A 49-YEAR agreement between Environment Canada and the Vancouver Port Corp. will transfer management of the port’s Maplewocd site in North Vancouver to the federal Conservation and Protection Service. The federal deal announced April 16 covers a 58-acre parcel of infilled land adjacent to the Maplewood mudflats on the North Vancouver waterfront east of the Second Narrows Bridge. Environment Canada plans to use five acres in the northeast corner of the site to establish a $14 million environmental science centre to house regional! scientific operations. The remainder of the site will be operated as a wildlife conserva- tion area. While the port will retain own- ership of the Nosth Vancouver property, a ietter of intent trans- ferring management of the site will be formalized in the form of a memorandum of understanding in the fall. Environment Canada and the Port of Vancouver plan to devel- op, in consultation with the public, a management plan for the site to address site contamination, rehabilitation and public access. The Maplewood property is one of the last undeveloped pieces of Burrard inlet waterfront land within the Port of Vancouver. Over the past few years the site has been the focus of intense study and controversy. The Vancouver Port Corp. had undertaken a consultant study to assess possible mixed-use devel- opment of the site. The study was suspended in 1989 after conserva- tionists lobbied to have the site designated as a wildlife conserva- tion area, Tidal mudflats fronting the property are recognized as an im- portant resting area for migrating birds. An environmental assessment of the site, described by Environment Canada as “essentially an aban- doned industrial site with litle '|Sager to head study of GVRD spending By Michael Becker News Reporter wildlife habitat value at present but (with) some potential,’ revealed contaminated soil in the area. Said Environment Canada spokesman Paul Kluckner, ‘‘i was obvious there was a bunch of surface debris, a building, con- crete, asphalt. The port is going to be cleaning up that surface debris tight away.’’ But test drillings revealed sub- surface contamination. “We did find some apparently localized areas of sub-surface contamination that were of con- cern. We found some hydrocar- bons Gubricating oils about three feet below the surface) in the area where there used to be a truck washing operation, and there were some metals in an area where there was supposed to have been some incineration of trash years ago,’ Kluckner said. ‘We'll be looking at whether Friday, April 24, 1992 - North Shore News - 3 Deal protects Maplewood waterfront Management of 58-acre site transferred to federal government those areas are localized and what if any remediation has to be done to bring the site to a useful stand- ard,”’ he added. Over the past 100 years the site has been home to a logging opera- tion, an air strip, debris in- cinerators, trucking companies, maintenance shops and a recre- ational vehicle park. Meanwhile, construction of an environmental science centre on the site is tentatively scheduled for a 1993 start. The project, now in the design stage, is expected to be completed by the following year. Environment Canada conducts scientific operations, primarily lab testing and field surveys, from three facilities in North Van- couver, West Vancouver and Vancouver. The operations employ approx- imately 35 people, including field inspectors, biologists, chemists and engineers. The three facilities will be consolidated within the new science centre at Maplewood. Plans for the southern Maplewood site will be discussed at a public meeting tentatively set for May 14 at the Canadian In- ternational College i in North Van- couver. Council approves Rusty Gull expansion Neighborhood pub to add 20-seat outdoor patio “No A PATIO expansion for the Rusty Gull Neighborhood Pub was approved April 13 by North Vancouver City Council after residents attending a recent public hearing showed little opposition to the plan. Pub co-owner Robert Savage told the News after the hearing that he must still apply to the provincial Liquor Control and Licensing Branch (LCLB) for ap- proval of the expansion, but he said he did not expect to be turn- ed down. Two city residents spoke at the city’s public hearing to discuss the plan to reduce the pub’s rear lot setback to 13 feet from 25 feet to allow the Rusty Gull to add a 20-seat patio to its building at 175 East Ist St. Raising parking and noise con- cerns was Rod Pearce, a lawyer who said he was speaking on behalf of Lonsdale Enterprises Ltd., a company that owns a lot at 147 East Ist St. Pearce said his client plans to apply for rezoning to allow a res- W. Van mayor appointed to audit regional district WITH LOCAL taxpayers still digesting provincial and ‘municipal tax hikes and grant withdrawals, the recently passed 13.7% Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) 1992 budget increase slipped by with little tax- payer protest. The GVRD has long enjoyed a low public profile that is unusual considering the amount of taxpayers’ money the organization uses today and the increasing amount 32 is likely to need in the future. ‘‘People don’t realize that the GVRD is one of the biggest organizations in the Lower Mainiand,”’ said West Van- couver Mayor Mark Sager, who was recently appointed head of a new management audit commit- tee of the regional district that coordinates. the interests of 18 Lower Mainland municipalities and three electoral districts. Sager said the $257 million GVRD budget ($195 million to be contributed by the GVRD municipalities) with its 13.7% increase (11.2% more from member municipalities) is remarkably high considering that most B.C. cities and districts are trying to keep their budgets to the rate of inflation, about 5%. And keeping budget increases to 5% is not going to be easy By Maureen Curtis Contributing Writer following the provincial gov- ernment’s decision to cut the supplementary homeowner’s grant and withdraw many of the usual transfer payments from the provincial to the municipal level. ‘““What’s even more remark- able is that the head of the GVRD board of directors, Van- couver Mayor Gordon Camp- bell, joined me in voting against the GVRD budget. That’s like a premier voting against his own budget. It’s something I’ve never seen before,’’ said Sager. The GVRD coordinates such communal Lower Mainland municipal services as sewage and waste disposal, water, hospitals, parks and recycling.” Although GVRD _ repre- sentatives are the mayors of edch municipality, with aldermen and staff serving on various commit- tees, the GVRD exists in a polit- By Pamela Lang Contributing Writer idential building on the lot, and the company, he said, is concern- ed that future residents of the area will be disturbed by both the in- creased noise from an open area of the pub and the increased park- ing problems caused by 20 addi- tional patrons. The area, he said, was in transi- tion because the pub overlooks the now unused Versatile Pacific Shipyards’ lands. The potential for both residen- tial and commercial development in the area makes the expansion inappropriate, said Pearce. He also expressed a concern that the increased seating capacity WV Mayor Mark Sager ical no-man’s land where there is less direct’ accountability for the work done and the money spent. The GVRD is somewhat in- sulated from its impact on the taxpayer: the 10% GVRD levies are hidden in municipal tax bills. It may be difficule for municipa! politicians who sit on GVRD committees to give enough of their attention to GVRD material when they are already loaded down with’com- mittee work and issues in their own districts and cities. “The additional GVRD work can be overwhelming,’’ said Sager. The GVRD has long been considered a ‘‘kind of utility company’? with the users seen from 65 to 85 would be used by the pub even when its patio is not open. Pearce added that his client has experienced major problems with pub patrons defacing private property at Jack Lonsdale’s pub at 1433 Lonsdale Ave. Lonsdale Enterprises also owns the property on which Jack Lonsdale’s sits. | But Savage told council that the Rusty Gull’s problems involving the police have been minimal. *“*We have an excellent police report,’’ he said. He added that the LCLB will not allow the Rusty Gull to have 20 additional people in the pub unless the patio is open. If more than 65 patrons were found in the pub when the patio is closed, its owners would be guilty of an overcrowding infraction and be penalized, Savage added that the Rusty Gull has had no problems with overcrowding in the past. He said that he does not neces- ‘more as “clients”? than tax- payers. Sager said that the increasing ‘SVRD budget demands increas- ing accountability. But nobody’s clear on how that can be achieved. The GVRD could elect its own group of politicians, but Sager said the GVRD_ should not become a fourth level of gov- ernment sandwiched between municipal and provincial levels. He said his management audit of the GVRD could be ‘‘an im- portant first step’ in making the organization more accountable. Sager ‘‘asked’’ for the job, in a sense, having become increas- ingly vocal in recent years about his concerns over GVRD spend- ing and the inequitable share West Vancouver and all of the North Shore has to pay for that spending. GVRD funding is primarily based on property assessments, which are especially high in West Vancouver. So Sager is now taking a hard look at all areas of GVRD fi- nancing. GVRD development services, for instance, have gone up about 38% in one year. Sager noted that 75 new maintenance workers alone have been hired in the sewer depart- ment. And the $60 million budget for recycling has gone up ap- proximately 20% since last year. SERRE NORTH VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL sarily expect increased business with the patio, but that his regular customers have requested it. The noise and parking concerns were also addressed: by Savage, who said the pub has 14 seldom used parking spots down the street, and that he would be,will- ing to make changes in response to any noise complaints. Area resident Ryan McFarlane told council that he views the area as a quiet residential neighborhood where the pub fits in. “They have been a good cor- porate neighbor,” he said of the Rusty Gull, adding that he has no noise complaints. McFarlane added that a notice posted in his building encouraged residents to come to the meeting . to complain about the noise, yet he was the only one to attend. Ald. Stelia Jo Dean was alone in voting against adopting: the bylaw to allow the expansion. In addition to increased operating expenditures, the GVRD’s capital works plan in- cludes projects that could cost about $2 billion over seven years. Sager said if those projects went ahead they would double the average taxpayer’s GVRD payments from $400 per year to - $800 per year. The waste management plan alone could cost about $5 mil- lion and paves the way for pro- jects costing hundreds of mil- lions of dollars such as construc- ting secoridary sewage treatment facilities at the Lions Gate Bridge, Annacis Island and Lulu Island sewage treatment plants. Sager pointed out that many of the GVRD undertakings are being ‘‘dumped’’ on the organization by the provincial government. Proposed improvements to the water system include a $400 mil- lion filtration system to reduce turbidity in local drinking water. A cross-boundary transfer system is also being considered. ft would allow water to be shared more effectively between the Capilano, Seymour and Co- quitlam water reservoirs. ‘*The question is can we af- ford to do everything at once,”’ Sager said. “All of the programs are goad - things. The problein is that: we can’t do everything at once.”’