West Vancouver is running out of time.
While several on council would call it “careful planning,” the municipality has spent the past two years pondering a sorely needed update to its Ambleside local area plan.
In that time, council decided to break the work into three “streams,” and has completed just one of them, for apartment areas.
Now, after a draft plan for the urban “centre” area was provided in January, its first reading – crucial for advancing the process – was deferred May 12 after a last-minute letter was received from the Ambleside Dundarave Residents Association.
A second attempt to defer it failed May 26 because most of council disagreed on how long the issue should be delayed for further consideration – weeks or months.
But council can afford to dilly dally no longer.
The district’s patient staff can’t help but betray a pang of anxiety when reminding council of a Dec. 31, 2025 provincial deadline to update the official community plan. And that’s as the province adds fresh time limits to rehash housing policy for Park Royal and Dundarave, to help catch West Van up on decades of unbuilt homes.
Council is now facing a situation that if it doesn’t pick up the pace, the province could do the rezoning itself.
West Van’s practice of using process to forestall any meaningful change has driven out developers and the demographics that would breathe life into the district’s struggling commercial area.
The province says this is no longer acceptable.
It’s time for council to catch up, or risk losing even more control over its future.
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