There are two North Vancouvers.
We know you knew that — we just weren’t sure they did.
Not since the hazy days when the CFL had two teams called the Roughriders has there been the kind of artfully designed confusion orchestrated by the City and District of North Vancouver.
The City/District boasts two official community plans, two municipal halls and, more recently, two parallel periods of unprecedented development.
For months and months, District of North Vancouver Coun. Lisa Muri called for a respite from that development but her cries mainly fell on deaf ears, possibly due to incessant jackhammering and other construction noise.
This Monday night, Muri gets the chance to tilt at skyscrapers in a debate about the pace of development in the district.
She’s planning to ask for a temporary halt on new construction projects and to request a re-examination of the district’s OCP.
It’s a worthy endeavour. It’s also one that takes place when population is increasing and the need for a variety of housing types continues to be acute on the North Shore.
A discussion on development would be even more useful if the district and city could get down to some serious shared planning and stopped treating their border like the forbidden zone.
For those voters who didn’t make it to the ballot box last November while the rest of the district elected a largely development-friendly council, Monday night may be a last chance to discuss development and its byproducts as a singular issue.
