North Vancouver District council voted to defer the Maplewood Innovation District project until after the October municipal election following a public campaign over the past two weeks that asked council to slow down the process.
Five councillors voted on Monday evening to defer first reading of the employment and residential project, jointly proposed by Darwin Properties and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation on a 45-acre former gravel quarry.
The deferral motion was put forward by Coun. Robin Hicks, saying more time was needed to absorb this proposal. Couns. Roger Bassam and Mathew Bond voted against the deferral. Mayor Richard Walton said he was worried the project would have become the sole focus of the municipal election if the public process had taken place leading up to the Oct. 20 election.
This proposal has been underway for much of this council’s time, Walton added, saying council had the “knowledge and experience and continuity” to deal with it instead of passing it on to the next council that might have several new members.
“But as mayor, I have a broader concern, a concern that focuses on the process of municipal elections as a constructive and forward-thinking dialogue, debate and vote on the future of our community,” Walton added. “And what I fear is that instead this project may cause the election to become a forum on a specific development only, if the full public process takes place in the weeks leading up to the October election.”
The Maplewood North Lands is being proposed as an “Innovation District” with 1.4 million square feet of business floor area, 680 rental units and 220 “education-oriented” rooms, for Capilano University students and faculty members, $7.5 million in community amenities, road and trail network construction as well as stream and habitat protection measures.
There will also be improvements to Dollarton Highway and other road improvements.
Walton said many residents have responded to the project with “limited amounts of information, some of it third hand, some of it inaccurate and some of it quite frankly just completely wrong.” He added that many of the concerns about infrastructure capacity, traffic planning and the public process could be addressed through “constructive dialogue.”
“There seems to be a lack of understanding about the history and ownership of the land, its current zoning and the development rights associated with it,” Walton said.
Coun. Lisa Muri, who also voted for the deferral, said she thought everyone in the council chambers wanted to have jobs and affordable housing on the North Shore “but not at the expense of further gridlock in our community and not at the expense of not understanding the environmental impact in the areas that we hold so dear, the Maplewood Conservation Area.”
Muri was also critical of the communication process, saying that while the developer followed the process, the district’s communication process was “minimal” for a project this size.
Bond acknowledged the traffic woes on the North Shore, but said that not enough housing has been built for the next generation of people coming to North Vancouver. If we continue to defer difficult decisions “our window of opportunity to make a significant difference for those people who need those homes and need those jobs will be closed,” Bond said.
In his comments on the motion to defer, Bassam said he agreed with Walton that the current council was capable of making that decision and that it had been a lengthy process to get to this point.
“Deferring it frankly seems to me to be abrogating our responsibility as elected officials to make difficult decisions,” Bassam said.
After the deferral motion passed, several community members spoke about how they felt they didn’t have enough information, and several expressed gratitude at the deferral.
The project site is home to temporary student housing, a child-care centre and two businesses, but also has forested areas and other greenspace. Darwin Properties and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation bought the land in 2015 from the Port of Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver started a public process in February 2016 to rezone the property. Starting in April 2016, district staff held open houses and a design charrette as well as stakeholder meetings to come up with a plan for the area.
This resulted in an addition to the Maplewood Plan, which council approved in November 2017. Based on these changes, council adopted an OCP amendment in February 2018.
Oliver Webbe, president of Darwin Properties said in a statement after council’s decision to defer the proposal, that the work with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation has been a “multi-year process” to bring jobs and purpose-built rental housing to the North Shore.
“Together we worked diligently to ensure our proposal considered every aspect called for in the official community plan,” Webbe said in the statement.
“However, council has spoken and we will be taking time to regroup on what the next steps will be.”
The site is currently zoned for mining, garbage disposal and soil filtering.
The developer has held two community open houses at the property and, despite the decision from council, has plans for more open houses. The next one is today and there will be six more until mid-September.
For open house dates and location, go to nsidlands.ca.
