The District of West Vancouver’s official community plan hasn’t had an update in 14 years but the consternation at council Monday night was whether they were moving too fast on creating a new one.
West Vancouver is slow, even by municipal standards. We’d say they move at a glacial pace, but scientists are alarmed at the rate glaciers are receding.
What some councils accomplish in weeks or months, West Vancouver can’t seem to get done in an entire term of council – and that’s after the province extended council terms to four years.
A few cases in point: a tree-cutting bylaw, monster house regulations and affordable housing. Contrast West Vancouver’s progress on the Ambleside Waterfront Vision with the City of North Vancouver’s action on The Shipyards. The city’s project is well into construction while West Vancouver’s remains largely on paper despite having a three-decade head start.
It could be institutional lethargy, political windsockery, death by consultation, or that they simply don’t want to staff up to deal with policy needs and wants in front of them. But West Vancouver’s Olympic level dithering is costing them. It has managed to become one of only two municipalities in Metro Vancouver with a shrinking population. The business community is sounding the alarm that they can’t hire and retain staff. A survey by the West Vancouver Community Foundation last year found one-third of residents said they plan to move within five years, and half of them were pessimistic they would be able to find the right housing in West Vancouver.
These are the kinds of problems an OCP is meant to address. What we don’t want to see is this process languish into the next election. This was the council elected to get the job done and it’s time for them to roll up their sleeves and do it.
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