BEFORE anyone says "conflict of interest," I should point out that I'm entirely the product of the mainstream public education system.
With that said, I was pretty disheartened to hear the attitude of some of the people living near the Balmoral school building, where the North Vancouver school district held a public meeting to talk about plans to house its new alternative program there.
Just because someone works better under a different teaching style doesn't mean they're going to burn your house down in the dead of night. Judging by last year's numbers, I'd be more worried living next to West Vancouver secondary.
Putting that nasty NIMBYism aside, a more interesting aspect of the Jan. 10 public information meeting was that the man passing the mic around was a fellow named Chuck Brook. If you've followed some of the larger development proposals of late, that name is likely somewhat familiar.
Brook is a consultant who, among other things, helps developers guide their proposals through public approval processes. This is generally a combination of holding public meetings, generating some attractive presentation materials, and arguing on his client's behalf in front of local councils.
Brook was involved in the new twin-tower building going up on 15th Street, but his really big gig right now is Concert Properties' Harbourside proposal. If this comes to fruition, it will create as many as 800 new homes and 370,000 square feet of business space on that length of waterfront commercial land immediately south of the Automall, essentially building a whole new neighbourhood. The plan has still got several hurdles to clear: unconvinced city councillors, a whopper of an OCP amendment and then potentially several rezoning applications. Brook has been plugging away at this for more than two years, and I don't imagine his services come cheap, so I can only guess at the windfall Concert is hoping for.
Brook's Harbourside public consultation process has generated some pretty pictures - some of which we have published - but to my eye, not much in the way of public involvement.
Only a few dozen people have found the time to come to the open houses and -surprise, surprise - a majority of them apparently like the option that gives Concert the most density. As several city councillors have observed, don't be surprised when a developer-run process produces the answers the developer wants. Not exactly an unbiased study, thus far. Readers will know that I'm no enemy of new density per se, but I think it's vital that the public trusts that the decision comes out of a fair and evidence-driven process.
So what's this got to do with the school district?
Well, as well as helping out with some microphone-passing duties at Balmoral, Brook is also tasked with finding new occupants for some of the various bits of property that the school board has designated as surplus.
You could be forgiven for not quite grasping what land is or isn't up for sale or lease, seeing as two schools that are already vacant are listed on the "medium-term retention" list, while there are still students in classes or daycares in buildings listed as "short-term retention." Education always tends to be jargony, but the North Vancouver school district is often its own worst enemy when it comes to explaining itself.
Several careful readings of the strategy document reveal that seven of the 12 schools listed could be sold or leased in the short term, including the Lucas Centre, a significant piece of property.
So there are good reasons to hire Brook. Someone with such an extensive development Rolodex - do people still have Rolodexes?
- probably has very good idea of who might be in the market for some land and what might be possible to do with that land. After all, bringing in skills you don't have in-house is why anyone hires a consultant.
But it's what might happen next that raises questions in my head. If the school district gets ministry permission to sell off some land, the next step is for the developer to approach the local council to rezone it. Who better to shepherd such a rezoning application through council than Brook, who's already intimately familiar with the hopes of the proud new owner?
Again, there are certainly advantages to this. But, I ask, how much would Brook really have the school district's interests at heart in the first place if he knew that his next client could be their customer? It's tricky to frame an issue around getting top dollar for the taxpayer when in the next breath you're trying to get the most profitable outcome for a developer.
Hopefully sharp-eyed boards and councils will be wary of this. But when those public meetings do come around, make sure you note whom the man with the microphone is.
