‘Suite’

reason

nenforceable laws are always bad laws—which is why it's high time North Shore councils cleaned up their ‘illegal suites’’ uct.

xisting bylaws limit the use of self-contained suites

in single-family

homes

to members of the

heuseholder’s own family. But municipalities have no idea how many such suites actually exist and ne prac- tical means of policing every home in their jurisdiction. Therefore, they content themselves with cracking down only on offending suite owners against whom a com-

plaint is laid.

Where the complaint is not based on any nuisance or inconvenience to the complainant, this becomes, in ef- fect, gross discrimination against a Giny handful of ia- dividual Gwuers who are punished merely for having vindictive neighbors, while (thousands just like them go

scot -free,

The only sane and fair answer is to license suites for use by anyone the owner chooses and to launch an in- spection program for ensuring they conform to health and fire safety requirements. That way, owners who

failed to license

their

suites could—when

discovered—have no beef about being closed down, and hundreds of now dangerously sub-standard suites

would be made safe.

in these tough economic times basement live-ins can often alleviate financial hardship for both renters and owners. If they cause a nuisance or incovenience to others, councils should deal with cases on their merits, with powers even to order evictions of tenants in ex- treme cases. This would mean REAL control.

Present ‘‘blind eye’’ policies simply label councils as

both weak and unjust.

CATS ON A HOT TIN ROOF might aptly describe West Van aldermen as next week’s public meeting on the proposed Caulfeild Plateau shopping mall looms. °

The November elections, when all six incumbents plus the mayor have to face the electors, are less than five months away. There’s a tidy little packet of votes up in them thar’ hills — where temperatures right now are rising fast.

Those deprived citizens con- demned to live in the less palatial parts of Tiddlycove may welcome a little background on what all the noise is about.

Bell Canada Enterprise Development Corporation (formerly Daon Development Corp.) wants to build a $10 mil- lion, 69,000 sq. ft. retail complex, including a 25,000 sq. ft. Safeway, on a five-acre commercially zoned site adjoining the stately homes of Headland Drive and Timberfeild. Many of the local residents are appalled and may have to be frisk-

ed for pitchforks when they de-

scend on the council chamber next Tuesday.

A number cf them don’t want the neighborhood sullied by any stores whatsoever, period. Some, point the finger at real estate salesmen, saying they were never even told of the possibility at the time they bought.

- at Timberfeild Road

For others, however, the key- issue is simply the size of the pro- ject — due apr :rently to a plann- ing miscalculation during the earlier development of the Plateau. The area zoned commercial was originally shown as approximately 3.5 acres. But when Timberfeild Road went in, it swung wide, ad- ding the additional acre or more which makes the site feasible for the BCED project.

BCED claims that the boundary of the commercial zoning was set and so, regardless of precisely where they wound up putting Timberfeild Road, that’s where it must remain. Whether the BCED folk would use the same logic if an acre or more had been lopped off the site, in- stead of added, is another ques- tion,

Council members face an unen- viable dilemma, While Plateau homeowners yell at them to stop the mall project, their legal options are strictly limited.

The development of Caulfeild Plateau as a whole — sanctioned by an earlier mayor and council in 1978 — is based on the old ‘land use contract’’ system, which was changed a year later by Victoria to the present ‘‘development permit’”’ system.

-ETTER OF THE DAY

To the woman

Dear Editor:

I would like to address these comments to a woman I met on Main Steet yesterday. I was travell- ing east in the lane marked ‘Van- couver, USE CURB LANE’. I've mumbled and complained about you all last winter but now that the long carefee days of summer have arrived I want to feel relaxed. So let’s talk!

I was innocently waiting my turn to get onto the Second Narrows Bridge approach. You were the one in the Honda with the CHILD ON BOARD ssticker. You sailed past me into the Deep Cove lane and after going through the in- tersection atempted to wedge your car in front of mine. I angled my car so this was impossible — you slippped in behind. I caught your eye in the rear-view mirror. You

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1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4

$7,656 taveraige Wednesde, Priheay SS Sasehayh

In general, the latter now gives councils much more hands-on con- trol over details of a development in such matters as size, site, density and design — whereas a land use contract could leave the developer free to do pretty well what he liked in those areas without council hav- ing any say.

There’s one little ray of light in the Caulfeild Plateau contract: a

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ed by some Plateau residents — killing the mall project altogether — is largely theoretical. For the present council, innocent of any pact in the 1978 deal, the only course would be to apply to the courts for an injunction and revi- sion of the contract in the public interest,

It would be a prolonged and messy business, costing West Van

Noel Wright

fee et ee /

clause making the acre or so ac- cidentally added to the commercial zone rank as a ‘‘minor amend- ment’’, which requires from coun- cil a development variance permit.

This at least gives council, back- ed by residents forcibly expressing their views at the public meeting, some leverage in impressing upon BCED the desirability of improv- ing the complex in other aspects, such as green strips, setbacks, landscaping and overall design. But that’s all.

The alternative option demand-

@ focus @

taxpayers a bundle in legal fees with no assurance of winning.

Judges tend to uphold the sane- tity of contracts unless they are clearly unconscionable. And how far the lifestyle preferences of a couple of hundred or so Plateau homeowners could be held to con- stitute ‘* the public interest”’ is a moot point.

Small wonder if vote-hungry council members, caught once more between a rock and a hard place they didn’t create, are feeling a bit tense about July 8.

! met on Main

were smiling and giving a wave to the person who had let you in. You caught my eye and_= scowling saluted me with your middle finger. That guy let you in not because he was caught up in the summer spirit but because he too had squeezed in the line. You are not alone, dozens of vou drive like this every morning!

Well, Honda, it’s time to have your child remind you of those

lessons you've been teaching him. You know, that stuff about shar- ing and taking your turn and not pushing to the head of the line. | don’t mind letting people in but when the same people calculate their moves and force their way to the front every day — that bugs me!

You can’t remain anonymous forever. Some day we are going to meet face to face! I'll be the school

Publisher: Editor-in-Chief News Editor Advertising Director

Peter Speck Noel Waytt Brarrett Fisher Linda Stewart

wt gia Gad hoe

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TERRORISM isn’t new, as two of today’s anniversaries remind us. On July 2, 1881 U.S. President Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau, a lawyer rejected for government office, at Washington railway station, dying later of his wounds. On the same day in 1915 Erich Muenter, a German teacher at Cornell University, exploded a bomb in the U.S. Senate building and, the following day, shot and wornded J.P.Morgan who was in cuarge of British government war contracts. :

This date also brought the ex- plosiou, in 1912, of the dirigible “Alcron’’ 2,000 ft. over Atlantic City, with the foss of its builder and four crew members. The pur- chase by England’s Prince Albert, in 1845, of the uniform Lord Nelson wore at the Battle of Trafalgar -- hitherto privately owned -- for 150 pounds. The death of astrologer Michel de Nostradamus (who predicted it ac- curately!) in 1556; ¢. _sycholgist Emile Coue (‘‘Every day in every way | become better and better’’) in 1926; and of writer Ernest Hem- ingway in 196].

Street!

principal, the client your husband brings home for dinner, your valued customer or the minister who christens your baby. That day you'll be embarrassed — I hope! Until that day, try to remember that my five minutes are important too! More importantly, I was THERE FIRST!

C. Carlin North Vancouver