3 ~ Wednesday, July 26, 1989 - North Shore News

CITY COUNCIL TO MEET AGAIN FOR SECOND HIGHRISE PERMIT APPROVAL

evelopers unveil plans for
N. Van Olympic Hotel site

PROPONENTS OF two new Lower Lonsdale highrises
made presentations to North Vancouver City Council

Monday night.

Addressing a public information
meeting on the proposed Olympic
Hotel site development, architect
Stuart Lyon of Waisman, Dewar,
Grout, Carter Inc. described the
150-foot tower he had designed for
the Lower Lonsdale site.

The 15-storey highrise will be
built slightly west of where the
Olympic Hotel now stands in the
100-block <f East Second Street. It
will have three floors of parking
above ground and commercial
space on the street. Each residen-
tial floor will contain fcour suites
costing an estimated $175,000 for a
1,000 square-foot apartment.

Intercon Group developer Jim
Wyse said Olympic Matel demoli-
tion depended on when a
highrise-building permit was issued
by the city.

“It will take 18 months from
start to selling time,’ he said.
“The idea is to get construction
started this fall.’’

Fifty. residents attending the

FEELING THE heat from Saturday morning's roast in his honor is (far left) recent!y-retired North Shore News columnist Doug Collins, who is joined on the roasti

By ANNA MARIE D’ANGELO
Contributing Writer

meeting were told cars in the
parkade would not be visible from
the street and that the proposed
continuous, commercial
storefront, or ‘‘street wall charac-
ter,’? was endorsed by the
municipality for the area.

Several audience members
wanted to know Intercon Group’s
plans for the rest of the property,
which includes the Olympic Hotel
parking lot on the 100-block of
East Third Street.

‘*Are we going to see another
highrise? I’d like to get informa-
tion from the developer. They do
have a concept (for the property),”’
said Lower Lonsdale resident Steve
Paquim.

City planrer Richard White said
not al! of the remaining property
was zoned for high-density resi-
dential use.

“They (the developers) are going
to look for a rezoning,’’ he said.

During the subsequent council
meeting, elected officials defeated
a resolution to give a developer a

**Here we are being pushed into
building another highrise,’’ said
Ald. Bill Bell. ‘‘We have been
shoved around by Cressey (Devel-

opment), we have been shoved

*‘Hlere we are being
pushed into building
another highrise. ’’

—City Ald. Bill Bell

building permit with accompany-
ing conditions for another highrise
two blocks away from the Intercon
Group’s development.

Fama Holdings Ltd. wants to
build a 12-storey highrise in the
100-block of West Second Street
across from a 28-storey tower now
under construction by Cressey De-
velopment Corp. at the old St.
Alice Hotel site.

around by the Olympic and now
we are being shoved around by
Fama (Holdings) to get this (the
building permit) passed faster.’*

He said he would not support
any more highrise permits for the
area until the view-study analysis
and possible bylaw changes were
dealt with by council.

Ald. Rod Clark voted to issue
the building permit citing possible

legal liability if it is delayed.

“I'm shocked at the rather
cavalier attitude of some of our
aldermen who would put the city
in a position of legal liability,’’ he
said.

The highrise’s architect, Foad
Rafii, spoke earlier about the 127-
foot structure.

‘1 tried to design it not to be an
evesore,’’ he said.

The Fama building will contain
29 suites ranging in price from
$160,000 to $190,000.

Also voting against issuing the
building permit with conditions
were Aldermen John Braithwaite
and Barbara Sharp.

Ald. Stella Jo Dean and Mayor
Jack Loucks voted to issue the
building permit without delay.
Ald. Frank Morris was absent
from the meeting.

Another special council meeting
on the highrise has been scheduled
for tonight starting at 7:15 p.m.

The building permit is currently
on hold until Aug. 4. If no action
is taken by council prior to that
date the permit could be approved
without conditions.

NEWS photo Tom Burley
‘ing panel by (left to

right) BC Rail’s Barrie Wal! (aka Rupert Flange, Ambleside New Right chairman), Alex ‘Bat’ Masterton, a Collins prisoner of war companion, and News publisher Peter Speck. Ap-
proximately 700 Collins fans filled Nozth Vancouver’s Centenzial Theatre Saturday morning to join in the barbed tribute to the controversial columnist. Collins, 68, officially retired his
Get This Straight column July 2 after five years and approximately 750 columns. Master of Ceremonies for the July 22 roast was radio hotline host Pat Burns. Other guest roasters in-
cluded North Vancouver-Seymour MLA Jack Davis, North Vancouver-Capilano MLA Angus Ree, News columnist Barbara McCreadie and former Vancouver Sun editorial writer Mac
Reynolds. Roast organizer Bill Ryan said the success of the event, which began at 9 a.m. Saturday, reflected the political awareness and enthusiasm of the North Shore: ‘‘To get that

many

| as any in the country. We have a remarkable group of people on the North Shore.””
Councils make transport study recommendations

From page 1

North Vancouver District Coun-
cil expressed concern at being ask-
ed for response to a comprehensive
plan that has been debated in the
media but only justi been seen by
most aldermen.

Mayor Baker agreed that ‘‘the
process is-rushed,’’ but said, ‘‘it is
provincial-government initiated,
and we are dancing along to their
time frame.”’

West Vancouver will submit
eight recommendations to the
GVRD on the report, including the
call for some action on the Lions
Gate Bridge or a third crossing
that would emphasize facility for
rapid transit.

Other recommendations:

* endorsement of an on-going
transportation planning process
and a single capital budget process
for improving roads and transit in
Greater Vancouver, with emphasis
on public transit; .

e removal of Vancouver Island
ferries from the Horseshoe Bay
terminal, along with greater em-
phasis on the ferry terminals a
destination points for public trar.-
sit as well as private traffic;

* the widening of Marine Drive
from Taylor Way to the Lions
Gate Bridge (including replace-
ment of the west-bound bridge
over the Capilano River);

* renewed discussions with the
Squamish Indian Band on the con-
struction of a Low Level Road
link, a matter that has been under
joint study by the three North
Shore municipalities, the band and
the Ministry of Highways;

© improvements to public transit
to include a change in peak-hour
fares to include travel within each
zone, rather than just between
zones.

North Vancouver District Coun-
cil, meanwhile, wants an indepth
study of the report and an oppor-
tunity for comment on the balance
of spending between roads and the
transit network.

The projected cost of the
report’s high-priority projects to
1996 is $1.4 billion, of which $825
million, is earmarked for roads,
But, of the $566 million listed for
capital expenditure on transit in
the same period, $510 million is
earmarked for rapid transit be-
tween Vancouver and Richmond.

Other North Vancouver District
Council concerns over the report
include:
¢ timing of Low Level Road im-
provements;

* the relative fow priority of grace
separated interchanges for High-
way | at Lonsdale Avenue and
Westview Drive;

e that improvements to Second
Narrows Bridge also include all
approaches and interchanges;

e that SeaBus accessibility (the
long walk at the south terminus)
reduces desirability;

¢ the low priority of park and ride
facilities on the North Shore;

* a general fack of transit
priorities for the North Shore;
e and access to Lions
Bridge.

North Vancouver District Ald.
Craig Clark’s amendment that
added the last concern and sug-
gested additional bridge lanes and
a widened causeway resulted in a
charge from Ald. Ernie Crist that
council was missing the central
point. .

Crist said a rapid transit connec-
tion to the North Shore, not the
automobile, was the solution to

Gate

people-moving.

He pointed out that the
downtown core is a limited area
with finite boundaries.

‘“‘We make it possible for more
cars to go across First Narrows
and then what? Where do they go?
It is self defeating,’’ Crist said.

But Crist was unable to get a
seconder for his amendment that
would have added the lack of a
rapid transit connector to council’s
concerns.

At West Vancouver’s council
meeting, Rob inman of the British
Properties Homeowners Associa-
tion asked why emphasis on a
connector between Lions Gate
Bridge and the Upper Levels
Highway had been dropped from
West Vancouver’s original submis-
sion to the task force.

‘'The prospect of such a connec-
tor is slim to none...,”’ said West
Vancouver Mayor Don Lanskail.
“But we do want replacement of
the Lions Gate Bridge which Mr.
Gagiardi promised us in 1954.”’

North Vancouver City Council
did not release its recommenda-
tions at Monday night’s council
meeting.

people out to an event on a Saturday morning in the middle of the summer holidays just goes to show you that the peopte of the North Shore are politically as enthusiastic and keen

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WEATHER

Wednesday, sunny. High near

24°C. Thursday, sunny with a

few cloudy periods. High near
1%. ;

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