the “wilderness tower,’’ a CN/CP communications dish approximately 50
metres from his one-acre lot on Cypress Ridge. Rodgers wants the lot to be
rezoned so he can build an educational field station for students.

PAUL ST. PIERRE: 9

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