hackles rise over seniors facility

ALTHOUGH MAYOR Mark Sager described their concerns as ‘“prema- ture,” residents of West Vancouver’s Cedardale area are alarmed about the possibility of a 150-bed long term care facility being “plunked” in their single-family neighbor- hood.

West Vancouver District Council By Maureen Curtis

Cedardale is located south of the Upper Levels Highway and just east of Taylor Way.

At their July 18 meeting, West Vancouver District Council! members said-that they had just learned that the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) had taken an option to buy the five-acre Gibson Estate site in Cedardale.

Coun. Andy Danyliu, for- merly a resident of the Cedardale community, went to hat for his old neighborhuod.

He suggested a better use for the land, which includes a salmon-bearing stream, would be a GVRD mini-interpretive nature centre.

As a member of the GVRD hospital subcommittee, Coun. Diana Hutchinson countered by citing the extreme need for a multi-level care facility for seniors in West Vancouver.

“Jt is appropriate that this possibility be explored,” said Hutchinson.

Mayor Sager said West Vancouver had for some time been lobbying the GVRD fora long-term care facility.

“If this community doesn’t want housing for seniors and doesn’t want long-term care for seniors, we had better hurry and tell everyone,” said Hutchinson.

Banyliu said he was in favor of a long-term care facil- ity in West Vancouver but not in a single-family neighbor- hood.

He asked how the proposal would be received in similar neighborhoo:.s in the western

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Friday, July 22, 1994 - North Shore News - 3

worries

Traffic woes top neighborhood list at Capilano College expansion meeting

RESIDENTS IN North Vancouver District’s Purcell Way and Lillooet Road area are worried that a recently announced addition to Capilano College will worsen the neighborhood traffic problem, which they say is already dan- gerous.

NORTH VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL By Martin Millerchip

The next stage of the college’s master plan calls for a new $19.5 million student services and classroom building that will increase the campus population by 400 students.

Although funding for the project has been announced and the building contracts have been put out to tender, the college still requires approval from North Vancouver District Council for amendments tc its zoning bylaw.

Ata public hearing on July 12 council heard from college neighbors who were nervous about the impact an increasing college student popula- tion will have on the already crowded roads in the area.

Some Purcell Way residents said they can barely get out of their complex at certain times

intersection should have a traffic light.

Purcell Way resident Glen Maddess described himself as “a friend of the college” having completed most of his undergraduate work there.

Maddess said he had no problem with the Capilano College Master Plan as “a plan that addresses college needs,” but he asked whether any impact assessment had been done on the neighborhood.

“There is already a high degree of parking problems, traffic and, with the young age of some of the students, sometimes speeding,” said Maddess.

He said parking on local roads should be controlled with resident permits and that Purcell Way should be closed as an entrance route to the college.

James Lewis agreed. “The district is going to have to do something about the increased traf- fic. I calculate that the first stage to 4,800 (stu- dents) will be like building 200 extra houses at the end of my road.

“A student access road should be a condition of approval.”

College planning director Alan Smith told the meeting that the college has been working with the local strata councils to alleviate traffic problems.

He said the college supports the call for resi- dent permit-parking and a signal-controlled

sharing the cost of a new access road off Lillooet with the district.

The proposed road would run over a B.C. Hydro right-of-way to the college’s south park- ing lot from a point on Lillooet opposite the Coach House Inn.

But Purcell Way resident David Bowyer questioned whether the road would serve the residents well if it were only a one-way entrance.

In a letter to council Bowyer wrote, “It is totally ludicrous to imagine that this access road is being planned as only a single direction road.

“This would remove only half of the traffic volume and would not solve the problem at all.”

Questions put to Smith from Lewis and sev- eral council members established that the 7,000 full-time students predicted in the college mas- ter plan will actually include 10,006 full and part-time students.

That information, coupled with Smith's con- firmation that up to 85% of the college's stu- dents use cars and thai the college will be insti- tuting paid parking for the first time this September further raised resident fears of increased traffic congestion in the area.

Smith said there were two reasons for the move away from free parking: the Ministry of Education’s refusal to pay for a parking lot and roadway maintenance at the college and the col- lege’s own efforts to encourage car pooling and

of the day.

They said the Purcell Way and Lillooet Road

intersection.

Hydrogen hailed as a clean fue! option

From page 1

lived, require low maintenance and have no moving parts.

Rendina said the disadvantage in using metal hydrides is their weight, which often means reduced vehicle propulsion efficiency. But semi-displacement and full-dis- placement ships require Jarge quan- tities of dead weight material as ballast, in order to maintain stabili- ty. By carrying hydrogen in a bal- last compartment safely separate from the vessel, many of the SeaBus’s support functions can be carried out through inexpensive and efficient hydrogen-hydride reac- tions.

The benefits to the environment are obvious, Rendina added, since hydrogen does not emit a CO waste product. Hydrogen technolo- gies would also eliminate the risk of oil spills and would provide ship owners with a competitive alterna- tive to petroleum-based fuels.

Rendina estimated that Canadian Oxy’s plant. which is located beneath the Ironworkers Memorial (Second Narrows) Bridge, produces enough hydrogen during 19.5 days of its normal oper- ation to operate the SeaBus for a whole year. This is one reason the SeaBus is a relatively practical try- out for the Hydrogen Hydride Keel.

At this point, without knowing which metal hydride the SeaBus

would use, which kind of engine it would employ or how much Canadian Oxy’s hydrogen waste. would cost, Rendina could not make an estimate of the costs of the prototype or its operation. He antic- ipates a development phase of three years hefore production can begin. Rendina’s current plan is to devel- op one prototype SeaBus to replace one of the three currently operating between Vancouver and the Lonsdale Quay.

Though the provincial govern- ment hasn’t yet committed itself to backing the hydrogen-powered SeaBus, Rendina said, “We've had some very encouraging response from the Minister of Employment, Investment, Science and Technology.”

Case, an engineer and naval architect, also spoke about the pro- ject. As the designer and general contractor of the aluminum catama- ran known as the SeaBus, Case holds the copyright to the craft. He noted that the SeaBus would be an ideal candidate for hydrogen power because it is a displacement craft rather than a planing boat, and thus would have less difficulty accom- modating the additional weight of the metal hydride.

Case, who is currently working for Boeing, said he is feaving that company shortly to.devote himself full-time to this project. “We're fuily behind David,” he xaid.

Do you think the provincial school year is too short?

Tracy Howe West Vancouver

I think the school year should continue all year

long.

Mrs. Devitt West Vancouver

Smith said the college had proposed in 1991

I definitely thick the school year is far too short.

See College page 5

NEWS photo Mike Waketieid

DAVID RENDINA holds up two components of his design for a hydrogen-powered SeaBus — a tank and a meta! hydride.

QUANTITY IS tied to quality, according to some parents, who believe the school year in the province is too short. Time spent by teachers in lesson instruction appears to many parents as decreasing in recent years. The summer school break lasts more than two months.

Steve Rasmus

North Vancouver District

T think the school year is just right. It could be shorter, in fact,

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:

Should the Montroyal connector be built, creating a parallel northern route to the Trans-Canada Highway?