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NEWS photo Cindy Goodman

Friday, March 27, 1992 — North Shore News - 3

Cates Park seawalk proposal panned

Residents pack town hall meeting to air development concerns

A PROPOSED seawalk for Cates Park was unani- mously rejected by almost 200 east Seymour residents who packed a ‘‘town hall meeting’? at Dorothy Lynas Elementary School on Wednesday evening.

By Martin Millerchip Contributing Writer

The meeting was organized by North Vancouver District Council and staff as part of a continuing Program promised during the 1990 municipal election campaign to improve access to council.

While the opportunity to meet face to face with planning staff and police, fire and environmental representatives was welcomed by the large crowd, most audience members attended the meeting to voice concerns over local devel- opment.

And while there were several planning issues that were used as sticks and stones to lob at Mayor

NORTH VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL

Water commuters in Indian Arm said they have waited 2% years for the district to provide a solution to their moorage prob- lems and that all they have achieved is a commitment from the new owners of the Seycove Marina to provide moorage for another six months.

“You say you’ve got no money. Yes you do. You just cancelled the seawalk,"’ said one Indian Arm resident to applause.

Jeremy Drake deplored the loss of single-family zoning.

Said Drake, ‘lt appears to me that whenever a multi-family zon- ing comes up this council pushes it through.*’ :

Marnie Hodgins

asked why

44 We don’t want Coney Island.

NVD MAYOR Murray Dykeman greeted nearly 200 east Seymour area residents at a town hall meeting at Dorothy Lynas School on Wednesday night. Many came to condemn plans for a seawalk connecting Cates Park to Deep Cove. Further town hail meetings are scheduled for the north Lonsdale area on June 17 and the west

Murray Dykeman and his aldermen none created as much unanimous disapproval as the conceptual plan for a seawalk

Maybe we need the

Seymour area on Sept. 16.

District residents face 14% tax hike in municipal budget

$130 increase for average home in draft budget

WHAT'S THE damage?

’ By Martin Millerchip Contributing Writer

That was the basic question Tuesday night from a small group of North Vancouver District residents who sat through three hours of pres- entations and questions about the district’s 1992 draft municipal budget.

- The answer?

Property taxes will increase $130 on an ‘‘average’’ single- family residence assessed at $210,000 in 1990.

But council and senior staff, who almost equalled the size of their audience, pointed out that nothing in the budget had been finalized yet.

The meeting allowed district voters some input into the budget process: District director of finance Michael Hoskin said that input will also be sought next year as a result of recommendations from a4 corporate review of district operations.

The district’s 1992 draft budget shows the municipality considering a $52.4 million operating budget, which Hoskin said was an increase of 7.5% over 1991,

The 7.5% figure includes a 5.2% increase to continue “basic”? services and a 2.3% increase for proposed addi- tional services.

Hoskin explained, however, that because the district is pro- jecting a decline in revenues from its own reserves and earned interest, actual expen- ditures could increase by as much as 10.7% to maintain present levels of service and climb another 3.3% to cover additional services.

That total percentage in-

aarp er oa pte etapa NORTH VANCOUVER

DISTRICT COUNCIL

crease in expenditures will be financed mostly by municipal property tax hikes to raise the tequired $4.5 million.

Hoskin offered a rough rule of thumb for residential tax in- creases: every 1% change in the tax level produces a $10 change in property taxes.

Some areas of increase in the

draft budget are: @ a 13% increase in the police budget to pay for a new con- tract and six additional of- ficers;

*@ the operation of the Karen

Magnussen wave pool;

@ additional staff, including recycling and waste manage- ment positions and _ social planning positions;

@ a commitment to increased youth services.

Several speakers at the meeting urged council to direct staff departments io submit budgets at 1990 levels or budgets no greater than the rate of inflation.

They also questioned the need to maintain the same level of services in the district.

John Bremner, district direc- tor of engineering services, pointed out that such costs as those of the police contract and Greater Vancouver Water District water rates were beyond the municipality’s con- trol.

Warned Bremner, ‘‘All of the municipalities in the GVRD (Greater Vancouver Regional District) are in for some hor- rendous increases over the next few years.”’

Ald. Joan Gadsby said that it should be possible to provide fer increased services by in- creasing efficiency.

“*T will not support anything

that excedes inflation,’’ said Gadsby.

Ald. Ernie Crist questioned the use of funds from land sales to pay for road construc- tion and maintenance, which he has argued should be paid for out of operating costs rather than the capital costs portion of the budget.

‘“Do you believe that land, a diminishing resource, should be sold for road patching?’’ he asked the gallery.

Ald. Janice Harris also sug- gested that the district should improve its categorization of capital and operating costs.

She then said the decision to proceed with the Northlands golf course should be put to a public referendum.

Harris also pointed to the idea of a heritage seawalk link- ing all of the district’s water- front and said that it would cost millions of dollars over the years.

“The community has to start talking about where the reve- nue of land sales should go,’’ said Harris.

Ald. Paul Turner reminded the gallery that, ‘‘We speak with forked tongues some- times.

“You applaud for tax cuts but also ask for your pet neighborhood project. You can have anything you want, but you cannot have everything you want.””

Ald. Buchols said an Operating budget increase of 5% to 712% was too high.

Mayor Murray Dykeman said it was difficult to protect and maintain ‘‘the asset of our community.’”

He pointed tc unsafe school playing fields in the district that have not been maintained for economic reasons: ‘We have $% million of dirt with no practical program that we can put on it.’’

linking Cates Park to Deep Cove.

Harvey Burt said imitating West Vancouver's seawalk would cost millions in land expropriation or result in the environmentally ques- tionable choice of locating it down on the foreshore.

“Ives an ill-conceived recom- mendation to begin with. It’s in- conceivable to me that in this day and age any planner could con- sider putting a 10-, 15- or 20-foot asphalt walk on the beach,"’ said Burt.

‘*People move here for the nat- ural beauty. Why not leave it as it is? If you have this kind of money to spend, there are schools, youth projects, libraries and emergency services to spend it on,"’ he con- cluded.

Dykeman said the idea was only conceptual and arose from the district’s parks and_ recreation masier plan.

But resident said that that “bull.”

Anderson said that he had sat on three different advisory design panels over 20 years where the same idea had been rejected,

“This has been turned down three times and you are still throwing it in our face,’’ said Anderson.

**We don’t want Coney Island. Maybe we need the municipality of Deep Cove. You people say you’ve been listening, but I want to know who you’ve been listening to,"’ said another resident.

Finally, one speaker asked if anyone at the meeting was in favor of the walk.

Nobody raised a hand.

Other development issues that sparked questions included: . @ access tO commuter moorage in Deep Cove for Indian Arm resi- dents;

@ multi-family development;

@ the stalled townhouse project at Ostler Court;

@ the proposed development on the Burrard Indian Band lands.

Bruce Anderson was so much

municipality of Deep Cove. ¥9

- Deep Cove resident

there were no maps illustrating the siting of a 66-unit townhouse de- velopment located at the end of Ostler Court overlooking Deep. Cove Road.

Council has given Mountain Province Investment Consultants four extensions of its permit to build the stalled project, . which was to have had its foundations poured in October 1989.

In the meantime the surroun- ding neighborhood has been com- pleted on schedule by individual owners, and residents resent the exceptions made for Mountain Province and fear the disruption that could be caused by heavy equipment travelling to the site through narrow neighborhood streets.

Dykeman promised a neighborhood meeting with the developer in the next few weeks to resolve the issue of access.

The mayor also told the meeting of Burrard Band plans to develop a golf driving range at the foot of Apex Avenue.

Dykeman said the band would Operate as good neighbors and noted a planned buffer strip, east/west alignment and lighting that would point away from ex- isting houses.

He also promised an opportuni- ty for concerned residents to comment on housing development planned for band land at the bot- tom of Indian River Drive.

Other scheduled district town hail meetings are set for:

@ June 17, for the north Lons- dale area; @ Sept. 16,

for the western Seymour area. :

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