Despite Mayor Mary-Ann Booth’s impassioned support for the rezoning of former church site in Horseshoe Bay, the controversial project was rejected by a 4-2 vote of the council.
Mayor Booth and Councillor Craig Cameron supported the rezoning which was opposed by Councillors Bill Soprovich, Peter Lambur, Sharon Thompson and Marcus Wong. Councillor Nora Gambioli didn’t vote due to a conflict of interest.
Quma, a development company owned by Peter Nilsson, had applied to rezone the former church site for a 14-unit multi-family development called Tantalus Gardens on Wellington Avenue.
Speaking to support the rezoning, Booth said there was more support than opposition to the project. She said her calculations suggested there were 171 people who supported the project through letters and in public hearing, while 118 were against it. “This is close, but there is community support for it.”
Booth said the project deserved to be approved when seen through the lens of climate change, as well as the vision of the district’s OCP and the council’s declared priority to expand the supply of housing, including housing that improved the missing middle such as coach houses, duplexes and townhomes.
“We are the only municipality in Metro Vancouver with a losing population. People have left the community because there is no diversity of housing. Smaller houses cost less, and they are going to be lot less expensive than single family homes starting at $2 million,” she said.
Booth said a disapproval by the council won’t affect supply or prices in any positive way. “We will likely end up with four single-family homes with higher prices. There is a demand for this kind of housing, regardless of the fact that there are listings of this kind in Horseshoe Bay,” she added.
Booth also said zoning for community use was in place to reflect a cause, not to dictate it, and the council should prioritise housing objectives on the zoning, adding that there is already underutilised space in the community in Gleneagles Community Centre and the club house.
Councillor Craig Cameron said everyone in this local election had run in favour of adding more housing, and yet the council hadn’t added any housing to the community. “It is hard to get more gradual infill than this. You can’t get more gentle increase than this type of density and the proposal is one of the types of housing we need to provide or we will be left with aging apartments and large single-family homes.”
Their arguments, however, didn’t convince other councillors.
Councillor Peter Lambur said the Local Area Plan needed to be completed before any proposal could be considered. Community use, neighbourhood character and density were all issues that remained unresolved, he said. “Without the absence of context that a Local Area Plan will provide, a number of issues remain unsolved,” he said.
His comments were echoed by Councillor Bill Soprovich, who said a Local Area Plan must be completed to have a look at any development being proposed.
Councillor Wong said West Vancouver needed diverse housing but it couldn’t be done in a one-off manner. “It feels like I don’t have all the pieces to see how the project fits in. I feel like I will have to imagine how the LAP will be later on. I struggle with that,” he said.
Councillor Thompson noted that the proposal had divided the community. She said the project did have merit but there were questions that needed to be answered in the context of a Local Area Plan. “I think we need to understand completely and then make a decision,” she said.
With Wong, Thompson, Soprovich and Lambur opposed, the rezoning proposal was defeated.
Gale Leitch says
Thank you, councillors, for voting this down.
There is something very very very wrong with Mayor Booth. Either she’s plain and simple stupid or her loyalty to West Vancouver citizens has been compromised by developers’ interests, specifically her husbands’ and those developers who contributed money to her campaign. Personally, I think it’s the latter. She thought she could do whatever she wants. She can’t.
After the B-Line fiasco, inexplicably, she still can’t get it through her thick head that as mayor her responsibilities are to West Vancouver’s citizens and taxpayers… not to her developer cronies, her husband, or city hall’s employees.
Gale Leitch says
I want to know what Nora Gambioli’s conflict of interest is. Does Craig Cameron have his fingers in the pockets of developers? What is the truth behind the strange bias of Mayor Booth and councillors Craig Cameron and Nora Gambioli.
Someone capable might do some investigating as to WHY they are always on the side of development.
Perhaps Mayor Booth and Craig Cameron are in a general conflict of interest position that has not been exposed yet. What else would explain their strange anti-West Vancouver and anti-West Vancouver citizens’ behaviour?
Gale Leitch says
“Councillor Craig Cameron said everyone in this local election ran in favour of adding more housing, and yet the council hasn’t added any housing to the community.”
Craig Cameron is twisting the intentions of voters and making grandiose and false claims about who ran for what cause. Cameron assumes that everyone voted for him. They did not. I did not. I wouldn’t vote for him if his name was the only one on ballets… because of his consistent distortion of facts to fit his own imagined version of events. Even if every wannabe councillor ran in favour of adding more housing, it doesn’t mean that ANY citizens agreed with that. That means that citizens didn’t have a choice to vote for anyone who didn’t support additional housing.
Again, Craig Cameron distorts the truth when he says that no housing has been added to the community. It’s being added all over West Vancouver, or has he forgotten that so soon. Park Royal Towers, for one! I suggest that Craig Cameron’s brain is becoming addled and that he be replaced with someone who knows fact from fiction.
Joey Fortuna says
Thank you councilors for voting this down. The church and surrounding land has been a valuable and much used gathering place for West Van residents for many decades. Any move forward on this property should consider carefully continuing the public use and public good it has done in the past. Another condo satisfies neither.
John Lesow says
When you strip away the irrelevant hype surrounding the Tantalus project, this was:
1. A spot zone and unlikely to withstand any serious court challenge.
2. The fact that not one dollar was offered by the developer for any Community Amenity Contribution (CAC)
3. Based on a bogus survey.
In addition, to suggest that the activities once offered by a neighborhood community church facility could be moved away from the neighborhood and warehoused at Gleneagles is bizarre. Almost as bizarre as the idea that building 14 condos on the church site somehow addresses “climate change”…
Jason McCambel says
If West Van keeps on taking such decisions, it will soon be dead. Much like the boomers who are opposing the development of properties.
On one hand, these boomers are complaining about the Chinese buying up properties in West Van and build Tomb like mansions and on the other hand opposing such developments and B-line. Guys pick a side.
All these boomers are so out of touch with reality, thankfully they are dying soon.
C Young says
In response to your overly aggressive post Jason I can only conclude that you were personally set to financially gain from Tantalus Gardens or you are resentful that you cannot afford to live here. I am not a baby boomer and I was against this development for a number of reasons. Do you wish me an early death because I disagree with you? Don’t blame the residents of Horseshoe Bay for your personal issues whatever they are, direct your ranting at the greedy developers ruining and selling our communities to the highest bidders or previous Mayors and Councillors for their poor decisions allowing monster homes to be built, or you could complain to both the Federal and Provincial governments for allowing unrestricted foreign ownership to continue, but don’t spew your hatred and patronize a community trying to limit even more unaffordable housing in their community and don’t attack them for trying to save their much loved church.
Graham McIsaac says
Glad that four Councillors voted against this – there should be no rezoning (spot zoning ) before Local Area Plans complete – all of West Vancouver should have a local area plan for their area. In addition we should have the findings of the neighborhood character working group. Adding density, concrete buildings, removal of trees has zero to do with saving the planet ( all create additional GHG’s as does increasing West Vancouver population) and everything to do with developers and money for West Vancouver projects.
Graham McIsaac says
Jason
Your comments are very inappropriate. Being grateful that people will be dead soon is quite disgusting.
Everyone ( regardless of age) are entitled to their views and opinions. You are not entitled to make such appalling ageist comments. You do yourself a disservice and you should restrict yourself to discussion if the real issues.
An apology would be appreciated.