Darrell Mussato, Michael Smith, and Richard Walton have more in common than being mayors. They are all passionate believers in what makes the North Shore communities the envy of the rest of the Lower Mainland. In this article featured in the North Shore News, the mayors talk about why the North Shore is a special place to live and work and where to expect changes.
A special place in Metro Vancouver
"If you look at the Lower Mainland and say where would you like to live, people point to the North Shore as one of their preferred destinations. So, not only is it one of the best places to live in the world, it's one of the best places in the Lower Mainland to live," said Mayor Mussatto, City of North Vancouver.
He wasn't getting any argument from his counterpart in the District of North Vancouver. "It's that interface between a world-class deep-sea port and a city like Vancouver and yet we're literally minutes away from the wildness that a lot of people in the world associate with North America and Canada," said Mayor Walton. "That quality, it just pervades our community and our official community plan and what people really value here."
With the mountains in its backyard and the oceans as its front yard, the North Shore is renowned for natural splendour as well as proximity to the region's downtown core. District of West Vancouver Mayor Walton summed it up when he asked, "What's not to love?"
Learning to live with growth and added density
Metro Vancouver is growing and this puts pressure on municipalities throughout the region to densify. The North Shore is seeing a push to concentrate growth near town centres, whether along Marine Drive and Ambleside, British Properties, the Lonsdale corridor, Lower Lonsdale and Marine Drive corridor, or the new centres being developed at the bottom of Capilano Road and Mountain Highway and the additional density being added around Maplewood and Lynn Valley.
"It's all going to be multi-family growth," emphasized Mussatto of the density in North Van city. "It's going to be redevelopment and living in multi-family units. It doesn't mean all tall high rises or apartments; it may mean duplexes, triplexes, ground-oriented units, but it's more multifamily."
"The target growth rate in our community is only 0.5 per cent a year so it's a slow-growth community," said Smith, who added, "The challenge is getting growth approved in the community. We have a lot of people in West Van who like it the way it is and don't want to see it change."
North Vancouver District's official community plan recognizes the need to provide alternative housing. Mayor Walton: "Every two years our average age increases one year which is quite significant and that means we're going to have more and more people on retired fixed incomes. This makes it very difficult for the service economy and the future if we don't accept some growth and try to facilitate people moving into the community."
Municipal priorities
A priority for North Vancouver District council is moving its official community plan into its implementation phase. "The plan lays out the more detailed planning and development of our town centres," said Walton. "We have a community that for the most part like things the way they are now but those who have been heavily involved recognize that no change at all will bring on the worst kind of change. It's really a very, very heavy engagement with our community that is ongoing."
Smith rates redeveloping Ambleside as West Vancouver council's number one priority. "I'd really like to see some of these Ambleside projects get going," he said. "If we don't do something it'll just be a shabby place that you drive through on your way to a sparkling new Park Royal and that would be a shame because Ambleside for a hundred years has been the centre of village life in West Vancouver. We need to bring it up to speed and let it again take its rightful place in the community."
Speaking on North Vancouver City's priorities, Mussatto said, "We want to become a more sustainable city environmentally in reducing our carbon footprint, economically in having a growing commercial base that supports us, and socially in having a range of housing options and amenities."
Ensuring responsible, sustainable growth
Climate change is a concern for everyone and we look to all levels of government for leadership and initiatives. In West Vancouver, council is bringing in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards for municipal buildings.
"We're changing our building standards to encourage a higher quality to meet the LEED standards," said Smith. "We're looking at doing a new public safety building and we're making sure it's being done to the highest environmental standards that make sense."
Smith also notes that West Vancouver residents are high users of public transit. "The best way to get people to leave their cars at home is to provide them with an alternative. We have a very good bus system that's well supported by the community."
About two years ago the City of North Vancouver made a significant policy change. "We changed the policy on transportation from the automobile being the number one, predominant mode of transportation to plan for, and turned it on its head to say we're going to plan for walking first, transit second, cycling third, goods and movement services fourth, and then the automobile down the list," said Mussatto.
The District of North Vancouver has been proactive in planning for natural disasters that may come with climate change. In 2011, the district received a prestigious award from the United Nations for disaster risk reduction.
"The award was for our work in identifying and mitigating disaster from natural risks associated with heavy rainfall and land slippage and forest interface fires," said Walton. "Most of our community is built above the 10-metre line, the lower parts of our area and the port areas are reclaimed land along the old mudflats. Whereas we don't have the same direct challenge with rising waters that most coastal communities do, it certainly is a concern with our infrastructure, our sewers and waterlines, on lower levels."
Metro Vancouver is growing and this puts pressure on municipalities throughout the region to densify. The North Shore is seeing a push to concentrate growth near town centres, whether along Marine Drive and Ambleside, British Properties, the Lonsdale corridor, Lower Lonsdale and Marine Drive corridor, or the new centres being developed at the bottom of Capilano Road and Mountain Highway and the additional density being added around Maplewood and Lynn Valley.
