Dear Editor:
I am writing in response to your Feb. 8 editorial, Rush to Judgement, in which you referred to our decision in respect of the potential OCP change at Harbourside as "muddleheaded at best" and "downright duplicitous at worst." While the first may be fair comment given the way the issue has been processed at council, there has been no duplicity.
1. We have not "fast tracked" so much as "opened up" the consultation process on this important issue. A task force is an ideal venue for a small group of self selected insiders to figure out "how" to do something - not the right venue to figure out whether or not to do it in the first place. I had my own task force on civic engagement during the last term of council; I was the only councillor and there were very few members of the public that ever attended any of our dozen or so open meetings.
2. I think all councillors want to hear what the public and stakeholders are going to say and there will be many more members of the public likely to attend the information session and two town hall meetings than would ever get to a task force meeting.
3. If the principle of residential density is ultimately approved, that is still a long way from the approval of the specific zoning, how much will there be and what the community gets in exchange for it. The fact that we have an OCP process going on at the same time can only be good from the point of view of ensuring that the principles and values we want to see followed across our community are at work in any potential new development as well.
So please, be a bit more positive and less cynical. I look forward to seeing the North Shore editorial staff out in force at the kick-off of our OCP planning process this Thursday at the Pinnacle Hotel. I am also looking forward to discussing with the community what we ought to do with Harbourside at the planned town hall meetings.
Guy Heywood, Councillor, City of North Vancouver
