A controversial tower development planned for the Safeway site at Lonsdale Avenue and East 13th Street will likely go to a council vote Monday evening after the B.C. Office of the Ombudsperson refused to consider a complaint relating to the public hearing process lodged by City of North Vancouver Coun. Pam Bookham.
Photograph by: submitted , North Shore News
THE B.C. Office of the Ombudsperson has refused to consider a complaint lodged by City of North Vancouver Coun. Pam Bookham last week relating to a public hearing for a controversial tower development in Central Lonsdale.
Bookham had asked the office Friday to suspend Monday night’s council vote on the zoning bylaws that would allow the Onni development corporation to build two towers holding 344 condo units on the Safeway site at 13tth Street and Lonsdale Avenue.
Bookham argued that Onni had interfered with the public process at a Nov. 19 public hearing on the bylaws by stacking the speakers’ list with interested employees and investors.
In a written statement Friday, Onni said its representatives “conducted themselves in accordance with all the rules and protocols as established by the City of North Vancouver.”
Bookham told the North Shore News that she plans to ask for second public hearing at tonight’s council meeting. If that fails, Bookham said she will seek a legal opinion from the municipal solicitor as to “whether we have met our duty to conduct a fair public hearing.”
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