The District of North Vancouver voted Monday night (Feb.7) to continue with a rental/strata development in Norgate, after it was initially knocked back by council in a tied vote last month.
Using his mayoral rights under the provincial charter, Mayor Mike Little brought back the application for 1210-1260 West 16th St., as he was not in attendance at the Jan. 10 meeting due to testing positive for COVID-19.
Councillors voted in favour this time, 4-2, with Couns. Betty Forbes and Jim Hanson once again voting in opposition.
Ironically, it was Coun. Lisa Muri who was not in attendance this week, after she herself voted against the bylaw amendments at the earlier meeting.
Little said the Marine Drive corridor is a “critically” important area for the district to be building new housing.
“It is one of the most well served transit corridors in the district. It's also one of the flattest areas in the district and community, which makes it great for people to get around,” he said. “And this particular development fits with the neighbouring developments, in terms of both scale and the types of units that are produced.”
Couns. Megan Curran, Jordan Back, and Mathew Bond were again in favour, citing the official community plan and transit opportunities as reason to support.
Bond also noted that the development is not on a major arterial.
“A lot of the time we place multifamily homes, either directly, [or] beside high traffic corridors right on the arterial, and I think there's significant research showing that both the pollution from motor vehicles and the noise associated with major arterial roads has an adverse impact on human health,” he said. “And so I think even though this is only half a block off the arterial, I think that's a good direction for us to look at.”
The development includes 31 market strata units and 31 rentals units; however, this was in turn the reasoning for Forbes and Hanson to continue to vote against the proposal.
Hanson acknowledged that as the mayor was now in attendance, the motion would pass, but added, “I believe there is not enough rental in this project. There's too much strata, and too much parking, and specifically not enough affordable rental.”
The bylaw amendments associated with the development will come back to council at a yet to be determined date for adoption.
