HORSESHOE BAY CONTROVERSY

Feds, business

WEST VANCOUVER District Council has worked out an
agreement with the federal government and Sewell’s Marina
owner Dan Sewell that will ensure greater future public ac-
cess to Sewell’s Marina following the approval of a 20-year
water lease acquired by Sewell in Horseshoe Bay.

In presenting a
council’s Parks, Recreation and
Community Services Committee
Monday night, Ald. Mark Sager
said both Sewell’s Ltd. and the
federal government have agreed to
a number of terms that will pro-
vide increased public access to
Horseshoe Bay’s Transport
Canada dock and Sewell’s Marina.

Sewell’s will allow the
southeastern float of the gov-
ernment dock, which currently en-
croaches on the Bay Boats water
lot lease that he recently acquired,
to remain where it is thus ensuring
public access. Two hundred feet of
temporary tie-up and = drop-off
moorage will also be provided at
no charge to the public. The
general public and fishermen will
be charged 50 cents per metre
moorage, which is 10 cents per
metre less than rates currently in
effect at the government wharf,
for use of 300 feet of temporary
moorage provided by Sewell.

report from

Public access will also be allowed
for non-boaters to the floats of the
marina.

The federal government has

PAUL HOUL

Contributing Writer

WEST Vanconver Ald. Mark
Sager...*‘The municipality has a
binding legal obligation with
Sewell’s...°°

agreed to realign its floats at the
marina in a number of ways to’
provide greater public access.

Among the changes: the most nor-
therly float will be moved so that
160 feet of moorage space will be
re-established at the north end of
the government wharf; the
southern float with 110 feet of
moorage space will remain; 75 feet
of large vessel tie-up space will also
result from the realignment of the
floats.

The Sewell lease has been the
subject of much controversy after
area residents questioned the terms
under which Sewell acquired the
Bay Boats foreshore lease after
the former lease operator Lloyd
Mark Commercial Holdings went
bankrupt.

But district counci! has received
two solicitor opinions that say
the district was ‘‘substantially cor-
rect according to the requirements
of the foreshore lease und the
Municipal Act’? in granting the
lease to Sewell’s.

Sewell has said he needed the se-
curity of a 20-year lease because he
planned to sink $750,000 into a
five-year overhaul of the water lot
lease area that will add 2,000 feet
of transient and permanent
moorage to the facility, increase
access to Horseshoe Bay’s boat
launching ramp and generally im-
prove the Horseshoe Bay water-
front.

Ald. Mark Sager noted at Mon-

3 - Wednesday, May 27, 1987 - North Shore News

WEST Vancouver Mayor Don
Lanskail...‘‘(the municipal solici-
tor) has concluded...that there was
nothing significantly wrong in the
process that was followed.”’

day's meeting that, ‘‘The
municipality has. a binding, legal
obligation with Sewell’s and, based
on that, any alteration to the lease
must be seen then as a concession
by Mr. Sewell to help alleviate the
problem.

“IT took it upon myself tu meet
with some of the concerned and
affected people,’’ said Sager. ‘*Mr.

agree over
public access to

an rina

Sewell...the local residents and
some of the representatives of the
fishermen and the fishermen’s
union...in an effort to try and find
some kind of compromise."

Horseshoe Bay Ratepayers’
spokesman Tom Reid reiterated his
concern that council did not get a
good deal. ‘I! don’t think coun-
cil...had as much input into it
(Sewell’s lease) as it should have
had.

“T feel the residents of the
municipality are entitled 10 a better
return,”? Reid said. ‘$7,700 for
that property for five years comes
to $38,500 (over 25 years) and
that’s not very much money for
that piece of property.”

Mayor Don Lanskail — speak-
ing directly to Reid — noted that
all Reid’s points had ‘‘been
carefully canvassed by our solici-
tor...and he has concluded in two
separate opinions that there was
nothing significantly wrong in the
process that was followed.”’

Sager noted that despite the legal
opinion that appears to vindicate
district council, ‘I’m quite confi-
dent that having gone through the
exercise, council will be absolutely
certain to go to the furthest length
to advertise and to do some of
those things which perhaps were
not done...it certainly doesn’t hurt
to go that extra mile.”"

NEWS photos Stuart Devis

A WEST VANCOUVER Fire Department firefighter helps hoist one of the two propane
tanks retrieved and vented after a barge carrying them sank near Fisherman’s Cove Friday
afternoon. Above, two boats tow the sunken barge, held up by a pocket of air, into the
cove where it was later salvaged along with the tanks.

LGH president retires

THE president of Lions Gate Hospital has announced his

LGH president John Bor-
thwick...held position since 1976,

retirement.

John Borthwick will step down
at the end of September from the
position he has held since 1976.

Under Borthwick’s leadership,
LGH maintained and increased its
community health care throughout
the past six years of restraint.

In addition to his position at the
hospital, Borthwick has been
board chairman of the Canadian
College of Health Service Execu-
tives. He has also lectured regular-
ly on health care administration,
worked with graduate students and
remains involved in many profes-

sional health care and government
committees.

Prior to becoming LGH_ presi-
dent, Borthwick was the executive
director of Toronto’s Clark In-
stitute of Psychiatry and on the
administrative staff of Toronto's
Sunnybrook and New Mount Sinai
hospitals and Vancouver's River-
view Hospital.

He is recognized as one of
Canada's most talented, innovative
and compassionate health care
leaders.

Weather:

Mainly sunny Wednesday
with morning cloud.
Highs near 20°C.
Thursday, cloudy with a
chance of showers.

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