Park Royal and Larco are holding a public information meeting to discuss their plans for a condo building at the former site of the White Spot.
The meeting will be held on September 24, from 5:30 to 8:30 pm at Park Royal North at the end of the mall corridor to the west of The Bay’s interior entrance at 965 Park Royal North/Marine Drive.
In June last year, the previous council approved rezoning for the former White Spot site, also known as 707 and 723 Main Street to allow 203 rental apartments for Gateway Residences proposed by Park Royal and Larco.
This summer, the developers were back asking for extra storeys to accommodate 95 more units. They want to add five more storeys to each of the two building, increasing the height of the East Tower from 14 to 19 storeys, and West Tower from 11 to 16 storeys.
In asking for the extra condos, the developers claimed they had received positive feedback from the community on the new proposal. The majority of new units offer two-bedrooms and two-bathrooms and will provide additional housing for families with school-ages children, downsizers, working class professionals, and increase the number of missing middle and infill housing, they said.
They were also willing to provide additional funding in Community Amenity Contributions to upgrade arts facilities in the district.
District staff, however, wasn’t convinced that granting extra storeys was a good idea for two reasons: The new proposal is inconsistent with the Marine Drive Local Area Plan and staff is concerned with the scale and form of building.
Still, with exception of Councillor Bill Soprovich, the council seemed supportive of granting the developer’s request. Soprovich called the request for more storeys nonsense, but the council voted to allow more public consultation on the project. Councillor Peter Lambur said the consideration of the project offers a chance at building trust, and called for more public consultation on the project.
Councillor Sharon Thompson, Marcus Wong and Mayor Booth also were in support of more public consultation to see what the community has to say on the proposal.
It’s all about profit for those developers, although they will swear that West Vancouver needs more expensive condos. It doesn’t. Since when should a municipality allow a developer to maximize profits over the character of a municipality? I would like West Vancouver to have a mayor with decent feel for what the residents of West Vancouver want. This one doesn’t care. She has to appease the developers who donated to her campaign. She doesn’t realize that she has responsibilities to the residents of West Vancouver. It’s as if she has a corruption virus which causes her to ignore the residents of West Vancouver. Maybe the developers hypnotized her. Maybe they paid her money. Will we ever know?