Skip to content

District of North Van council starts on framework for OCP review

They don’t have a timeline, but they have a timeline to establish a timeline. District of North Vancouver council will begin discussing out how to proceed on a planned review of their official community plan before the end of March.
dnv

They don’t have a timeline, but they have a timeline to establish a timeline.

District of North Vancouver council will begin discussing out how to proceed on a planned review of their official community plan before the end of March. Council held an informal workshop Monday on affordability, gridlock, and the municipality’s missing generation.

Coun. Betty Forbes also said she was “perplexed” about the missing generation issue, suggesting the trend had recurred in multiple generations.

“I think the missing middle’s been there always,” she said, adding it may be more pronounced currently. “That’s part of the evolution of life. You basically have to work hard, save, and hopefully you can live where you want to live.”

A member of the district’s OCP implementation monitoring committee, Jennifer Ohlhauser noted a professional saving $500 a month would likely need to wait approximately a quarter of a century to save enough for a down payment on a modestly priced North Vancouver house.

Ohlhauser urged council to give a voice to graduating high school students and Capilano University students during the OCP review.

Despite absorbing approximately 80 per cent of new growth, the district’s town centres have yet to operate as walkable, transit-oriented communities, much to Coun. Jordan Back’s chagrin.

While a majority of council extolled the value of slowing the pace of development, Back asked about the impact of inaction.

“All these people that have bought into town centres, when are they going to see a vibrant community?” he said.

But while Back advocated for more purpose-built rental, Coun. Lisa Muri suggested the situation is not that simple.

“We cannot control the market,” she said.

But council can control zoning, Muri said, noting that loose restrictions played a role in botching the plan to turn Marine Drive into an eclectic thoroughfare similar Vancouver’s West Fourth Avenue.

The district has lost some of its “community of communities feel,” according to Mayor Mike Little.

Noting the “sterile feel” of some developments, Little said many residents were looking for a break from frequent construction.

While the district “seem[s] to have displaced” much of their industrial land, that problem likely can’t be solved by approving the proposed development in Maplewood without creating a new set of problems, according to Forbes.

If approved, Darwin’s proposed 1.4-million square feet of business space, 680 rental units, and 220 residential units would present an impassable barrier for Seymour residents, according to Forbes.

Responding to a request to ensure the OCP review was data-driven, Coun. Jim Hanson stated that the community’s views are what should matter.

“It won’t do us much good to lecture at them that really there’s no problem with transportation, or that we should keep building, building, building, because adding more people in fact will make things better – we’ve actually heard that viewpoint,” he added. “That won’t get us anywhere.”

Those problems likely won’t be solved by TransLink, according to Coun. Megan Curren.

Likening the wait for TransLink investment to the wait for Santa Claus, Curren suggested council look outside “the TransLink box” and focus on bike lanes, community shuttles and car shares.