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EDITORIAL: Babbling Delbrook

It is a near-universally acknowledged truth that a District of North Vancouver property owner who doesn’t live by a park will ask that a park be moved closer to his property. This brings us to the Delbrook saga.
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It is a near-universally acknowledged truth that a District of North Vancouver property owner who doesn’t live by a park will ask that a park be moved closer to his property.

This brings us to the Delbrook saga. Once a parking lot, the district-owned property formerly earmarked for 80 affordable homes is still a parking lot.

In deciding what ought to be done with the 1.7-hectare site, council recently dispensed with the $137,000 district-wide community outreach of 2015-’16. Instead, they will reach out solely to residents within about 200 metres of the land.

That conversation is, in part, meant to determine “the neighbourhood’s desires” regarding a park, a district staff report tells us. Discussing the size of a social housing project on the site, Coun. Lisa Muri said: “I think we should let the Delbrook community and the surrounding community determine that.”

We hope the community realizes the power they wield and the importance of their decision, especially to all those cash- strapped commuters searching for a place to call home.

We all want to live in a neighbourhood with a park, but how many of us would trade our neighbours for a park?

There are also four parks within two kilometres of the site, which – not to belabour the point – is a parking lot.

Land is scarce. The housing crisis is rampant. And so, we ask the Delbrook neighbours to make the decision their government should have made.

We can have tulip beds on the site, but what we really need are sheltered beds.

Construction is exasperating and neighbourhood character is precarious. But, on this site, this time, we hope the community will look beyond the end of their woes.

What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.