Dear Editor:
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the Feb. 8 letter from District of North Vancouver Coun. Lisa Muri (Development Pushing Out People and Jobs).
We empathize with commuters who deal with weekday road congestion on the North Shore; however, we take exception to developers being blamed for this, or (for) North Shore residents being displaced.
Our organization, the Urban Development Institute, represents the property development sector. Our members are community and home builders, creators of high-paying jobs in trades and construction. The North Shore has been successful in attracting high-quality job generation in many sectors, including: health care, the maritime industry and education, to name a few.
One of the major North Shore employers, Seaspan, is growing its workforce from about 1,300 to an estimated 1,800 by 2018. We don’t blame job creation; but what we need is more homes to house these people closer to their workplace, thus reducing daily traffic congestion, and thousands of commuters driving the North Shore.
In the District of North Vancouver, only 330 total housing starts were built in 2015, compared to the 833 in the City of North Vancouver. Of that 330 in the district, 145 were detached homes, not the most affordable option for the average worker.
Of the 833 starts in the City of North Vancouver, only 41 were detached homes. We commend the City of North Vancouver for approving more attached dwellings and affordable housing options. Perhaps if more apartments and townhomes were offered in the District of North Vancouver and in West Vancouver, fewer people would need to drive to work from other suburban communities, and the population wouldn’t be shrinking in West Van. An added bonus: commuters could even walk, cycle or take transit to work.
Anne McMullin,
president and CEO, Urban Development Institute
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