NORTH SHORE

MOREE Poe eh be fe

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MEWS photo Tey Peters

NORTH SHORE residents awoke Friday to discover two centimetres of new snow — more snow in one night, than during all of last year — and North Shore ski hills reported more than 10 centimetres of snow

- and good ¢ conditions. At Ridgeway Elementary School in North Vancouver Friday morning, Abeir Had- dad and Mike Pehlivan discovered:the wet white stuff is perfect for making snowballs.

Holiday fashions sizzle PAGE 27

First bylaw

Bridging generation gap PAGE 57

shot down

by 8.C. Supreme Court

WEST

VANCOUVER District Council will

finalize a

revamped expropriation bylaw Monday morning that the owner of the property to be expropriated says will open the way for expropriation of neighboring waterfront proverties

for municipal recreation use.

’ Council gave three readings to the new bylaw in a special Thurs- day night rneeting, which was call- ed after a Dec. 15 Supreme Court decision by Myr. Justice Josiah Wood ruled illegal the municipali- ty’s original bylaw to expropriate a waterfront property west of John Lawson Park.

But a_ representative of the property’s owner, Thorcon Enter- prises Ltd., said neither he nor any other members of the company were told about the special meeting until it was over.

“It was a total shock,’’ George Cragg said Friday. ‘Our lawyer was not notified about the 4 p.m.

meeting until 6 p.m. We are very.

upset with the way West Van- couver is acting in this matter.’’

The company’s 1734 Argyle Ave, property is one of the five remaining between 18th Street and Ambleside Park that West Van- couver wants for future waterfront recreation development, and Cragg said owners of the other four pro- perties ‘‘are wondering who will be next.’’

But West Vancouver deputy municipal manager Doug Allan said the municipality’s lawyer at- tempted to contact Thorcon’s lawyer by telephone at 1 p.m., and when he was unsuccessful sent a notification of the meeting by FAX to his law office at 2 p.m.

In his Dec. 15 decision, Justice Wood ruled that the original bylaw adopted Aug. 22 to expropriate Thorcon's property ‘‘for municipal purposes’’ was too vague.

In the revised bylaw the ‘‘For municipal purposes’’ designation has been replaced with ‘‘For pleasure, recreation or community uses of the public...’”

Justice Wood said an expropria- tion bylaw that did not have to disclose its purpose would make it virtually impossible for the person whose land was being expropriated to determine the expropriation’s legality.

But he also said the municipality acted properly throughout negotia- tions with Thorcon and the subse- quent expropriation process. He ruled the expropriation was done

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW - News Reporter

for no illegal or ulterior purpose for the municipality other than ‘‘to expropriate the property for pleasure, recreation or community uses of the public.”

He awarded Thorcon a_ half day’s legal and other costs for the three-day hearing.

The original expropriation bylaw was passed after West Vancouver’s negotiations to acquire the Thor- con property reached an impasse in July. .

Consistent with the long-range plan of developing waterfront be-

-tween Dundarave and Ambleside

Park for recreation purposes, West Vancouver needs the property to complete its waterfront seawall and a hiking trail from 25th Street to Cleveland Dam.

When the 8,000-square-foot property was originally listed for sale at the beginning of the year, the asking price of approximately $700,000 was considered excessive by the municipality.

Thorcon purchased the property for $535,000, a price that Allan said the municipality ‘*was not given to understand was even in the ballpark.”’

The municipality subsequently offered to upgrade the duplex- zoned property to permit construc- tion of a three or four-plex in ex- change for the waterfront required for the seawall, but rejected a subsequent Thorcon development plan.

West Vancouver also offered Thorcon municipal land in the Westport area in exchange for Argyle property, but Cragg said the deal ‘‘was a joke’’ and was re- jected.

Thorcon, he said, is willing to negotiate with the municipality for a solution that will ‘‘make everyone happy, but they don’t seem to be willing to negotiate.”

Cragg said Thorcon ws happy with the Supreme Court decision, ‘because it agreed that they (the municipality) were not doing their homework.”*