NATURE SANCTUARY URGED

NV District Council hears plea from mudflat conservationists

AN OVERFLOWING North Vancouver District Council chamber crowd listened approvingly Monday night to a

delegation of naturalist and

environmental organizations

outline plans for a nature sanctuary on the Maplewood

mudflats.

Stamatis Zogaris, representing the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and the Vancouver Natural History Society, urged council to zone the = entire Maplewood mudflats a ‘conserva- tion area’ and to support the move to ask the Vancouver Port Cor- poration (VPC) to donate the area to the Nature Trust of British Col-

MARTIN MI Contnbunng

umbia pending resolution of the Burrard Indian Band's outstanding general lands claim.

Burrard Band Chief Richard George said Tuesday the band is currently researching a com- prehensive tand claim which in-

matters

NORTH SHORE News’ columnist Mike Grenby answers questions from audience members during the News’ Monday night financial serninar called How to Make In- vesting Pay Off. The seminar, held at Centennia} Theatre, was a sold out show for the second year runn- ing, with over 700 local residents turning out to hear Grenby and a group of certified general accoun- tants speak about managing money aad offer tips about new tax laws, RRSPs and other aspects of per-

sonal finance.

cludes tne mudflats.

Said George, ‘*We oppose any development on the land. We would oppose the sanctuary only if it would prejudice our claims to the land. But we have been assured that it would nor."*

Said Zogaris to council.‘We are asking you to be visionaries. To visualize the small piece of land and water at Maplewood as a show-place for the district. A Maplewood Flats Wildlife Sanctu- ary offers the opportunity to bring together North Vancouver's greatest diversity of wildlife and

OPTIONS FOR ILLEGAL SUITE OCCUPANTS

NV District housing needs to be studied

THE SOCIAL Planning And Research Council Of B.C. (SPARC) will launch a study of unmet housing needs and options for illegal suite occupants in North Vancouver

District.

The $14,600 study will work in three major areas.

It will collect information on the relative number of people with dif- ferent demographic characteristics who experience difficulty in fin- ding suitable housing in the district by analysing existing data and in- terviewing provider and advocate housing agencies.

The study will collect informa- tion on the relative numbers of people with different social/ demographic characteristics (such as age, income occupation) who live in illegal suites and their reasons (such as cost, desire to live in a single-family neighborhood, ete.).

The information will be obtzin- ed from a random sample of 100 tenants and 100 owners drawn from the list of registered suites and a questionnaire will be sent to the balance of the addresses on the list. Confidentiality will be guaran- teed and owners will have the op- tion of contacting the district and being excluded from the study.

By MARTIN MILLERCHIP Contributing Writer

The study will also consider alternative options for meeting the housing needs of those who now live in illegal suites and develop

recommendations for meeting those needs.

But Ald. Craig Clark was not convinced that he would learn

anything new from the study.

“It's not a question of who's living in them (illegal suites) and who isn’t living in them,’* he said,**it’s a question that there’s a shortage of housing, and there’s only one way to change that and that's to provide more housing.”’

Clark said councii should lobby the federal government for the return of investment tax conces- sions in the area of social housing.

But Ald. Rick Buchols, who ultimately was the only alderman to vote against the study, said lob- bying the federal government was beyond council’s mandate and that the $14,600 should be saved.

“Give me $150 and half an hour and I'll write it (the report) for you,’ he said,

istrict, Ald. -“Give me $150 and balf an hour and Pit write (the report) for you.”

NORTH Vancouver Rick Buchols ..

But Ald. Bill Rodgers was not convinced :‘‘Unlike my learned colleagues, [| don’t know all the answers.”’

“If we are dealing with say 2,000 legal suites,’* Rodgers said,

3 - Wednesday, January 18, 1989 - North Shore News

human residents. Schoal children and 2ducators will have a living classroom. The Reifel bird sanctu- ary in Delta has 25,000 visitors each summer and hundreds of school classes visiting it each year? Zogaris went on to remind council that before development of the North Shore, 12 kilometres of marshland stretched from the Capilano estuary to Maplewood. “This is extreme loss of fish and wildlife habitat,’’ he said. “Maplewood flats is a very small chance to get a litle of what was once an abundant habitat produc-

.

“all of which are occupied by single parents then we must design and plan for housing developments that meet those needs. However if they represent 10 per cent of the total illegal suites and the balance is made up of perhaps welfare or disability pension recipients then we afe going to have to design a completely different type of hous- ing program.’’

Mayor Marilyn Baker pointed out that councii had made a unan- imous commitment 'o a follow-up social planning study when it adopted the illegal suite registra- tion program and had budgeted $10,000 in 1988 to that end.

**} feel the expansion by $5,000 of this study is warranted, and I feel confident it will give everyone the full opportunity to respond,"’ Baker said.

North Vancouver City is pres- ently studying the issue of social housing and how illegal suites uf- fect the rental housing market. The city is also cracking down on some iHegal suite operators and plans to take at least a half a dozen illegal Suite cases [0 COUrL.

Rental housing is currently at a premium on the North Shore with average vacancy rates hovering just above zero per cent.

tive again.”"

Zogaris presented sighting reports to back up the claim that 186 species of birds and 17 native mammals presently use Maplewood as a shelter, feeding, breeding and/or migratory staging area.

A petition containing ‘several thousand names of North Van- couver residents’’ favoring the full Protection of the area was pres- ented (to council, which will discuss the delegation’s requests at its Jan. 23 meeting.

NEWS photo Cindy Beliemy

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Wednesday, a few showers. Thursday, cloudy with periods of cain, Highs near 8°C.

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