A7 - Sunday News, December 28, 1980

CR ronal bo x

Highrise lot owner replies Group should pay

Dear Editor:

As part owner of one of apartment sites in the Ambleside area, I write in connection with your editonal appearing in the December 3, 1980, issue concerning the West Vancouver Council's defeat of the proposed zoning by- law amendment that wouid have banned further high- rise construction. Having lived on the site all my life I am not sure, however, that | qualify as a “developer” with whose rights you seem so unconcermed.

You say that “Six public hearings had also indicated widespread community support for the down- zoning.” That is not a very accurate statement as only two of the hearings dealt specifically with the apart- ment issue. At both, the support for the amendment came almost exclusively from the owners of con- dominiums in the upper floors of adjacent high-rise apartment buildings, the constuction of which had partially blocked other peoples’ views. There was no wide-spread community support for the down-zoning. Indeed, 1 would suggest that

the most important com- munity interest involved was seeing that the owners of the few sites left in the apart- ment area were not treated with the gross unfairness that would have resulted from down-zoning at this late stage in the development of the area.

Permit me to say a few words with respect to the merits of high-rise apart- ments as compared with those of the so-called low density, three-storey type prosposed in the amend- ment:

1. This site, the ownership of which is in my family. comprises three water-front lots having a total frontage of approximately 150 feet. A high-nse apartment block will be built in the main on the middle lot, thus providing wide sideyards which, added to those of adjoining sites, will provide adequate views through to the sea for occupiers of suites in the blocks to the north.

2. The Community Plan you mentioned speaks of Maintaining or creating “view corndors§ through properties from public pedestrian areas” and Maintaining - “street level

views”. Does a_ high-rise block with wide sideyards not better meet this critenon than a tree-storey structure with 15-foot sideyards? The Eikos Report, which formed the basis of the Community Plan with respect to apart- ment zone revisions, does not answer this question.

3. The Ejikos Report recommeded terraced construction for the

remaining water-front sites, such recommendation being illustrated by hazy drawings of developments in Swit- zerland and Australia on what appear to be slopes of some 45 degrees. This site is not like that at all -- the land is comparatively level and only a few feet below street level. The middle lot ts not more than 4 feet above the railway track. The site is thus not suitable for terraced construction.

4. Further, the Report does not consider the impact of the railway track, the existence of which rein- forces the unsuitability of the site for a terraced-type building. Th fact, the Report recommends that new development should “step down the slope to tie into the pedestrian walkway” as though the rathway track was

Hooker slaps face of citizens

Dear Editor:

In your front page headlines dated 17 December, 1980 you un-

derlined the words, “Task Force slapped in face”, in

referring to Hooker Chemical’s announcement that they plan to spend $14 millon upgrading = their pliant

Hf someone slapped you in the face, your natural

reaction ts to slap them back (unicss you are one that beheves in turning the other check) Well beheve me. there are many of us who

Licences probed

Dear kdttor

lhave been apporntcd asa apecial Committee to review the

concerning incquities under

busness hccoace by law

the present schedule of fu cace lecs

1 would appreciate deters from anyone who pays the the

Dastrct of North Vancouver

business lacencc to and considers the tate inc quitable with particulars to AsASIst one in revicwing the by The

Miccted to

law letters should be

myself oat) the distance tt maunticrpal tall

John RO lakes

Alderman

Nuonth Vancouver

Sy CoS ACES ICES)

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will not turn the other check to this contemptuous move by Hooker Chemical. A slap im the face for the Task Force ts a slap in the face for the Distmct and we are citizens who make up the Distnict.

We must give our full support to Distnct Council in it's move to update and put teeth into the bylaw prohibiting the bulk storage above ground of hazardous chemicals. In fact one finds st hard to understand the thinking of those on Council who did not add their unanimous support to

something so vitally im- portant to the health and well being of the citizens they serve. All thanks to Alderman Gordon Rose for making public the fact that Hooker was the only big chemical company in Canada who did not send a representative to the con- ference on hazardous matenals recently held in Toronto and to which the Council sent representauives

Just’ another” gesture of comtempt) Hooker has to Bo

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not in between. The existing apartment blocks have sensibly been kept well back and above the railway track. 5. Lastly, from an aesthetic point of view, we have examples in the community of terraced-type apartment buildings. I do not behheve many people would contend that they are pleasing to the eye or that further con- struction of such buildings would improve the quality of the apartment zone. Fur- thermore, a_ high-rise building, using only about a quarter of the surface of the site, allows for much better uthzation of the land for landscaping and beautification.

The community interest was well served by the defeat of the proposed zoning by- law amendment.

Herbert E. Ray West Vancouver

Dear Editor:

In his letter to Mailbox on Nov. 26, 1980 Alderman Lanskail supports Parents for French m thei bid for French Immersion in West Vancouver secondary schools.

I do not believe, as Mr. Lanskail does, that the economic and cultural sur- vival of Canada depends upn bihngualism.

Furthermore, I do not want to be taxed m order to create his vision of Canada. Myself and many other tax- payers im West Vancouver are deeply concerned by in- flation and taxes. We do not want increased school board spending. we want it decreased. We do not want to be told of any federal grants for education that will cover French pmmersion, as. it all comes from the same pockets — ours.

If Parents for French want French wummersion courses

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they should pay all the costs involved by sending their children to private schools that offer such specialized courses.

West Vancouver tax- payers concerned about tax increases, should be aware of this promotion that will mcrease school taxes, and write im protest to the West Vancouver School Board.

Thelma Johnson West Vancouver

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