NORTH SHORE

MOREE
Poe eh be fe

ee

MEWS photo Tey Peters

NORTH SHORE residents awoke Friday to discover two centimetres of new snow — more snow in one
night, than during all of last year — and North Shore ski hills reported more than 10 centimetres of snow

- and good ¢ conditions. At Ridgeway Elementary School in North Vancouver Friday morning, Abeir Had-
dad and Mike Pehlivan discovered:the wet white stuff is perfect for making snowballs.

Holiday
fashions
sizzle
PAGE 27

First bylaw

Bridging
generation
gap
PAGE 57

shot down

by 8.C. Supreme Court

WEST

VANCOUVER District Council will

finalize a

revamped expropriation bylaw Monday morning that the
owner of the property to be expropriated says will open the
way for expropriation of neighboring waterfront proverties

for municipal recreation use.

’ Council gave three readings to
the new bylaw in a special Thurs-
day night rneeting, which was call-
ed after a Dec. 15 Supreme Court
decision by Myr. Justice Josiah
Wood ruled illegal the municipali-
ty’s original bylaw to expropriate a
waterfront property west of John
Lawson Park.

But a_ representative of the
property’s owner, Thorcon Enter-
prises Ltd., said neither he nor any
other members of the company
were told about the special meeting
until it was over.

“It was a total shock,’’ George
Cragg said Friday. ‘Our lawyer
was not notified about the 4 p.m.

meeting until 6 p.m. We are very.

upset with the way West Van-
couver is acting in this matter.’’

The company’s 1734 Argyle
Ave, property is one of the five
remaining between 18th Street and
Ambleside Park that West Van-
couver wants for future waterfront
recreation development, and Cragg
said owners of the other four pro-
perties ‘‘are wondering who will be
next.’’

But West Vancouver deputy
municipal manager Doug Allan
said the municipality’s lawyer at-
tempted to contact Thorcon’s
lawyer by telephone at 1 p.m., and
when he was unsuccessful sent a
notification of the meeting by
FAX to his law office at 2 p.m.

In his Dec. 15 decision, Justice
Wood ruled that the original bylaw
adopted Aug. 22 to expropriate
Thorcon's property ‘‘for municipal
purposes’’ was too vague.

In the revised bylaw the ‘‘For
municipal purposes’’ designation
has been replaced with ‘‘For
pleasure, recreation or community
uses of the public...’”

Justice Wood said an expropria-
tion bylaw that did not have to
disclose its purpose would make it
virtually impossible for the person
whose land was being expropriated
to determine the expropriation’s
legality.

But he also said the municipality
acted properly throughout negotia-
tions with Thorcon and the subse-
quent expropriation process. He
ruled the expropriation was done

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
- News Reporter

for no illegal or ulterior purpose
for the municipality other than ‘‘to
expropriate the property for
pleasure, recreation or community
uses of the public.”

He awarded Thorcon a_ half
day’s legal and other costs for the
three-day hearing.

The original expropriation bylaw
was passed after West Vancouver’s
negotiations to acquire the Thor-
con property reached an impasse in
July. .

Consistent with the long-range
plan of developing waterfront be-

-tween Dundarave and Ambleside

Park for recreation purposes, West
Vancouver needs the property to
complete its waterfront seawall
and a hiking trail from 25th Street
to Cleveland Dam.

When the 8,000-square-foot
property was originally listed for
sale at the beginning of the year,
the asking price of approximately
$700,000 was considered excessive
by the municipality.

Thorcon purchased the property
for $535,000, a price that Allan
said the municipality ‘*was not
given to understand was even in
the ballpark.”’

The municipality subsequently
offered to upgrade the duplex-
zoned property to permit construc-
tion of a three or four-plex in ex-
change for the waterfront required
for the seawall, but rejected a
subsequent Thorcon development
plan.

West Vancouver also offered
Thorcon municipal land in the
Westport area in exchange for
Argyle property, but Cragg said
the deal ‘‘was a joke’’ and was re-
jected.

Thorcon, he said, is willing to
negotiate with the municipality for
a solution that will ‘‘make
everyone happy, but they don’t
seem to be willing to negotiate.”

Cragg said Thorcon ws happy
with the Supreme Court decision,
‘because it agreed that they (the
municipality) were not doing their
homework.”*