District of North Vancouver Mayor Richard Walton announced Monday he will not run for re-election in the Oct. 20 municipal election.
“Just because you love your job doesn’t mean it’s not sometimes better to step aside,” Walton said.
The longest-serving mayor in the history of the district, Walton frequently championed developments intended to offer housing options to the “missing generation” priced off the North Shore.
In 2012, Walton cast the deciding vote on the Seylynn development on Mountain Highway and Fern Street, which included a 32-storey tower. Walton contended low-cost housing was crucial to rejuvenate a municipality characterized by a steadily climbing average age and schools in danger of closure.
Walton also supported the six-tower, 399-unit Lynn Valley mall redevelopment in 2014 and cast the deciding vote on the 115-unit Amica at Edgemont seniors living facility in 2013.
That support resulted in frequent criticism from gridlock-weary residents who accused Walton of exacerbating the traffic problem. Rather than the disease, daily traffic jams are “the symptom” of the prohibitive cost of entry-level housing, Walton responded, noting the rising number of commuters who cross a body of water to work in North or West Vancouver.
It was the prohibitive cost of housing that propelled Walton away from his boyhood neighbourhood in West Vancouver and into the more accommodating hamlet of Lynn Valley and, later, Edgemont. Today, his four adult children would “love to move back” to North Vancouver but find themselves facing the gauntlet of low vacancy rates and high land prices.
Council’s primary challenge has been extracting rent-controlled housing from new developments while protecting single-family neighbourhoods.
“We were done cutting down trees and building subdivisions probably by 2000,” he said. “I don’t think, during my tenure as mayor, we created one additional single-family housing lot.”
Walton’s decision to pass the baton to another mayor was prompted by district council’s recent vote to advance the Maplewood town centre plan, which is slated to integrate 1,500 condo and townhouse units amid light industrial development between Dollarton Highway and Mt. Seymour Parkway.
That vote was “historic,” Walton said at the time.
After being elected mayor in 2005, Walton inherited 12 regional community plans that addressed “the direct needs of each isolated sub-community,” Walton said. Council eventually incorporated the best aspects of those community plans into one district-wide official community plan.
“That was literally six years,” Walton said. “A lot of public meetings. A lot of compromises.”
Walton faced a similar uphill battle on the TransLink mayors council, where he served as chairman and vice-chairman.
It took four years to get each mayor to agree to work constructively with the government and about three more years to devise a regional transportation plan; only to watch that plan go down in defeat in the 2015 transit plebiscite.
However, the last year has been marked by federal government support and fruitful negotiations with the province, Walton said, noting the regional transit plan achieved full funding.
Having been mentored himself by former district mayor and current city councillor Don Bell, Walton said he’s pleased to continue serving as an “open resource” for anyone planning to run for mayor and council.
“I’ve been playing the old high school teacher, trying to help them understand the issues,” he said.
Walton described his colleagues on council as a joy to work with.
“I’m going to be working just as hard as ever right up until I hand the keys over to my successor,” he said. “I’ll be here until Nov. 4 at 7 p.m.”
Asked if he has any regrets, Walton responds with one word: “None.”
