They’re all pulling for West Vancouver’s businesses to succeed. How that ought to be done though is now in the hands of voters.
The final all-candidates meeting before Saturday’s West Vancouver council byelection was hosted by the West Vancouver Chamber of Commerce Wednesday and was focused largely on issues of importance to the business community. Among them: revitalization of Ambleside, residential development, parking and transportation issues.
Many of the candidates linked the fate of West Vancouver businesses with residential growth (or lack thereof).
Andy Krawczyk suggested that creating more variety in the municipality’s housing stock would benefit all of its residents.
“We are dropping in population. In particular, we’ve lost 1,300 out of a total of 43,000. It may not sound like much but what’s going on is our demographic has remained the same. We’re just getting older, me included. That’s not good for business,” Krawczyk said. “When we lose those businesses, we lose taxpayers and when we lose taxpayers, you know what happens to our tax bill if we want to keep the same services.”
David Ayriss also stressed the need for careful planning for growth and noted past developments that were at first controversial, ended up becoming treasured by locals.
“Even though change is disruptive and nerve-wracking, it’s necessary and, if handled properly, I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “If we can get a little bit of growth and we can get some rejuvenation back into our municipality, we’ll get a healthier overall municipality and environment to live in.”
Joanna Baxter also said development has to be part of West Vancouver’s future, but she said council needs to be very choosy about what they accept.
“Every single business person that I’ve talked to in the Ambleside, Dundarave and Horseshoe Bay area has told me the same thing: ‘We need people,’” she said, adding later: “I am very specific about what I want from our developer and I think that council needs to be held accountable. They need to have a checklist that defines very clearly what our community needs.”
Concentrating “mindful” development – including badly needed rental stock – in existing town centres will not only support local businesses, it will also help alleviate traffic by allowing people to do their shopping and dining out without the need for a car, Tara Haddad argued.
“We need development in certain aspects in order for the cycle of the economy to survive. We need small business and we need them to survive,” Haddad said.
Vernon Pahl, disagreed on development entirely.
“I’m not a pro-development person. I think developers play a crucial role in our economy. They hire. There’s jobs. But they’re not philanthropists. They’re in a business with a view to a profit and right now, I think it’s time we put the brakes on development,” he said.
As for supporting Ambleside, Pahl took more of an if-it-ain’t-broke tact.
“Maybe I’m missing something but I think we’re doing that right now and I don’t think we need to develop any further stores.”
Tom Dodd took a similar although more moderate approach when it came to fostering independent business in West Vancouver’s village centres.
“If we do too much development in the merchant strip, prices are going to go up and instead of having small, local merchants, we will have the chains move in and the large retail stores,” he said, comparing it to Robson Street turning into a Rodeo Drive. “Since I don’t want a lot of development and to raise their rents and put towers there, I would be very much in favour of a lot more densification of ... two-level townhouses and row houses in the areas adjacent to both the Ambleside and Dundarave business districts.”
Peter Lambur said his top priority would be seeing that the West Vancouver’s new official community plan is shaped with robust public input.
“If done properly and built on a community-based vision for the future, it will meet the needs of our residents and busineses,” he said.
And development isn’t the panacea for struggling business some might hope, Lambur warned, referring to Edgemont Village in North Vancouver as a “cautionary tale of too much development destroying the essential character of the place.”
Rosa Jafari suggested council should focus on bringing new currency to support local business.
“We should increase the revenue of our city by attracting some more tourists by having some architectural gems, such as theaters, restaurants, arts centres and a hotel,” she said, adding new investor immigrants should be directed to those projects.
Council should also concentrate development that’s targeted for the middle class, Jafari added.
David Jones said West Vancouver had become akin to a resort town and as such, needed to supply housing stock for its staff.
“We have serious problems attracting employees to West Vancouver. We have many, many problems. Our young workers are getting farther and farther away from the North Shore, sometimes having to take several buses, spending more time getting to West Vancouver than working here,” he said.
And as an Ambleside store owner, Jones said he’s lost more customers due to a lack of parking than anything else, something he’d push council to address.
When it comes to parking, Carolanne Reynolds said it was one of the most pressing needs the business community faces and suggested council leverage developers wanting to build in Ambleside to include more spots as community amenity contributions. As for revitalizing Ambleside, Reynolds said it would require bringing many community perspectives to the table.
“I think it’s got a lot of potential. It needs a lot of work and it needs a lot of people to work together. We can all make it better, I’m sure,” she said.
Reynolds also said the district ought to set up an economic development office and expedite the approval process for new building applications.
Farzaneh Bamani had the same response to every question, which was that she would set up a website for West Vancouver residents to air their opinions that would then tilt her vote at council.
“It’s for the people to define the problems and to come up with the decisions. I would be the delivery person and take the decisions to the council,” she said.
One candidate, Jon Johnson, was a no-show for the meeting.
