6 - Friday, October 17, 1986 - North Shore News THE VOICE CF NOHTH AND WEST VANCOUVER be oe Disptay Advertising 980-0511 Classilisd Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution 946-1337 Subscriptions 986-1237 Publisher: Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Advertising Director Peter Speck Noel Wright Barrett Fisher Linda Stewart News Viewpoint Co afte i SUNDAY » WEDNESOAY - 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 TAN hea hupet nd Gualihed afin Ge hantyle iil Panagtapte iL ot tas More than fair XPO 86 has rightly been raised high upon the shoulders of the media, the public and the business community and proudly paraded before the world as an unqualified success. Everyone involved in the fair, no matter how remotely, should revel in’ such day-after hurrahs, because Expo 86 has become so much more than just a triumph of attendance statistics. The majority of the 22,111,578 who visited the 5%-month long fair fell whole-heartedly in love with Expo 86 and at the same time beheld British Colum- bians with renewed respect. Consequently, Expo 86 should dispatch forever in- feriority complexes traditionally spawned east of Win- nipeg and eagerly cultivated west of the Rockies. The naysayers, the gloom and doomers, the negative nitpickers have been forced to swallow predictions of the fair’s failure and dismantle soap boxes from which each shouted for more sensible investment of gov- ernment monies and provincial energies and quietly concede the inaccuracies of their volleys. Expo 86 was B.C.’s chance to make it or blow it on an international scale. It is to the credit of all that B.C.’s warring families set aside bitter and petty provincial differences in a conscious choice for the former and pooled energy and talent to produce a world-class event that has changed forever the way the world perceives Vancouver and B.C. and the way British Columbians perceive Ente contents « 1986 Worth Shore Free Press Lid All rights reserved. $* S56 cieerage Wertne day Perday % Suedag) themselves. GARDEN MALL P&T development NWV's interest a Dear Editor: A former City of North Van- couver aldermah, defeated in the last election, asks the question in your edition of September 17, “How can council back P&T developer?"’ The answer should be obvious; the development is in the best in- terests of the people of the City of North Vancouver. Fact | - There is going to be a major comprehensive shopping- entertainment-office-industrial complex in the lower Lynn- Seymour area. Whether it is in the city or the district, it will have some adverse effect on other shopping centres, but the major adverse effect will be on the Bur- naby shops where many of the people from the south-east corner of the city and from the eastern end of the district now shop. However eventually the increased competition always benefits the public. Fact 2 - A comprehensive development is better for the en- vironment. Most of our industrial developments provide very little employment because of automa- tion, At the same time industrial uses create dust pollution, noise pollution and visual pollution. Ex- amples are the grain elevators and the bulk coal dust and sulphur fa- cilities. Fact 3 - The development will bring increased tax revenue to the municipality in which it will be located. The rezoning of the land to comprehensive will increase its value which in turn will increase the tax revenue from the property. The taxes will be further increased because non-industrial use does not qualify for the tax exemptions that the statutes give to industrial use. Fact 4 - Taxes on city properties are high and the majority of coun- cil are opposed to reducing costs of services. Therefore we need the additional tax revenue that the comprehensive development will provide. Fact 5 - The gardens must be rescued, Thousands of people peti- tioned that we save this major at- traction that gave pleasure to our people and brought 300,000 visitors a year, visitors who usually spent money at other businesses in our community. The restoration of the gardens will be expensive and their maintenance costs in the past were $350,000 per year. The city cannoi afford these expenditures in addi- tion to the cost of the property, and no developer is going to incur these expenses voluntarily. We have no way of putting pressure on an industrial developer. It is only a inajor comprehensive development that can save the gardens as such a developer will require a rezoning. Council will then be able to negotiate for such a developer to assume the restora- tion and maintenance of the gardens. Stetla Jo Dean, alderman North Vancouver City Dear Editor: In response to the News Viewpoint of Sunday, Sept. 28 North Shore News, | would like to point out that city council, including myself, is totally in favor of preserving the Park & Tilford Gardens. (The under’ “ing question before us is ‘tat what price?’’) Th. community must realize that the city does not own this property, and is in no position to purchase it. BCE Development Corporation has come up with no satisfactory specific plans or guarantees for preserving the Park & Tilford Gardens. BCED has also not come up with any spectific plans for the development of the 10 acres of light industrial area that is included in the proposed rezoning application, What has been proposed is a 20-acre commercial development to include a super, super Save-On Foods Store which is twice as large as the one on Marine Drive, a multi-screen cinema complex (eight to 10 theatres), restaurants and a number of small com- mercial outlets. My concern is in regard to the partial development of the city’s last major light industrial piece of land (i.e. for high technology use). What will be the social and economic impact of a development of this size and location on our recently developed commercial centres as well as our older existing commercial areas? My opinion, and that of many local business people and residents, is that this proposed development will have a serious negative impact. This impact would af- fect existing commercial areas such as the older Lonsdale and Marine Drive strip, renovated Capilano Mall, and in particular, our recently opened Lonsdale Quay. As chairman of the Lower Lonsdale Committee for over 2% vears, my mejor goal, along with local Dear Editor: businesses was to build and develop a ‘Town Centre’ concept in conjunction with the Lonsdale Quay. As an alderman that still is my goal. It is short-sighted to approve a quick solution to Park & Tilford tand use with no thought to the long- term future impact on our city. The aldermen who are supporting this application have made it very clear that (hey are not interested nor do they care about the effect this application will have on the rest of the community. it appears that they are only concerned with people who have ‘‘big bucks’ to develop for their own guin; and that is good enough for them. Well, it’s not good enough for me, nor should it be good enough for this or any other council unless it is in the dest interest of the total community. At this particular stage, this ap- plication, in my opinion, is not in that interest. The city has in Park & Tilford and the surrounding area, a golden opportunity to develop a clean, quiet, traffic-free, high tech light industrial park area generating full-time jobs, and a sound tax revenue base. To give in to pressure to rezone our last piece of light industrial land is to give this opportunity away. Two other points in relation to your News View- point — you incorrectly reported that Ald. Taylor voted against the rezoning application. Ald. Taylor was not present at the council meeting. He was in China. It was Mayor Jack Loucks who voted against the rezoning. 1 would also hope in the future that News View- point would contact me directly about my philosophy on any subject before casting an opinion based on hearsay or assumptions. Ald, John Braithwaite North Vancouver But the proposed solution — to Ic has come to my attention that West Vancouver council is again Irying to pass a tree-cutting bylaw which would have disasterous repercussions on the ecology and look of the community. realize that this tree/view pro- blem is a difficult problem that council may wish to solve in a simple one-and-for-all way, let neighbors dictate that one must top one’s trees to a height council deems reasonable — is surely not very wise. If passed the problem will not go away, but just represent itself with new parameters and in the meantime West Vancouver will start to look more like a hedge! Daphne Trivett West Vancouver