ON Feb. 16, the City of North Vancouver invites residents to the Pinnacle Hotel to get involved in crafting a new official community plan, the document that outlines what we want our neighbourhoods to look like over the next decade.
While we urge people to participate, we can't help but think the whole exercise has just been discredited.
After a series of delays - including one for the election - city council has suddenly decided to fast-track a developer's application to build a whole new 800-home neighbourhood from scratch on Harbourside Drive, sandwiched between the auto mall and Seaspan shipyards with only one way out - onto Marine Drive. A majority of councillors appear ready to sign off on this radical repurposing of commercial land before the new OCP comes up for a vote.
Rushing into one of the largest changes ever made to the community before the new "community plan" is anywhere near complete makes a mockery of the consultation process. It's muddle-headed at best and downright duplicitous at worst.
True, there will be three meetings and a public hearing - that's vastly less consultation than the city's modest coach house program involved.
Why should you care? Well, 375 unexpected new homes have just been approved about 500 metres away - also south of Marine Drive - and the Squamish Nation has yet to publicly disclose its build-out plans for Mosquito Creek. So if you've ever had reason to travel Marine Drive at rush hour, maybe the Pinnacle is good place to spend next Thursday evening.
