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Small condo triggers big debate at North Vancouver council

It was just 22 apartment units in Edgemont Village, but District of North Vancouver council debated like the soul of North Vancouver was at stake Monday night.
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It was just 22 apartment units in Edgemont Village, but District of North Vancouver council debated like the soul of North Vancouver was at stake Monday night.

Council members sparred for three-quarters of an hour with virtually no mention of the strengths or weaknesses of the project proposed for the corner of Connaught Crescent and Crescentview Drive. Instead, the debate centred on whether multi-family projects of any kind ought to be considered.

Coun. Jim Hanson acknowledged the need to create more housing in the district, but said he could not support the proposal going to a public hearing when he has so many constituents complaining to him about the North Shore’s already existing traffic. Hanson then moved a motion to scrap the proposed rezoning.

“Day after day after day, we face very serious transportation issues throughout the district,” he said. “Obviously it is a multi-faceted problem. We are required to rethink, as a society, our transportation model. It involves many levels of government and many issues but I have reached a point where I can no longer in good conscience allow additional developments of this type in locations that have notoriously high congestion.”

Coun. Lisa Muri agreed, rattling off a list of projects that had been either been filed or given approval by council. “It’s becoming too much. We’re full. We need to step back and take a breather,” she said.

Coun. Doug MacKay-Dunn joined in opposing the project moving to a public hearing, not because of its specifics but because of a “tsunami of development” in Edgemont and the construction fatigue experienced by residents there.

It wasn’t enough to halt the project, though, as the majority on council felt it, at the very least, should go to a public hearing.

Coun. Mathew Bond, a transportation systems engineer, said the project accomplishes one of the main goals of the official community plan – moving more people to walkable neighbourhoods, meaning shops and services can be readily accessed without having to get into a car and contribute to traffic congestion.

“The issues that we’re facing today are an outcome of the status quo. I have not seen any compelling argument that convinces me that doing nothing or slowing down is going to make any of our transportation issues better,” he said. “At the best, they’ll stay the same. At the worst, they’re going to get a lot worse.”

Coun. Hicks too argued much of the blame for the traffic is being assigned in the wrong place.

“What’s happening on the North Shore is taking place all over the Lower Mainland,” he said, noting Highway 1 is the cradle for our congestion problems. “That will remain despite all the buildings that go on the North Shore because (the traffic) is due to through-put from east to west and commuters.”

The project – a 22-unit apartment and single-family house at 3105 and 3115 Crescentview –  is in keeping with the Edgemont Village refresh planning process, Coun. Roger Bassam noted, and the district is already spending millions for upgrades to Ironworkers bridgehead, bicycle lanes, and replacements for the Keith Road and Montroyal bridges.

“We absolutely are looking after our transportation network and we understand how important that is to our quality of life,” he said.

Mayor Richard Walton added, while he too gets caught in daily slowdowns through the village, two of the biggest projects in the neighbourhood are nearly complete.

“You’re going to find that 60 or 70 per cent of the construction around Edgemont Village is going to be finished within three months,” he said. “I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The public will have a chance to weigh in on the project on Nov. 22.