Wateriront encroachment raises row

Council disagrees with staff over property expansion approval

WHAT MUNICIPAL staff has given, can West Van- couver District Council take away?

By Maureen Curtis Contributing Writer

The question was raised at Monday night’s council meeting when Ald. Pat Boname made a motion to revoke a permit issued by West Vancouver’s director of operations Barry Lambert enabl- ing waterfront’ residen: Eric Cardwell to build a fence that en- croaches on a piece of publicly- owned land adjacent to West Vancouver’s Stearman beach.

“We are not in agreement with the director of operations on this because of our waterfront plan,’’ said Ald. Boname.

Cardwell’s lawyer, Mary Helen Wright, referred to the 800 sq.-ft. piece of land involved as ‘‘a little notch.’’

But Ald. Ron Wood said, ‘‘It's 800 square feet of waterfront

property being incorporated into

WV Ald. Pat Boname... made motion to revoke permit.

the Cardwells’ property for their own use - at no cost.’”

Wright suggested that some provision could be made for the cost, but council is concerned because the district’s waterfront plan calls for the preservation of waterfront property for the public.

Council voted to table the mat- ter for two weeks to get lega! ad- vice, but some council members indicated they would vote to revoke tne permit and order Cardwell to restore the area to its previous condition by September.

“You would be inviting a lawsuit from these good citizens (the Cardwells),’’ warned Wright, who disputed that council would have the legal right to revoke a permit that had been legally ob- tained, particularly after the work had been done.

WEST VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL

The Cardwelis tive at Ross Cre:cent, which runs into Stear- man Avenue around the 4400- block of Marine Drive; the municipal property under discus- sion is at the southwest corner where the street’s lane access meets the beach.

The Cardwells have built a four-foot high fence that con- tinues in a line from the hedge that lies along the property behind them, which also encroaches on the lane.

Cardwell has also built a $40,000 seawall on the beachfront of his property which Wright says is for the ‘‘public benefit.”

Wright noted that council was not asking Cardwell to remove the seawall. She conceded that there had been an outcry from area neighbors over Cardwell’s new fence, but she said that the peti- tion they had gathered was based on “‘erronecus information and misconceptions.”*

She also questioned the validity of the petitios: because not all of the neighbors nad been approach- ed to sign it.

Wright added that Cardwell had purchased the property on the understanding ‘hat he could get the permit to build the fence; she exhibited a lettcy from Cardwell’s real estate agent «3 confirmation.

Responding t\ questions from council, Lamber« said it is com- mon practise for real estate agents or prospective ouyers to ask municipal staff about council’s policies on such matters and what would be permissible.

An agent, he said, might have been told that the Cardwell en- croachment could be permissible, but that no record of such a con- versation would be made.

Wright noted that many of the neighbors complaining about Cardwell’s encroachment were themselves encroaching on the public right-of-way.

Residents encroach on public land throughout the West Van- couver, and the municipality pians to examine the issue more closcly this year.

‘But this is different; this is waterfront,’”” said Ald. Diana Hutchinson.

Wright stated that council could reclaim the 800 square fect at any time the land was required but suggested that there was no hurry because there are no immediate plans for the area.

But Hutchinson said the municipality intended to develop a small park there.

““T suggest that such a little futch won't interfere with a park,”’ argued Wright.

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Friday. July 12, 1991 - North Shore News - 3

NEWS photo Cindy Goodman

LAUREL BURNE, 8, carries a sign protesting the use of an anti-depressant Prozac at Lions Gate Hospital. A smail group of people from the Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights, founded by the Church of Scientology, gathered Monday to demonstrate outside LGH.

LGH drug use protested

Human rights group questions Prozac policy at hospital

A HUMAN rights group affiliated with the Church of Scientology gathered Monday outside Lions Gate Hospital to protest the use of an anti-depressant drug thai they claim leads to suicidal thoughts and actions.

But the chief of psychiatry at LGH said the group is a ‘‘pro- paganda machine’’ dedicated (o the destruction of psychiatry.

The LGH demonstration was one of a series of protests held in the Lower Mainland by the Citi- zen’s Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a group founded by the Church of Scientology.

Waving placards reading ‘Pro- zac kills’ and ‘Prozac causes vio- lence,” the small group marched outside the hospital’s psychiatric wing on 13th Street.

According to Brian Beaumont, CCHR community relations direc- tor, the potential side effects of the anti-depressant Prozac include aggression, self-destructive out- bursts, hostility, terror and suicide.

Beaumont said the protest was held to raise public awareness of

_the potential harm caused by the

drug. But LGH psychiatry chief Dr. Paul E. Termansen said the drug

By Elizabeth Collings News Reporter

is effective and has minimum side effects.

“I don’t believe that any doc- tors on the North Shore have kad any adverse experience with it.’’

He added that while all drugs have a downside, Prozac had fewer negative side effects than other anti-depressants.

“It is not a miracle drug,”’ Termansen said. ‘‘It is one of the many drugs that we use for depression which is a_ serious, life-threatening illness and one for which treatment is absolutely essential; there are many patients whose lives have been dramatically improved by the use of Prozac.”’

He said the use of Prozac and other drugs is part of an overall treatment program for depressed patients, not the only form of treatment, as implied by CCHR

literature.

The drug was introduced in Canada in January 1989. Manufactured by Eli Lilly & Co., Prozac has been used to treat more than three million patients worldwide in less than three years.

According to a Wall Street Journal article, Eli Lilly stock prices plunged in 1990 following a number of fawsuits by Prozac users and their spouses in the U.S.A.

Termansen said Prozac may in- crease restlessness with some pa- tients but if the drug didn’t agree with them they would be taken off

it.

**Nobady forces a drug on you that you’re having an adverse reaction to. That doesn’t hap- pen,’ he said.

Reports that Prozac increases suicidal thoughts are hard to evaluate, Termansen said, because depressed patients often experi- ence suicidal thoughts while going through the phases of depression.

Termansen also criticized the CCHR, who he said did not ground their arguments against Prozac in factual information.

“ft think it’s good that people in the community take an interest in issues about drugs, they’re wel- come to, but I think we look to informed citizens’ groups, not groups who have a particular axe to grind of their own.”’

Charge laid in fatal crash

A NORTH Vancouver man has been charged with criminal negligence causing death following a March 30 car crash that killed a West Vancouver woman and set fire to a gas station pump.

Laverne Daryl Vanlerberghe, 43, will make his first court appearance on the charge July 18 in West Vancouver provin- cial court.

Meanwhile, Vanlerberghe faces another charge, also stemming from the March 30 incident, of possession of co- caine for the purpose of traf- ficking. He was ordered to stand trial on the drug charge July 2 and will appear Aug. 7 in B.C. Supreme Court to set a trial date.

By Elizabeth Collings News Reporter

Ingeborg Von Schlack, 54, was killed March 30 when a 1979 Mazda RX-7 left the road in the 1900-block of Marine Drive. The car then burst into flames after it crashed into a gas station pump.

She had been walking behind her husband of 21 years, Rudolph Von Schlack, 63, who was travelling in a wheelchair.

Von Schlack said he had not been aware that charges had been laid against Vanlerberghe and was angry at the three- month delay in laying the charges.

“*They charges the first said.

Von Schlack suffers from osteoporosis, esteo-arthritis of the spine and fibrositis and is often restricted to a wheelchair.

“She was my guide and my eyes and my ears and everything else. { miss her very much today and | don’t know what the future holds in store for me,”’ he said.

should have laid week,’’ he

Mrs. Von Schlack would have turned 65 today.