8 - Sunday, February 16, 1992 - North Shore News

Council divided PUNBeiwIIOo wean
on approval of

business

licence

in industrial area

Company appeals to Keep
head office in North Van

RESTRICTIONS ON
businesses allowed into the
industrially-zoned Capilano
Business Park near the
Capilano shopping mall
were loosened Monday
night when North Van-
couver City Council ap-
proved a business licence
for a company that some
councillors argued was
clearly not industrial.

By Pamela Lang
News Reporter

City director of development
services Fred Smith told council
that the applicant, Commander
Warehouse, first submitted draw-
ings showing a warehouse, a small
engineering area, and a large ad-
ministrative area.

Staff rejected that plan, he said,
because, although engineering of-
fices are allowed in the zone, the
administrative offices took up
more space than allowed by the
current zoning bylaw.

Smith said that Commander
then appealed the rejection and
submitted drawings with three
times as much engineering space
as the first drawings.

City staff were of the opinion,
he said, that the plans had been
changed merely to comply with
the zoning requirements.

Although some couacillors
questioned that conclusion, Ald.
John Braithwaite said he was ‘‘in-
clined to believe the interpretation
of staff.”

Appearing before council Mon-
day night, Commander
Warehouse owner Dale Hall ad-
mitted that there were no profes-
sional engineerr working at the
site.

He said } Commander has
operated on the North Shore for
20 years, but has not done any
manufacturing here for about 10
years.

With the bulk of its operations
in Surrey, Hall said the company
wanted to keep a head office in
North Vancouver, where its new
location in Capilano Business
Park would serve as a warehouse
and offices for 16 administrative
and sales personnel.

The 16 people, primarly fong-
term employees who live on the
North Shore, are not engineers,
but do engineering-related work
through the development and sales
of Commander’s products.

“‘Engineering is an important
function of our duties,"’ Hall said.

He added that 25% to 30% of
the items the company sells are
manufactured at Commander’s
Surrey plant.

Ald. Bill Bell asked if the city
had a definition of an engineer or
a salesperson, but he was told that
there was no definition in this
zoning bylaw or any other.

“It’s ridiculous that we don’t
have guidelines,’ he said, adding
that without them, council should
take Hall’s word that their work
involves engineering.

Ald. Barbara Sharp said that

ES
NORTH VANCOUVER
CITY COUNCIL

although she did not think that
Commander belongs in an indus-
trial area, she said, ‘‘I have no
problem with Commander
Warehouse. They got caught in
the middle of Praxis (owners of
Capilano Business Park) wanting
to rent space.""

But Sharp said that approving
the application would erode the
city’s industrial lands. She added
that industria! tenants ‘highly
subsidize’’ residential area taxes.

“Once it’s gone, it’s gone,"’ she
said. ‘*‘We have to be very
cautious of any further erosion of
our industrial base."”

Ald. Rod Clark added that ‘‘it
has become apparent that he
(Hall) is not doing any industrial
type of work at this site.”’

But Ald. Barbara Perrault said,
“tt is obvious that the very nature
of his business is industrial. It is
industrial in nature, and we're
quibbling when we say it isn’t.”

Perrault said the city has to
allow for the changing economic
climate and the changing nature
of industrial work.

“We have to encourage the
establishment of business,
especially environmentally-friend-
ly business,’’ she said.

Ald. Stella Jo Dean said that,
with more and nore companies
using computer and other modern
technologies, it was becoming in-
creasingly difficult to tell the dif-
ference between industrial and of-
fice operations.

The modern drafting or
engineering office, she said, looks
no different from an ad-
ministrative or sales office.

Dean said the city has been suc-
cessful in the past when they made
changes to industrial lands.

“In 1984 we decided that the
industrial zoning wasn’t doing
anything for us at the Lonsdale
Quay,’’ she said.

By making the zoning changes,
Dean said the city got the quay,
the ICBC and Waterfront Park.

She added that the development
of the Park and Tilford shopping
centre on formerly industrial land
was also a good move.

“I don’t think industrial land is
sacred,’’ she added. *‘Things have
changed, and we have to change
with it.’”

Even Mayor Jack Loucks, who
has long been a strong advocate
of retaining industrial land, said
that Capilano Business Park is
different.

He said he has a much clearer
definition of what businesses in-
dustrial-zoned land should con-
tain in the eastern portion of the
city, but the area in question is
“quite a mish mash.’’

“The only true industrial user
left would be Pacific Truck and
Trailer, and they're basically out
of business.’’

The motion to approve the
licence was approved 4-3, with
Aldermen Clark, Sharp and
Braithwaite opposing it.

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