BRACE yourselves. A second public hearing for the controversial development at the Safeway site at Lonsdale and 13th Street in North Vancouver is coming.
Developer Onni announced Monday that, despite strongly disagreeing with the need for a rare second public hearing, they will participate due to an "outpouring of support they received for the development proposal over the holidays."
The company's executive had announced plans to withdraw the application for 344 condo units in two towers measuring 180 feet and 240 feet (73 metres) in early December after council voted to send the proposal to a second public hearing.
At the time, accusations were flying about the first one being stacked with Onni supporters, and the developer complained about unfair treatment by council members.
But council and Onni are now willing to give the project a second go-around.
"To be quite blunt, we got a bit of an earful over the holidays from people who had publicly expressed support for the project," said Beau Jarvis, Onni's vice-president of development in a press release. "Their position was simple - 'We want the project, we went out and supported the project and Onni should not abandon the project until the council has formally said yes or no.' At the end of the day, we could not ignore those voices."
Among the voices calling for Onni to come back to the table was Mayor Darrell Mussatto, according to the release.
"While our community supporters were the driving force behind our decision, we appreciate the mayor's positive role to date and wanted to honour his request as well," Jarvis said in the release
The city has not yet scheduled a date for the hearing.
