Revitalizing Ambleside as a vibrant town centre will take commitments from a core group of business owners and a vision that goes beyond rolling up the sidewalks at 6 p.m., says West Vancouver Mayor Mary-Ann Booth.
Taking action on Ambleside was one of the issues Booth touched on during an “open mic” talk with a friendly business crowd hosted by the West Vancouver Chamber of Commerce at the West Vancouver Yacht Club Thursday night.
It was Booth’s first time as key speaker at the annual event, which in the past has been a chance for the West Vancouver mayor to speak informally with members of the business community.
Booth’s style was less blunt than that of her shoot-from-the-hip predecessor Michael Smith (who once referenced real estate agents describing to the Ambleside business district as “the Gaza Strip”) but her message was similar: it’s time for Ambleside to embrace change and greater density and to create a place more stimulating for both residents and visitors.
Although it wasn’t the main topic of discussion, Booth alluded to the heated debates that have broken out recently over the B-Line bus proposal.
Booth said she’d recently gone to a speech by former U.S. president Barrack Obama and found she could relate to his stories about the challenges of his first few months in office. While Obama faced the crisis of a global economic meltdown, “I’m facing the threat of mass public transit in the B-Line,” she deadpanned.
In her speech, Booth laid out the challenges faced by West Vancouver: the fact that 93 per cent of taxes come from residents rather than businesses, that West Vancouver is one of only two communities whose populations shrank between the 2011 and 2016 census. It also has a population that is disproportionately old compared to other Metro Vancouver communities, with a much smaller percentage of children and working-age adults and a missing generation of young people between 25 and 34.
“We are actually missing a generation,” said Booth “It’s a rare sighting when I see a 27-year-old in the supermarket. It feels like a rare bird sighting when I see one.”
Creating more vibrant commercial centres and moving away from West Vancouver’s historical identity as a bedroom community is one of council’s six key priorities, said Booth.
Ambleside and Dundarave are currently both “under-performing,” she said. Booth told the crowd she’s inspired by areas like Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach, California as well as the change brought to the Lower Lonsdale area of the City of North Vancouver by former mayor Darrell Mussatto. “It took him 20 years but he really was successful,” she said.
Booth said she’s in close contact with Mussatto on the issue. “I could see him on my business advisory council,” she added.
In West Vancouver, Booth pointed to the Grosvenor development as the beginning of a similar change. Whether people agreed with it or not, “pretty much everybody can say it was successful,” she said.
Booth was also enthusiastic about the ideas of destination marketing consultant Roger Brooks, who in the past has promoted ideas including a Ferris wheel, skating rink, amphitheatre and water park for North Vancouver’s waterfront.
But change requires at least one-third of the business owners championing the cause, said Booth.
One of the reasons West Vancouver is stagnating is that landlords are hanging on to their properties and not re-developing them or investing in them, she said. “They’re not doing anything. Why not?”
One reason could be that West Vancouver’s floor-space-ratio regulations are not attracting investment, she said.
Other changes are in the hands of the merchants themselves. Booth said she’s learned that 70 per cent of consumer spending takes place after 6 p.m.
“Are you open?” she asked. “We haven’t really had that reputation in the past. We’re getting a bit better but things haven’t changed so much.”
In order create a destination “you’ve got to actually welcome visitors,” she said.
