West Vancouver council may have outdone Sir Isaac Newton himself, by discovering a fourth law of motion: Municipal issues must move both too slow and too fast at the same time.
A lengthening list of recent decisions made by the district’s elected officials is showing their pattern of promoting inertia by all means possible when no politically palatable solution is in easy reach.
Examples include failed votes to advance the Ambleside Local Area Plan and the construction of new pickleball courts at Gleneagles Community Centre.
And yet council is equally guilty of dispensing with public consultation entirely and shooting from the hip. Case in point: the unpopular plan to house West Van’s art museum at the old Boathouse in Horseshoe Bay, which they have now jettisoned.
When bought for $2.7 million earlier this year, it was hailed as work by a council that “gets things done.” What wasn’t done was due diligence.
Now council has invested taxpayer dollars in yet another aging asset, and the arts community is no closer to having a proper museum.
In a perfect world, public consultation is used to guide governments to prudent decisions without being used as a bulwark against change.
By not providing sound guidance for staff and invested citizens, council is wasting time and money that is needed to push other important initiatives over the line.
Instead of focusing on flashy deals and promises, the district would be better served by a Newtonian mayor and council that is both principled and stays in motion.
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