As City of North Vancouver council painstakingly scrutinized the document that will dictate the next 30 years of planning and development for the municipality, one thing was certain: there was hardly a consensus on what should be done.
Council plodded through each neighbourhood in the draft official community plan, during the 90-minute debate Monday night, targeting mainly density.
Perhaps the most contentious piece of the planning puzzle is the East Third Street area. A group of Moodyville residents joined neighbour Trevor Gorety, who lives on the north side of the 700-block of East Third Street, to support six-storey midrises with commercial storefronts at ground level.
But Coun. Guy Heywood moved a wholesale change for East Third - suggesting density only take the form of townhouses.
"It's unfortunate, but most of our OCP process seems to be taken up with the periphery of our concern, which is really the kind of style of housing in the Third Street area - as opposed to the core, where we are accomplishing the city's main goals for affordability, density, potential amenity," said Heywood.
He further explained, it would not be prudent for the city to allow a 350 per cent increase in density along that stretch of East Third Street, without first seeing how the area takes shape after the Low Level Road construction is completed and traffic patterns are normalized.
Coun. Don Bell brought up traffic safety concerns in the area. "My concern about having commercial on this is, where Third Street turns, it becomes a more hazardous turn in terms of traffic. And to try and provide parking for commercial at that point may be a problem," he said.
Mayor Darrell Mussatto and Coun. Linda Buchanan, however, were not on board with lower density.
"I don't think it's consistent with what we are proposing along that transit corridor," Buchanan said. "It's far too low of a density. The slope in those areas is significant enough that the kind of density on that street won't be a problem for those below."
During an OCP presentation earlier in the evening, the city's director of community development, Gary Penway said staff are recommending places to add densification along transit routes, consistent with Metro Vancouver's regional plan and TransLink's area transit plan, which envisions rapid transit for the area.
Bell countered that the city should be focusing that growth elsewhere. "I really think that we need to sort of slow down on growth and focus it where we know transit is now, not where it's going to be. For me, that's Lonsdale corridor, that's Marine Drive," Bell said.
When the dust settled, council - with the absence of Coun. Craig Keating - approved the low-density, mixed housing for the area.
Mike Wise, who lives south of East Third Street, told the News he was disappointed with council's recommendation, given consultation and support for density in the area.
"Some members of council are not listening to the people that participated in the OCP process," he said.
Council also reigned in growth prospects in the central Lonsdale area with the potential to only build to six-storey buildings approved on the east and north side of East 15th Street near Lions Gate Hospital.
"There have been a number of changes in the neighbourhood - and I think we need some breathing room, and this achieves that," said Coun. Rod Clark.
Looking at proposed OCP changes for Lonsdale between 17th and 21st streets including the London Drugs site, Mussatto said he wanted to see allowances for up to 15 storeys instead of eight.
That area is adjacent to the Harry Jerome Recreation Centre property, which has sat in limbo in recent years, awaiting redevelopment plans.
Coun. Pam Bookham said if council decides that a tower is the best way to fund the redevelopment of Harry Jerome, it makes sense that the adjacent London Drugs site be considered for a similar form of development. However, Bookham did not want council to commit to a higher height designation in the interim. "I don't want to write into the OCP at this time until we make that decision about Harry Jerome," she said.
Council also eliminated the potential for singlefamily homeowners to build both a secondary suite and a coach house.
The 100-block of West Esplanade, known as Site 8, will be a special study area with a proposed height restriction of eight storeys, though Mussatto and Buchanan argued the lot could handle 13.
"When we are sitting one block from the water I think some people would prefer to go perhaps a bit taller and slimmer to keep those view corridors," Buchanan said.
The draft OCP is expected to be in front of council for first reading on July 21. A public hearing has been tentatively scheduled for Sept. 29, with adoption of the OCP anticipated by the end of October.
