What will the future of West Vancouver look like for Mayor Michael Smith’s grandkids?
That was the question the mayor posed Wednesday evening, extending the personal anecdote to the community at large, during an annual candid conversation with the West Vancouver Chamber of Commerce hosted at the West Vancouver Yacht Club.
“What will West Van look like when they become adults and will they want to stay in our community?” Smith said, imploring the local business community to help reinvigorate West Vancouver.
He bemoaned the current climate that makes it difficult to keep people in the community due to a lack of employment opportunities and affordable housing.
“We’ve lost a lot of people,” he noted.
With the total population of Metro Vancouver expected to increase 46 per cent during the next 25 years, West Vancouver is geared to absorb 14,000 people, the mayor said.
“Our growth targets are pretty realistic,” but, “let’s look at our housing today – we know that we have a real lack of diversity,” he said.
He took aim at the district’s multi-family rental units, noting the vast majority of them were built decades ago and rank among the most expensive in the region.
“A third of us are planning on moving in the next five years,” he said, citing the 2017 Vital Signs report from West Vancouver Community Foundation that states many West Vancouverites plan to move from their current homes but are pessimistic they’ll be able to find the right kind of housing in the district.
All of this is bad for business, Smith said, as the price of real estate makes it hard for young people or employees to live here.
“Communities like West Van have to accept that because we don’t have industrial land and we don’t have farms here we have to accept some increased density in housing. I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” he said.
The event provided a platform for the mayor to tout the district’s new economic development plan and its upcoming new official community plan, the municipality’s first OCP update since 2004.
West Vancouver needs to increase its reputation as a destination location for people looking to live, work, shop, go to school, socialize, and visit, Smith said, noting the economic development plan’s vision to encourage a boutique hotel, highlight the district’s parks, and hype local cultural assets.
“We have to get people to use our local businesses or we’re going to lose them,” Smith said. “We have Emily Carr paintings. We have some beautiful works of art … but you can’t see them because we have nowhere to display them.”
Although Smith noted West Van’s commercial areas are “not up to the standard that they should be” he said the district’s numerous land holdings could help build a future the community could be proud of.
District-owned land on Gordon Avenue, Fulton Avenue and Cypress Village were described as “opportunities for us as a community,” specifically Cypress Village, which Smith said could be considered the “jewel of West Van” 20 years from now if businesses are able to open shops, create housing opportunities, and provide a reason for people to visit.
He praised North Vancouver-Lonsdale MLA Bowinn Ma’s proposed Integrated North Shore Transportation Planning Project, stating that: “Everybody is now at the table and hopefully we’re going to be able to come up with solutions. … This is something that I think is long overdue.”
But praise for the provincial NDP stopped there. Smith argued that the government’s budget targets West Vancouver with an increased property purchase tax and a new school tax surcharge that would take money out of residents’ pockets, “money that will not be spent in the shops and restaurants in West Vancouver.”
He implored West Vancouver’s business community to get more involved at the political level.
“How about one or two new councillors coming out of this room?” he mused.
Smith was non-committal when asked by Coun. Bill Soprovich if he was considering running for a third term as mayor in the upcoming municipal election.
“I’m considering next week going to Hawaii for nearly three weeks,” he said. “Over my mai tai in Hawaii I’ll be contemplating, … I’ll be taking a walk in the sand.”
