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North Van City revives OCP debate Council votes 4-3 to dust off draft community plan
BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, or perhaps more like a zombie rising from the grave depending on how you look at it, the City of North Vancouver’s official community plan is back. In one of its first serious debates of the new term, council voted 4-3 on Monday night to revive the high-level planning document and hold a new
pubic hearing — albeit with some significant changes. The CityShaping OCP has been caught in a legislative no-man’s-land since it was voted down by the previous council in September 2014 after being in development for more than three years. But unlike the version of the plan that went down to defeat, the one resurrected on Monday night includes a number of provisions that were stripped out by a deeply divided council last July. The draft OCP before council now will allow for single-family homeowners to add both a secondary suite in the main house SeeVision page 5
W. Van floats public safety building design JEREMY SHEPHERD jshepherd@nsnews.com
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Our rewards
While still behind schedule, WestVancouver’s new $36 million public safety building is moving ahead — just not as quickly as the mayor would like. Council unanimously supported soliciting public input on the project but remained split on the design, which accommodates police, municipal hall and fire and rescue services on one site. West Vancouver’s
are more uplifting. More rewarding.
outdated and almost embarrassing “rabbit warren of offices” is in dire need of replacement, according to Smith. “It’s ridiculous that we’ve got communications staff working in an ex-living room down the road.” The municipal hall also falls short of seismic building standards. “It would fall down with a relatively mild earthquake,” Smith said. “(Previous councils) have been See Plan’s page 3
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