In May, we wrote an editorial, warning City of North Vancouver council not to let this happen. After years of work, the CityShaping OCP is bogged down in a procedural rat's nest with just weeks before the 2014 municipal election. There's significant risk the OCP will languish into the new council term or even die on the vine, putting us into legislative parts unknown.
The impasse and flip-flopping at council is petulant and frankly embarrassing.
The fact is, it was this council that was elected to oversee and usher in the new OCP. It was also this council that monkeyed with the timeline for the OCP's approval to suit their own political agendas.
You could blame the mayor and his allies for waiting until the last minute to take their ball and go home. You could blame Coun. Guy Heywood for torpedoing the approval simply because it didn't achieve his Quixotic goal of bringing about amalgamation. You could blame the faction that sought to drag this out in the first place. It doesn't matter.
Council now owes it to its citizens to find whatever compromises are needed, come to a consensus and get this plan passed. Give the new council the clean slate it deserves.
They've got five more meetings to demonstrate they earned the votes that put them in those seats in 2011.
Otherwise, we're looking at the squandering of time, money, effort and community goodwill on a sickening scale.
