Central Lonsdale residents are unlikely to get a promised second public hearing on a controversial development proposed for 13th Street and Lonsdale Avenue after Coun. Don Bell changed his mind on the issue.
Photograph by: North Shore News , file photo
City of North Vancouver council is set to cancel a promised second public hearing on the controversial Onni development proposal for the Safeway site, and instead move to debating approval on Monday.
Council voted 4-3 last week to hold a second public hearing in late January after critics decried the first one as unfair.
Coun. Don Bell voted for a second public hearing — but for the separate reason that he still had major concerns about traffic, shading and visual impacts on Stella Jo-Dean plaza and placement of commercial storefronts. Those issues could be fixed without a public hearing Bell later learned.
“(Mayor Darrell Musatto) asked me that if the item was brought back on the understanding I didn’t need a new public hearing to pursue the issues I wanted to pursue, would I support a reconsideration of the motion to go to public hearing?
“I said ‘yes,’” said Bell.
— Brent Richter
