Dear Editor:
Your Nov. 21 editorial (Nobody’s Home), along with a lot of other people, have been critical of the new District of North Vancouver council’s decision to press reset on the Delbrook Lands project.
While media interest is always welcome, it would have been good if you had been paying attention for the last three years. If so, you would have known the Delbrook Community Association had supported both the respite care centre and the affordable housing.
We did have problems with the absence of family housing. While family housing was being built in other areas where there are no schools, the Delbrook project was 75 per cent bachelor and one-bedroom in an area with six schools within walking distance.
The mix of housing was based not on housing needs but on the developer’s financial model. Bachelors are only 10 per cent under market price. Family housing needs to be much more under market price.
You would have known that at six-storeys (not five) it was the tallest building in Delbrook, Carisbrooke, Edgemont, Upper Capilano and even for much of Marine Drive in the District of North Vancouver and that this set a precedent for the whole 29th, Delbrook and Ridgewood corridor. You might have known the degree to which it did not conform to the official community plan. You might even have known the degree to which the community was cut out of discussions on this.
With a reset, hopefully we can get the win-win situation that Mayor Mike Little and Couns. Lisa Muri, Jim Hanson, Betty Forbes and Megan Curren are talking about. And maybe the media can pay attention while the new council is getting there.
Council is not stopping development but is taking a more thoughtful approach. That kind of approach might have prevented the demoviction of 60 long-term DNV families in Lynn Valley’s Emery Village project.
Keith Reynolds
North Vancouver
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