TRANSCRIPT OF THE PUBLIC HEARING HELD IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, CITY HALL, 141 WEST 14th STREET, NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C., ON MONDAY, JULY 7, 2008 AT 7:00 P.M.

PRESENT:

COUNCIL MEMBERS STAFF MEMBERS Mayor D.R. Mussatto A.K. Tollstam, City Manager Councillor P.J. Bookham S.E. Dowey, City Clerk Councillor R.J. Fearnley J.M. Rowe, Assistant City Clerk Councillor R.N. Heywood G. Penway, Deputy Director, Community Development Councillor C.R. Keating K. Russell, Development Planner Councillor B.W. Perrault S. Wilks, Timekeeper Councillor S.A. Schechter

Bylaws Nos. 7932, 7933 & 7938 – 2151 Lonsdale Avenue – File: 3345-02 LONS 2151

AND

Bylaws Nos. 7934, 7935 & 7936 –721 Chesterfield Avenue – File: 3345-02 CHES 721

The Public Hearing was called to order at 7:03 p.m.

Mayor D.R. Mussatto Ms. Dowey!

Ms. S.E. Dowey, City Clerk Thank you Your Worship. The first item is OCP Bylaw No. 7932 is to amend Schedule A of the “City of North Vancouver Official Community Plan Bylaw, 2002, No. 7425” to change the Land Use Designation for 2151 Lonsdale Avenue, legally described as Lot 1, Block 206, D.L. 545, Plan LMP43980 from “School & Institutional” as follows: ¾ Site ‘A’ to Urban Corridor Mixed Use (2.3 FSR) ¾ Sites ‘B’ and ‘C’ to “Residential Level Five: Medium Density” ( 1.6 FSR) and Zoning Bylaw No. 7933 is to rezone Lot 1, Block 206, D.L. 545, Plan LMP43980, located at 2151 Lonsdale Avenue. The amending bylaw will have the effect of reclassifying the said property from P-1 (Public Use and Assembly 1) Zone to CD-557 (Comprehensive Development 557) Zone:

Site A: To provide for a development potential of 2.3 FSR and to permit construction of a five storey building to house the North Vancouver School District Educational Services Centre and Artists for Kids Gallery/Studio. This building would be excluded from Gross Floor Area calculations. Parking, loading and recycling/garbage would be located underground with vehicular access from West 21st Street. Site B: To permit 213 apartment and townhouse units in two four storey buildings and two smaller townhouse buildings fronting Chesterfield Avenue. The proposed density is 1.6 FSR, plus a density transfer from Site ‘A’. The units would be comprised of 102 one-bedroom units, 35 one-bedroom plus den, 36 two- bedroom units, 21 two-bedroom plus den, 8 three-bedroom units and 11 three- bedroom plus den units. Parking and recycling/garbage would be located underground with vehicular access from West 21st Street. Site C:To permit rental or special needs housing at up to 1.6 FSR and four storeys. The North Vancouver School District No. 44 proposes to donate this site to HYAD (Housing for Young Adults with Disabilities) for construction of a three-storey building with 16 dwelling units, including live-in manager support and common space, for young adults with mental disabilities capable of independent living. Four parking stalls will be provided underground with access from West 21st Street. Heritage Designation Bylaw No. 7938 (Ridgeway Elementary School) in conjunction with Bylaws Nos. 7932 and 7933, Lot A (Explanatory Plan 10930), Block 100, D.L. 550, Plan 1232, at 420 East 8th Street, the lot occupied by the heritage building known as Ridgeway Elementary School, would be designated as a Municipal Heritage Site. This would have the effect of protecting this primary heritage building for subsequent rehabilitation.

The applicants are NORTH VANCOUVER SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 44/GRANT & SINCLAIR ARCHITECTS LTD., VIA ARCHITECTURE INC. and Council will consider this under items 10, 11, and 12 this evening, Your Worship.

I have received 95 letters and emails in favour of the proposal and 4 letters and emails opposed and all these letters have been circulated to Council. Thank you, Your Worship.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you Ms. Dowey. I am just going to take a guess here that I think there are a few people that have never been in a gallery before so certainly, welcome to all of you. The way we will work tonight is Mr. Penway will present the City staff’s point of view and information and then the applicant will be given 10 minutes to speak with regards to the application and then we will be up to members of the public to make their representation. Mr. Penway, the floor is yours!

Mr. Gary Penway, Deputy Director, Community Development Thank you Your Worship. I will give a fairly brief presentation and then the applicants will speak. We are dealing first with the project which is known as the former Lonsdale School site for the PowerPoint presentation which will be on the screen. There is a model in the centre of the Council Chambers and there are boards to my right, the west side of the Council Chambers.

City of North Vancouver Page 2 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Your Worship, this project goes back some time. Council dealt with this last summer in July, 2007 and gave direction of how the application should evolve and that is what has happened to arrive at this point. So the bylaws are now at first reading and here for a Public Hearing.

Your Worship, in terms of the context of this site. This plan shows the site as being on 22nd Street to the north, Chesterfield Avenue to the west, Lonsdale Avenue to the east and 21st Street to the south with four apartment buildings that front on to 21st Street, which is immediately south of the old Lonsdale School site. There is a laneway through here which runs only partially open now that served primarily Lonsdale School in the past, and then Rey Sargent Park, is the park in this area here at the corner of Lonsdale and 21st Street.

This application includes the North Vancouver School District properties, which is the single lot owned by the North Vancouver School District. There is also contemplated in this development the closure of a portion of laneway, which runs from 21st Street to that property, to provide vehicular access and a small strip of the park land here adjacent to that laneway, which will also be closed as part of that. And a compensating park slightly larger, which is this laneway piece in here on the north side of Rey Sargent Park. In fact be designated as park land so the net size in the park increases and this plan here shows sort of an evolution of that as it shapes up the parcels we see. Parcels A, B and C are all part of the former Lonsdale School site. The parcel, for this presentation purpose, I am labeling D, is the portion that would become part of that through a sale of the City land to the North Vancouver School District as part of the eventual development, should it be approved and then Rey Sargent Park will remain, and in fact, be enhanced and expanded, which is described here as Parcel E.

There are three bylaws before you, Your Worship, that relate to this application that are before the Public Hearing. The first is an Official Community Plan change. So, currently in our Official Community Plan which sets the long range direction for the City’s land use. These lands have had a school and institutional designation since 1980 because it has been a school since 1980. The school use closed several years ago and the application is to change the existing Official Community Plan designation and the intention would be to pick up on Official Community Plan designations which relate to it. So for example, to the immediate south is a medium density designation at 1.6 fsr. The same is to the north across 22nd Street, 1.6 fsr residential, and so the intention is to apply that to the majority of this site. There is a designation, which is shown in a sort of a pink pattern colour here; this is an urban corridor designation which runs from 21st Street south to 17th Street. The intention would be to apply that to a portion on this site which the North Vancouver School District intends to keep ownership of. So, if it were to be approved this is how the Official Community Plan would look. These designations would be contiguous through this part of the blocks through the 100 block west of 21st and 22nd and the urban corridor designation would pick up on the same designation as exists at 21st Street.

City of North Vancouver Page 3 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Your Worship, that is the first bylaw before you this evening. The Official Community Plan change in terms of the schedule as attached to the map it looks like this. So, there is a Site A, which is what will still be the North Vancouver School District property and a Site B and C, which both received the same designation of 1.6fsr Medium Density.

In terms of zoning, Your Worship, all of these lands would have a single zone. It would be called the Comprehensive Development 557 Zone. Within that zone it would provide for on Site A a variety of commercial and institutional uses that will provide for a floor space ratio of 2.3 times the lot area. On this site would be built the North Vancouver School Board Administration Building; approximately 60,000 sq.ft. The nature of that building is that it would be with a lot coverage of about 40%. It is about a five storey building and 85 feet. And I should mention there is a fact sheet that is in your Council Agenda package, at the back, which has these figures as well. The intention is to include on Site A the potential for 2.3 fsr to exclude from floor area calculations the North Vancouver School Board Administration Building and that would provide for some future potential use of that density at another time including a transfer to other sites as a possibility.

The Site B is intended to be a residential apartment building site at 1.6 fsr plus a small amount of density, which would be transferred from Site A to Site B at about an increase of approximately 10,700 sq.ft. that would be transferred from A to B. So it results in a density here of about 1.7 fsr on Site B. And then, on Site C, is the site that is proposed for Special Needs Housing and this is the group that is known as HYAD where the housing is for young adults with disabilities. They are a group that has come before Council in the past. If all goes well the intention is that HYAD, first of all the application would include this approval and, if it did, HYAD would secure the funding and proceed with the development. In the event that did not happen the site would be zoned for rental or special needs housing and the City would be in control of its future in the event that HYAD is not able to perform, to produce the housing that they certainly do have every intention of proceeding with. Your Worship, there are four storey buildings on Site B. Site C, the HYAD site, is proposed to be a three storey building but it would be zoned for a four storey potential in the event that that shifts to a different use in the future.

Your Worship, the last bylaw before you this evening is the Heritage Designation Bylaw for Ridgeway School. The effect of that bylaw is going to be to place the building in a situation where the building cannot be demolished or altered, nor the grounds built upon, unless Council approves whatever changes those might be. At this point in time we know the North Vancouver School District is working on a plan for the rehabilitation of that building and they have got a concept that they are working through. That has not become before you yet in final form and we don’t yet know the outcome of that process. That is a subsequent process that would carry on and would come back to you at some later date. The situation for now would be that that discussion would happen in the context of it as to protect a heritage building and at Council’s discretion they could allow changes and retrofits and upgrades to it and the North Vancouver School District are comfortable with that.

City of North Vancouver Page 4 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) There has been a contribution anticipated from this project towards the Ridgeway School upgrade and I believe that may be changing somewhat now, in terms of the final amount, but the intention and the commitment to designate that building as part of the bylaw here and the final contribution is also intended to be as part of this process.

Your Worship, the application has been through the advisory bodies and I won’t go through the resolutions. You have got them. It includes the Parks and Environment Advisory Committee, the Advisory Planning Commission, the Advisory Design Panel and the Heritage Advisory Commission. All have stated support for it with certain points. There were a few outstanding design items. We have resolved some of those with the applicants and some more could be resolved at a later date. There was a question about the improvements to Rey Sargent Park and I will just come back to this overall site plan, which would be the Parcel E, and there was a report that came forward to Council on Friday, which provided that update, which indicates there is a $350,000 commitment which would substantially complete the upgrade of Rey Sargent Park as part of the application.

Your Worship, the owner of the property is the North Vancouver School District, who have made the application and there has been a switch in the developer status that would be developing the residential components of this. So with this kind of situation the bylaws are before Council and Council’s approval is of the development not of an individual developer, so Council is in a position to carry on with the application. The intention is that if it is Council’s pleasure we would take this to third reading. At that point we would report back and Council would have the option of proceeding with the adoption of one or more of the bylaws and we may in fact at that point proceed with only one, like the Official Community Plan Bylaw, and await the outcome of a new developer coming on board. If a new developer arrives and the North Vancouver School District is in a position to proceed with final adoption there are really three scenarios to what may happen with that. One would be that the developer who comes as the new partner would accept the plans as they have been prepared to this point and simply carry on as if they were the same process. Another is there may be some minor design changes which might be more at the staff and Advisory Design Panel level but not issue the change use, height, density or any of the zoning considerations. That could be dealt with perhaps at the design and advisory body level. And the third potential would be that if there is a necessity for some further changes that might affect the bylaw and if that were the case then the Zoning Bylaw would need to come back to a new public process. But at this point there is every reason to believe, at this point, that the plans that are before you are plans that very clearly show the concept of four storey residential development on these sites and form a development that has been supported by the advisory bodies.

Your Worship, that concludes my presentation.

City of North Vancouver Page 5 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Penway for the staff presentation. Now, it is the applicant’s turn. I think Mr. Wollenberg was going to be making a presentation with Mr. Dorais. I am just sort of being mindful of the time, the numbers of people here tonight; we have 10 minutes for you. If there is more than that we will have to see if we cannot get you in the speakers order. Thank you. Welcome Mr. Dorais.

Mr. Chris Dorais, Chair, Board of Trustees, School District No. 44 (North Vancouver) Thank you Your Worship. Thank you Council for this opportunity this evening to speak on behalf of the Board of Education and the entire North Vancouver School District’s in favour of the proposal this evening.

I would just like to start out by saying that in North Vancouver, in the North Vancouver School District, we say it is the natural place to learn in North Vancouver, and with that I thought I would just briefly put the North Vancouver School District in the context, in relation to this proposal. All of you on Council are familiar with the North Vancouver School District. Some of you may not be familiar with the operation, as a Trustee is, on the Board. We have a budget of $140 Million. We have Capital Assets of about $300 Million. We operate 37 schools. We have 2,300 employees in the North Vancouver School District. We have about 5,000 adult learners in the North Vancouver School District. We have 17,000 students that we provide educational services to in the North Vancouver School District, through the public education system, and we service the community from the end of the inlet out to Capilano Road and from the Sea Bus Terminal up to Grouse Mountain. That operation is coordinated out of 721 Chesterfield, which is the current Board office and it has been operating there for about 6 years.

We don’t receive capital funding for things like new Board offices, things like our Outdoor School or things like heritage restoration at Ridgeway or Queen Mary Elementary and we have to be very creative to address those challenges and that is what this proposal is about this evening. It is about the North Vancovuer School District being creative, which we are on an ongoing basis.

The Lonsdale proposal illuminates the fact that this community puts a high priority on education in North Vancouver and it makes sense because it consolidates services there to operate the School District. There are many highlights in this proposal which Mr. Jay Wollenberg will speak to once I am done and those include the possible donation of land to HYAD to operate residential development there for young adults with disabilities. Those include improvements to Rey Sargent Park. Those include bringing the AFK, the Artist For Kids Gallery, up to Lonsdale which will benefit not only students because it will be more accessible but it will bring an infusion into the local business community and for the residents in central North Vancouver. And finally this proposal, for us, deals with heritage restoration in North Vancouver. An important project at Ridgeway Elementary may be possible if this goes forward.

City of North Vancouver Page 6 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) I would like to finally say that I would like to thank the City staff for their help in bringing this proposal along and guiding us. I would like to thank the Trustees on the Board for their support, their unanimous support, as we have gone along and I would like to thank our staff, our team and our consultants for bringing this proposal forward this evening. It has been four years of work and I am happy to see that we are here. So, thank you again for your consideration this evening and I look forward to your deliberations.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you Mr. Dorais. Mr. Wollenberg!

Mr. Jay Wollenberg, Coriolis Consulting Corp. Thank you Your Worship and members of Council. My name is Jay Wollenberg, Planning Consultant with the North Vancouver School District and I am going to give you some brief additional remarks about the proposal. Our whole technical team is here so if in the course of the evening you have any questions of an architectural, transportation or engineering nature, we can address them.

Mr. Penway has done an admirable job of giving an overview of the project so I won’t take long to just point out that this is the portion of the site that is to be developed with the education services centre. Pretty much the entire ground floor of this building is public use and accessible because it includes the Artist for Kids Gallery. This is the proposed site of the HYAD Project, 16 units of special needs housing. This is one of two four storey residential buildings, and this is the second, and in addition there are two lower buildings that are proposed for townhouse use. The project also includes, as you can see, an extensive network of public pathways to make the site permeable. One of the pathways involves the transformation of an underused and unsightly lane into a pedestrian route. Those of you familiar with the neighbourhood will know that this end of the lane is already sort of used as a pedestrian path. The project intends to significantly upgrade it and enhance the entire route for a connection through to Lonsdale Avenue and to Rey Sargent Park.

I will also note that the project includes the retention of almost all of the mature chestnut trees along 22nd and along Lonsdale. In our extensive public consultation program that showed up over and over again as a concern. We unfortunately have to lose two, right here, because there is a requirement for this, which is a fire lane to get into the property. I would also like to note sustainability. The North Vancouver School District building will be built to LEED Silver. HYAD, as a provincially assisted building, will be built to LEED Gold. There is a commitment to do all of the residential to the equivalent of LEED Silver.

I would like to mention a couple of things about public contact. The North Vancouver School District has been at this a while. In 2005 Lonsdale Elementary School was closed. It was a highly public process and the North Vancouver School District made it clear at that time that the site would be re-used for a purpose that involved selling it and not replacing it with an educational use.

City of North Vancouver Page 7 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) I first got involved in 2006 and we held two public open houses in that year. In June of 2006 about two years ago and we were very clear about the re-use of the site for uses that included residential and possibly a North Vancouver School District use. We had our formal Town Hall meeting, as you will recall, about a year ago in June 2007 and we have had a total of four public meetings since; two in February of this year and two in April of this year. We also published a large full page insert in the North Shore News with full disclosure about the nature of the project. Throughout that time we have endeavored to listen very carefully to the neighbours and to the residents of the community. I am sure you will hear shortly that there are some things that we have not been able to accommodate but one of the messages we heard loud and clear, I have already mentioned to you, is the retention of the trees and we have struggled mightily to keep those. And another message we heard loud and clear and repeatedly from this community, that it was not particularly interested in highrise development. While we have been encouraged by some to consider significantly taller buildings it has been made very clear to us that for an appropriate fit in this community that we are looking on the residential side at a four storey height, which is consistent with the existing character of the neighbourhood.

North Vancouver School District is not a typical developer and as a result of that, in effect, 100% of the land value that we hope you will confer by approving this rezoning gets turned into public assets and community benefits. There is no profit in the normal sense of the word here. Yes, a private developer who builds this will earn a typical developers profit on the construction but in terms of going from a piece of land zoned for public or institutional use to a piece of land zoned for market all of the land value we hope will assist the North Vancouver School District in creating, will go into the following amenities. First, the Artist for Kids Gallery, this is an outstanding world class arts and cultural institution in your community. It is not, as some people in the community have conjectured, a place where children’s art is displayed. This is renowned artist work that is in a permanent collection. The proceeds from operating this go to fund children’s art education programs but this will be putting a significant art gallery in a highly public place.

I add that this is a site for sixteen units of special needs housing. Mr. Penway noted that there will be a contribution to heritage upgrade at Ridgeway and Queen Mary Schools coming out of this project and the parallel rezoning for Queen Mary School, which we will be talking about in the second part of the hearing. Until recently the North Vancouver School District had provided an estimate of about $4 Million for that. That number may move a little depending on subsequent negotiations with the final developer but the North Vancouver School District has committed, in writing, to the City that a minimum of $3 Million from this project will go to Ridgeway School. Of course, there are significant other funds from other sources. The key message tonight is that the North Vancouver School District is committed to retaining the Ridgeway School. It is doing everything it can to marshall all of the resources and one of the bylaws before you is to designate it a heritage site. There is also the contribution of several hundred thousand to Rey Sargent Park.

City of North Vancouver Page 8 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) The contribution to Lonsdale Energy Corp and commemoration on this site of the former Lonsdale School, in the form of displays and material re-use. Now, you are going to hear some concerns tonight. You are going to hear that public land shouldn’t be sold. The North Vancouver School District has a responsibility to use its assets wisely. It does not need this land for school purposes. It does need an education centre and the premise is to convert this, what would otherwise be a vacant piece of land with no use to the North Vancouver School District, into a useful project.

Mayor Mussatto If you could just wrap up Mr. Wollenberg.

Mr. Wollenberg I will Your Worship, I have two more things to say. You will also hear concern about the loss of the elementary school building on this site. We struggled mightily to find a way to fit that into the program but it is a very challenging location right in the centre of the site and its extremely high cost of renovation and its unsuitably for any North Vancouver School District purpose, led the School District to believe that the best use of the money it has for heritage is to retain Ridgeway and Queen Mary Schools. You will also hear some people advocating for higher density and more affordable housing on this site. Our proposal is that this project fits in this neighbourhood context and we have allocated 100% of the available funds for amenities to the Arts for Kids Gallery, to HYAD, to open space for your community and to the Ridgeway School. Thank you, Your Worship.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Wollenberg. Now is the opportunity for members of the gallery to speak and ask questions and make comments. Before we go to the Speaker’s List though I would just like to outline how it will proceed. First of all everyone will be given five minutes. I think there is a little clock up here and you can keep an eye on that as you speak, because in that five minutes we would wish you would wrap it up in that time. We have a large number of people here tonight and we have a long Speaker’s List and want to give everybody an opportunity to speak.

Second, it is very important that we are not disrespectful of anybody or question other peoples’ points of view. We are here to hear what you think is right or wrong with it and that ask your questions so that you can help us on Council. But, certainly, no applause or booing is allowed here as this is like a court of law. If that does happen we will just adjourn the meeting.

So, we did have a Speakers’ List that was set out earlier. We are going to go through that. If you did not have a chance to sign you certainly are going to be able to speak. I would just ask that at the end of the Speakers’ List that you just put your hand up. If you feel that at the end of five minutes you didn’t get all the information you wanted covered we will, time permitting at the end, allow you to go back and just finish up what you didn’t get to say the first time. But we want to give everybody an opportunity to speak first.

City of North Vancouver Page 9 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) So, I am going to go the list and the first person I have on the list is Ms. Naomi Yamamoto. Your time does not start until you get down to the podium. Welcome, Naomi!

Ms. Naomi Yamamoto, 309 – 160 West 3rd Street, North Vancouver Thank you. Good afternoon Your Worship and Council. My address is Unit 309 – 160 West 3rd, North Vancouver. I am going to wear two hats today. The first hat I am going to wear, a business person couldn’t be here, Mike Cunning, I think you can ……. him. He just wanted to say and he has a presentation here, to say he is supporting the Artists for Kids and the Gallery and the School District in the development proposal that is going forward and he believes that the Gallery would be a valuable asset to the residents of the North Shore and help to identify the City of North Vancouver as an innovative supporter of the arts. I will just leave that here.

And I would like to wear my other hat today which is as President of the Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation. I have with me today Paula Pallaga, Bill McDonald, Paul Caline, Pat Quan and Reeny Rose and they are all Directors, and North Shore residents, of the Smith Foundation. Our objective is to build a permanent endowment of $5 Million to ensure the ongoing viability and success of Artists for Kids. That is our over arching goal but we also have another one and that is to keep the Smith name attached to the Artists for Kids Gallery in a significant manner, and I think the new development will ensure this. We want to ensure that there is continued support for the Smith Foundation and our fund raising campaign, which we increased by $10 Million. It was $3 Million and when we heard about this development we actually increased it to $5 Million endowment. It has currently $725,000 in four years that we have raised and it is in a permanent endowment managed by the Vancouver Foundation and what that has enabled us to do, is to contribute in the last four years, $57,000 to the Artists for Kids program.

The City supports the North Vancouver Recreation Centre in their programs and we think that is a great opportunity for kids and families in this community to provide programs that are more athletic in nature. But, we think that there are a lot of kids out there that are not really into athletics and this addresses some of that gap and we believe that this really fulfills the need for this community to keep arts in our schools. Nobody is doing this for youth and art in a significant manner in a large scale and we believe that the new proposal, the new development can do this. The Artists for Kids Gallery is currently located in an unsafe and unprotected, not unsafe for people, but unsafe as far as our exhibit, the assets, and unfortunately and I mentioned restricted public access and we believe that the new Gallery that is being proposed will certainly put North Vancouver on the map with respect to art, this art collection. I don’t know if people know that this is a multi-million dollar asset in our community. There are more than 300 pieces and they are actually from Canada’s most significant artists and most of these artists have exhibited in the National Gallery. And just so you know, I think you may not realize this, but you are probably all carrying a piece of the Artists for Kids in your wallet. If you look at the $20 bill there is the Artists for Kids first print, Bill Reid print, is actually used as an image on the $20 bill.

City of North Vancouver Page 10 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

In closing I would just like to ask you for your leadership and vision to support this opportunity this project presents. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Ms. Yamamoto.

Ms. Yamamoto Oh, I still have a minute. Can I just say one more thing. I think that one of the finest gentlemen on the North Shore is actually in Council Chambers right now and that is Gordon Smith that is who the Smith Foundation is named for. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto I see his name on the list later so we are going to actually see him in person. So, thank you very much Ms. Yamamoto. Could I just get the letter you had at the podium. If you wouldn’t mind just passing it to our Clerk here and she will make copies to make sure that everyone at the Council table has a copy. And the $20. The next speaker I have is Jerry Zaslove. Welcome Mr. Zaslove. If you wouldn’t mind, just for the record, your name and address. Thank you.

Mr. Jerry Zaslove, 1402 – 1555 Eastern Avenue, North Vancouver My name is Jerry Zaslove. I have lived on the North Shore for over 40 years. I have taught at Simon Fraser for that many years and I want to make a few comments about the proposal here and how the context of this proposal fits into some of the other Official Community Plan plans. Because I think one of the problems with the proposal is not intrinsic to the proposal, but one of the problems with the Council and the planning in this particular regard, has been to pit one aspect of the public against other aspects of the public. As you will see in my comments, which is about shared public space, that what we are talking about tonight and what I know you have been talking about for many, many months is that we are talking about urban land and the politics of private and communal public space. The fundamental objection that some of us have and I, by the way, have taught this subject and have worked in Grandview, Woodlands, I have worked in Surrey, I have worked in the Downtown Eastside and I am very familiar with the kinds of conflicts that the Council and the planners and the public here are confronting in this very laudable project, in some ways.

The fundamental objection to the new plans to turn Lonsdale Avenue in the future into Lonsdale highrise Gulch alias Yaletown is that when an irresistible force like development hits an immovable object like private property the results are often all too predictable in areas of congestion, increased traffic, scarce affordable housing, confusion about security, emergency exits in case of danger, policing and loss of the very character of the town that makes North Vancouver a unique public space. There are very few highrise developments that would eventually in the Official Community Plan that would surround this laudable development. There are very few highrise developments on Ambleside, Dundarave, 4th Avenue, Arbutus, Fraser, Main, Commercial Drive, West and East Hastings and so forth.

City of North Vancouver Page 11 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) So, what I am trying to suggest to the Council and the planners that they are perhaps way behind the times in trying to share public space and how to share surplus wealth. It is not an either/or School District versus disabled children but it is putting us all on the stage for common usage.

I have lived in North Vancouver, as I say, for over 40 years. Without common land no social system can survive the invasion of powerful forces of development that dictate the terms of the future no matter how the hopes of planners and of politicians. We need land, pathways, corners, plazas, and overall landscape that allows and encourages a sense of democratic participation through proper planning which means long term communal liability for the future, not short term adaptation to growth at all cost that is the cost of those who try to live here.

Now, what does this mean in terms of practical adaptation of this space to the needs of the community. Here is a summary of some of the things that I am suggesting. And one of the main things is, I think, you need to think seriously about a moratorium on the public process and go deeper into the public process that involves all these competing interests that you see here today. For example, North Vancouver is not New York City with a footprint. You don’t want to make it a boot print that has placed itself on a small island for over 200 years. North Vancouver is a settlement with traces of living memory and legacies and heritage that give people a sense of place that is continuity with their experiences. Speeding up this process as this development now going into another phase as the Lower Lonsdale development, plans have been shelved for a period of time, speeding up this process has confused the public and has created the kind of confrontations that we have seen in the last year or two. Look at the annex in Toronto. Look at Capital Hill or Ballard in Seattle, historic locations that do not shove people out of the way to produce spectacular buildings and still keep room for public space. Look at the demography we have. Older people, sick and weakening, wanting some privacy and amenities not located on street corners where we swallow the noise, fumes, aggressive driving habits of panicking drivers shoving themselves into crosswalks.

Now you may think what I am saying here doesn’t relate to this particular area. It does. What you need to think about is to persuade us that our sense of security held safety is of primary concern not a lot maps and graphs. What we need really to think about here is not to have a confrontation or conflict between the administration of the school, which is after all a public institution, but to think about the numbers of spaces available for disabled children. I have worked with psychiatric survivors. I have worked in very precarious communities and frankly this particular plan that the School Board has proposed is not enough spaces for these children. Mental health should be placed higher on the agenda. It is not as an annex to an administration building and market housing.

Finally you have an opportunity here to be politicians. You are not just aggressively modern, up to date, promoting this or that, as if that were not controversial but to leave your own legacy in a city that really does something different not only doing in the air. I just have a few seconds left. I see my time is up.

City of North Vancouver Page 12 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

Mayor Mussatto Your time is up Mr. Zaslove so unfortunately we are going to have to ask you to come back to the end of the line if you would like to speak any further.

Mr. Zaslove I hope I have made my points, that this is not an issue of one sector of the population against another, but it is about sharing the space and halting the process until there can be more deliberation.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much for that. We have that. I have you at 1515 Eastern, for the record. Is that correct?

Mr. Zaslove It is 1515 Eastern Avenue.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much for that. The next speaker I have is Mr. Bill MacDonald. Welcome Bill!

Mr. Bill MacDonald, 5826 Highfield Drive, Burnaby I am Bill MacDonald. I live at 5826 Highfield Drive and I am the Managing Director of Artists for Kids. Your Worship and members of Council I would like to paint for you a futuristic looking picture. After all as an artist that is what I am best at. I would like you to imagine that is July 7, 2013 and the Upper Lonsdale cultural corridor is blossoming. Adam Agoins’ hit play “Vera” is playing to packed houses at Centennial Theatre and the Frederick Horseman Varley exhibition is drawing rave national reviews in the new Artists for Kids Gallery. Varley, a North Vancouver resident in the 1930’s, was a member of the famous Group of Seven and his Lynn Valley paintings have become legendary. Vera, by the way, was his mistress and a source of much consternation in its day. Agoin has certainly had fun with this one. Thousands of citizens and tourists alike are visiting the Artists for Kids Gallery each month and combined with their visits to the new Presentation House Gallery in Lower Lonsdale have made North Vancouver a destination for contemporary art in British Columbia.

Artists for Kids signature programs continue to flourish. The 20th Annual Paradise Valley Summer School of Visual Art began yesterday with artist, Jeff Wall and Edward Bertinski. Primary age summer day camps housed in the new Artists for Kids Education centre have become a huge hit with kids and parents alike turning Rey Sargent Park into an active outdoor art classroom. Perhaps the greatest surprise has been the growth and success of the AFK Academy Program for talented North Shore senior high school students running out of the Gallery studio every afternoon during the school year. For the past five years this enriched studio art program has become a life line to career bound art students introducing them to some of the country’s finest artists and focusing their talents to art school.

City of North Vancouver Page 13 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Did you know that every enrollee has had their portfolio accepted by post secondary programs across this country since the program began in the fall of 2008 at Carson Graham Secondary School? Another pleasant has been the acceptance of the Studio in the City program for post schoolers. This drop-in evening and weekend program with a range of exciting professional artists and residents has provided inspiring mentorship and has spawned many new art careers for North Shore youth. The Artists for Kids Gallery Program for Grade 5 children remains the mainstay of our school programming in fall and winter months. This day long immersion with the incredible $5 Million Gordon Smith Teaching Collection of Canadian art runs five days a week and attracts teachers and their classes from around Metro Vancouver. The Gallery program has become a model for other institutions to emulate as evidenced by the recent visit of Charlie Hill, Director of the National Gallery of Canada, who remarked, “your engagement of students with major works of Canadian art is truly remarkable and I am particularly impressed with the Gallery games your staff used with children”. The new relationships we have developed with Silver Harbour and Summerhill Retirement communities has become a real blessing to Artists for Kids.

While the Gallery is a favourite destination for its residents, their active engagement as volunteers in all aspects of our operation has become one of our most valuable assets. This move to Lonsdale is really fantastic. Now remember we are still in 2013. The Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation’s endowment has now reached $5 Million and is earning $250,000 annually to assist Artists for Kids programming. That amount continues to grow and has become a real godsend thanks to its energetic fund raising boards these past 11 years and a visionary School District who got this started with Gordon and Marion Smith in 2002. Its legacy provides invaluable financial support to sustain Artists for Kids and our Gallery programs. The Upper Lonsdale Cultural Corridor has been wonderfully enhanced by the recent opening of the new Harry Jerome Recreation Centre and especially its wealth of new programming in the visual and performing arts. And of course the Rey Sargent Sculpture Walk adjacent to the new Gallery is a favourite ……….our neighbours. They remain in awe of the public artworks by super stars Robert Davidson, Joe Fefard, and eagerly look forward to exciting rotating 3-D works by academy students installed between the stately chestnut trees from 21st all the way to 22nd. The Rodney Graham Gifted Amateur Light Box installed in the Artists for Kids Gallery window harkens back to former uses of Lonsdale School and it has become as much a part of the cultural streetscape as the enlightened neon tree which graces the exterior of Centennial Theatre up the street.

It is safe to say the addition of Artists for Kids Gallery in the new education centre has changed the face of Upper Lonsdale and the neighbouring community and has added to its cultural cosmopolitan nature. Isn’t it great that the Mayor and Council five years ago had the vision and political will to create what has become a new cultural centre for the City of North Vancouver. Thank you.

City of North Vancouver Page 14 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mayor Mussatto Thank you for that very eloquent presentation Mr. MacDonald. The next speaker I have is Mr. Gordon Smith. Welcome Mr. Smith.

Mr. Gordon Smith, 5030 The ByWay, West Vancouver Thank you for having me Mayor and Council. I have been associated with the North Shore since a group of us came home from overseas in the 1940’s and many of us settled on the North Shore. And at that time artists, well, people that were here at that time was Fred Varley and people like Ed Hughes, Orval Fisher lived here, the Billings, Doug Sheble built houses here, Ron Tom built houses here and we were all involved in the arts. I don’t want to mention names because a lot of my friends don’t know who Jeff Wall is or who Rodney Graham is but when I came here I was very involved in education and the arts. But it wasn’t making artists or painters or sculptures, it was art in living and I felt that I had a real slogan, I felt the other day, when I said “work is art”. Work is art. No matter what you do, if you do it really well, if you are passionate about what you do, whether you are working in a store or an architect or a doctor, whatever you do, you do it well. That is what I feel art is. It is not producing great artists or great sculptures. It is people who are involved in becoming more creative, more interesting people, because they have this art program. When I came here there was Jimmy Inkster who is teaching at Carson Graham. Ken James who is an old student of mine was teaching at Upper Lynn. These wonderful teachers, and I must say, I applaud so much the Superintendent of Schools here who supported this program. It is not a frill. It is important and I think North Vancouver is the cultural centre. It is the cultural centre. You have got Presentation House. You have got Capilano College. You have got all these people involved in the arts here doing work in any field of work. They are the real artists and I think I am so privileged to live in the place where our borders are the wilderness and the sea. We live in the most …. area of Canada I think. The citizens here they are good in everything they do and what has happened in North Vancouver with new architecture, new education facilities, I think it is terribly important.

I realize we have high taxes and we have other things that are important too but believe me it is so important to have this cultural in our City here. It is known. If you go to Winnipeg or you go to Ottawa they all know about this particular program. I don’t like the words Artists for Kids particularly but it is art and education. I know when I first started in Winnipeg doing illustrations for Eaton’s Catalogue, I was about 17 at the time, and I remember resenting it when one of the artists said “give the kid this job to do”. Well, later I was a ………………….. in Italy and I found that when I hear about Artists for Kids I have great warm feelings. I know there are people who think there are other priorities but I think it is terribly important for us to have this facility. When Bill mentioned the artists that you have here, this has got the best collection of artists across the country. It is a National Gallery caliber of work. It is not the easiest art. It is not just the easy landscapes. It is people like Rodney Graham and the ……… people and we are bringing this to these children. We are bringing it to a very sophisticated audience. Any help you can give in supporting this program I would appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

City of North Vancouver Page 15 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mayor Mussatto And thank you Mr. Smith for coming out this evening. Just as a note, I think Mr. Smith lives in West Vancouver. The next speaker I have is Mr. John Lewis. Mr. Lewis just before you go on I think I should just recognize the other members of the School Board Trustees. Of course we have the Chair, Chris Dorais, who spoke earlier. We also have Susan Skinner and Pat Heal and I hope I haven’t missed anybody else. No, I don’t think I have. Okay. Vicki Vinaric. Okay, good, Vicki is here. Welcome Mr. Lewis.

Mr. John Lewis, Superintendent of Schools, 4001 Shone Road, North Vancouver Thank you, Your Worship and Council. My name is John Lewis. I am the Superintendent of Schools. I am proud to be the Superintendent of Schools for North Vancouver School District. My home address is 4001 Shone Road in the District of North Vancouver. Your Worship and Council thank you for the opportunity to say a few words this evening in support of this extremely exciting project. My comments will be brief but I will focus on children and the community that our School District serves.

Our children and our community deserve the absolute best that we could possibly provide. Public education itself is an institution providing for the basic rights of an education of the citizenship to preserve our community values, to celebrate and embrace our culture and to prepare our citizens for the future. The Lonsdale development with the Education Services Centre and the Artists for Kids Gallery is a key element in the School District’s full vision for the future, a future that reinforces the value and importance of public education and the investment that we make in educating our children for the future. This bold vision has been evolving over the past decade as the North Vancouver School District has actively engaged the community in consultations to build a better future for our students. More than $150 Million in capital projects have now been completed by the School District in the past 10 years providing new seismically safe, energy efficient and educationally stimulating environments for our children and staff today and for many years to come. The Lonsdale project provides the School District the opportunity to continue these much needed improvements for the future. Included in the amount of $150 Million capital improvements has been the construction of new schools at both Westview Elementary and Sutherland Secondary.

The School District actively engaged the community in discussions during 2004 related to the consolidation of Lonsdale and Westview into a single new school. The community provided its strong support for the construction of the new school ….. Westview and the new school have now been built with the capacity to accommodate the combined student populations previously served by both Lonsdale and Westview Elementary. This consolidation of schools is now being discussed as a model for the construction of new schools in other areas of the School District. The replacement of Sutherland School has breathed new life into the school and its community. For far too long the students and staff were subjected to dismal and unsafe surroundings. Today’s new school is inspiring and encouraging, demonstrating the value that we placed on our children and on public education.

City of North Vancouver Page 16 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Our School District is continuing to build for the future and is regularly engaging the community in discussing how best to provide for our future needs. Careful and thoughtful planning has been a hallmark of this process and broad community consultation has effectively contributed to this vision for the future.

We are extremely proud of our history in North Vancouver, of our success for our students and of the excellent relationships that we have established and nurtured with our community and with the City of North Vancouver. This project provides great hope and optimism for a proud future of public education in North Vancouver and for our collective future for our students and for our community. I will end with a quote from Albert Einstein “the significant problems we face today cannot be solved by the thinking which created them in the first place”. Well our students today will be our citizens of the future. They deserve the absolute best that we can possibly provide them because for it is all of our futures that will depend upon them. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you, Mr. Lewis. The next speaker I have is Susan Skinner. Trustee Skinner! Welcome Ms. Skinner.

Ms. Susan Skinner, 79 – 1930 Cedar Village Crescent, North Vancouver Your Worship and members of Council my name is Susan Skinner and I reside at 79 – 1930 Cedar Village Crescent. I am also a Trustee with the North Vancouver Board of Education and elected in the City of North Vancouver.

I come tonight to speak on a few key merits on this multi-use development and as a Trustee with the North Vancouver Board of Education and, as a member of the City’s Advisory Planning Commission I have become a big supporter of multi-use buildings and multi-use developments. Some of the key features I see are the sustainability aspects, not only to build the School District’s Administration building that is LEED Silver. The fact is this project is an amalgamation of various administration services as well as the Artists for Kids Gallery and the current location for the Artists for Kids Gallery and some of the administration services at the Lucas Centre. I know of at least two full District groups who have gone to TransLink and tried to get transit service reinstated up the hill to the Lucas Centre and they have been turned down by TransLink. Our new location right on the Lonsdale Corridor I think says so much for sustainability. There will be less vehicular traffic from all the different administrators not having to go between the two buildings. As well, as any parent or member of the community who has gone to register their child or themselves at central registration at the Lucas Centre can tell you, that is not very convenient where it is now and it is going to be a great improvement to the community to have it at the new location.

I can’t say much about the Artists for Kids Gallery because so much has been said before by Naomi and Gordon Smith and Bill MacDonald and I thank you all for that. I do see art for students as hugely important and lacking in our society and I think that our previous Superintendent and Board of Trustees were amazing thinkers in establishing the Artists for Kids Gallery.

City of North Vancouver Page 17 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

As well I think the housing for HYADians is an excellent initiative and the revitalization of Rey Sargent Park. So, I see this multi-use development as a big benefit to so many members of the community. We will be welcoming people throughout the property and I believe the North Vancouver School District is a lighthouse School District in this Province and I see this development as a landmark and a big asset for the City of North Vancouver, the gateway to the City of North Vancouver. I think it is an excellent development. I really hope that we can count on your support this evening. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Ms. Skinner. The next speaker I have is Carolyn Neilson. Welcome Ms. Neilson.

Ms. Carolyn Neilson, 2643 Fromme Road, North Vancouver It is Carolyn Neilson. I reside at 2643 Fromme Road in the District of North Vancouver. I am here today as a Board Member of the Lonsdale Creek Daycare Centre Society. I have been before you before. The last time I believe was in October. We operate the daycare that is at 240 West 21st Street, the Lonsdale School Annex site. We are supportive of this zoning and development application particularly the Artists for Kids Gallery and the housing for young adults with disabilities. We think it is very needed in the community.

However, we did believe as part of this zoning proposal that there was the potential of a land exchange between a parcel of this site and the site at 240 West 21st. We were working with the City staff diligently hoping that this was going to be part of this deal and this zoning that was going through. Our concern of course is, with regards to, we provide early learning and care for children that are under the age of five years old. We know the School District has a mandate to work with children from five years old until Grade 12. Our hope was that there would be an exchange of land between a parcel of land here and the West 21st Street site which would be good for us a society and affordable for the School District. We understand however in the Minutes, dated June 23, 2008 that this is no longer the case. We would like to state to the Councillors and to you, Your Worship, that we would appreciate a discussion around this as to why this did not occur and we only found out about this through the Minutes that we read and the documents.

We would like to remind Council of our collective interest in our community in providing early learning and care to the 40 children that are currently at care on the site of West 21st Street and we would like to remind Council when they are reviewing this plan to please be aware of that in working on the zoning on this. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Ms. Neilson, thank you very much for your presentation. The next speaker I have is Vera Davis. Welcome Ms. Davis!

City of North Vancouver Page 18 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Ms. Vera Davis, 8 – 2118 Eastern Avenue, North Vancouver Your Worship and Councillors. You will be pleased to note that I thought we only had two minutes. My name is Vera Davis, 2118 Eastern Avenue, and I am speaking to you as a parent of a young adult with developmental disabilities. I thank you very much for your interest in our project, the group HYAD, Housing for Young Adults with Disabilities. All parents want the best for their children. They wish them to grow up surrounded by love, support and without any needs. Once they are old enough to leave the nest we wish for our children to continue independently with love, support and without need. As parents of children with intellectual disabilities we must modify our expectations and we are unable to release them completely independently. We parents are getting old. Many of us are over 60. We are going to die and before we die we want to be sure that our adult children will always have a home that is safe, secure, comfortable and loving and one that allows them to continue as members of the community and members of the North Shore community, which most of these young adults are, and many of them are behind me. You will know that these are very delightful, enjoyable, people to have in your community. We are very grateful to you Mayor Mussatto and Councillors to consider this rezoning application. I thank you, indeed.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Ms. Davis for your presentation. The next speaker I have is Jessie Hanlon-McMillon. I hope I pronounced that correctly. Welcome ma’am and please correct me if I mispronounced you name.

Ms. Jessie Hanlon-McMillan, 444 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver My name is Jessie Hanlon-McMillan and I reside at 444 Lonsdale Avenue. I have 10 children and 13 grandchildren. My children were born at 345 West 20th Street in North Vancouver and in the home of my husband’s parents, which was built approximately the same time as the Lonsdale School in 1911. Being only three blocks away my children played at that school yard a lot and I, and also over 2000 people who have signed the petition that is being presented to you tonight, are asking that, please, save the Lonsdale School from being demolished. This issue is very important and of great concern to many of the North Shore residents. We are asking you to designate this as a heritage site and put it to good use for the community. We suggest that the school could be used in this fashion: the top floor as an art gallery and a museum dedicated to our North Shore heritage; the main floor for recreation activities and organized sport for the young people with disabilities; and the front yard from the prints of the school to Lonsdale Avenue we feel could have outdoor sports and recreation activities for these disabled young folk. In the southeast corner there could be a nice little park with tables and I guess it would be part of Rey Sargent Park. Tables and benches where seniors, even 80 year olds like me, and anyone else could come and sit and enjoy a White Spot coffee while watching the games and cheering them on. I am sure these young people and their parents would appreciate an audience.

City of North Vancouver Page 19 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Again, in conjunction with the 2,000 plus who were adamant when signing the Save Lonsdale School petition, we beg you not to destroy this heritage building but to retain it to be treasured and put it to much needed good use. It would be an appreciated tourist attraction, bring more business to the retailers of that area while at the same time providing great pleasure to our young people with disabilities.

Also, I would like to tell you that I came here in 1947 at the time when the street cars were going up and down Lonsdale and I have fond memories of all the old homes here and there along Lonsdale and also the Lonsdale School, which were all built in the very early 1900’s. Also I would like to tell you that my father-in-law Patrick Hanlon and Jimmy Service pulled trees and stumps with a team of horses on Lonsdale clearing the way for a road up from the waterfront and this was the beginning of Lonsdale Avenue. So, again, I say, please reconsider and save the Lonsdale School for a good use and for handicapped, young people with disabilities. Thank you very much.

Mayor Mussatto And thank you very much Ms. Hanlon-McMillan. Appreciate your comments. The next speaker I have is Francy Stratton. Welcome Ms. Stratton.

Ms. Franci Stratton, 4169 Valencia Avenue, North Vancouver Your Worship, and Council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. It is the first time I have actually spoken to Council so bear with me if I am a bit nervous. My name is Franci Stratton and I live at 4169 Valencia Avenue in the District of North Vancouver. My husband and I have lived in North Vancouver since 1989 and have two children that have graduated from Balmoral/Carson Graham and a third currently at Balmoral. I am currently the Vice-Chair of the North Vancouver Parent Advisory Council and formerly a Director of the Artists for Kids Trust Managing Committee. I am here tonight in support of the Lonsdale project and would like to say a few words regarding the importance of Artists for Kids as a major part of this proposed multi-use project and its importance to our School District and to our community.

I have been involved at the School District level as a parent representative for many years. This has allowed me to advocate for parents and students on many different educational issues that would potentially affect how education is delivered in our School District. I value public education and I value the approach and leadership model that our Board of Education and Administration has chosen to take on this project. They have recognized the need to expand the Gallery and they have provided consultation opportunities more than every before. The Artists for Kids Gallery program has a long history in our School District of bringing exceptional art enrichment to our students through programs and the Gallery. Whether the students participate in any number of programs offered by the Artists for Kids ranging from the Grade 5 Artist for a Day Program, the After School Art Enrichment Program, scholarships for graduating students, summer camps, fashion photography, and the very new, which was mentioned earlier, Artists for Kids Art Academy beginning this fall, which my son actually has the opportunity to be a part of.

City of North Vancouver Page 20 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) The Gallery offers the opportunity in no better way than to learn from the best. The Gallery students benefit from premier Canadian artists and outstanding art teachers in our own School District. I had the opportunity to be part of the Artists for Kids Visioning Session back in June 2007. The Artists for Kids was established in 1989 and its mission is clearly about art enrichment opportunities for students through the sale of original prints by its artist patrons. Just listening to one of the founding members at the Visioning it became much clearer how the program had grown over the years and how it has become recognized world wide. Hearing the stories of how the original group established themselves, the positive memories everyone described, you felt that the pride and passion has gone into this Gallery, and programs year after year, always keeping students at the focus of their work. We work through a process of appreciative inquiry building on the Artists for Kids strength to discover, to dream and to design what we collectively envision for the Artists for Kids in 2010, starting with the hopes of a new Gallery that would be at the Lonsdale site. In every conversation, and recorded in the notes of the day, there is a clear theme that came out of this, to engage the community even more in the development of the Gallery. Some of the words that were used were environmentally sustainable in its design and execution, a destination on the North Shore, building in harmony with the North Vancouver environment, integration of Gallery space into park space, business that complements the Artists for Kids Gallery and the Board office. And the one I like the best, a jewel in the crown of the City.

Moving the Gallery to the Lonsdale site not only gives this world recognized permanent collection the exposure it deserves but it also allows for growth, opportunity and program expansion that are not possible at the current site at the Leo Marshall Curriculum Centre. A place to showcase students’ work alongside Gordon Smith’s and that of other patron artists. We all know that the Ministry of Education does not fund these kinds of projects so we need to have faith in our Board and Administration, work through the process, and find innovative ways to make things happen. Putting the Gallery on the Lonsdale site along with the Board Office and Administration Building makes a profound statement of how we value public education. We are in those times of having to compete for dollars and for students that is so important that we look beyond the regular day to day and find opportunities that will make the North Vancouver School District stand far above other Districts. This new Gallery having the exposure along the Lonsdale Corridor will recognize the needs of the community, the parents, the staff, and the Board of Education and addresses what we collectively value as a community. The new Gallery is all about the future of our students. Our School Board listened to the community and has embraced the need for change, choice and consultation with the hopes that the direction for the future of the School District will come collectively from all partner groups. This time is ripe. We need to keep moving ahead and by making this happen now we will begin to create an art education legacy for future generations to enjoy and embrace. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Ms. Stratton. That was a timed speech no doubt and I think you rehearsed that. Thank you for your presentation. The next speaker I have is Lisa Cartwright. Welcome Ms. Cartwright.

City of North Vancouver Page 21 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

Ms. Lisa Cartwright, 3846 St. Pauls Avenue, North Vancouver Thank you very much. My name is Lisa Cartwright. I reside at 3846 St. Paul’s Avenue in the District. I have, over the years, lived in the City with my family and thank you for listening to me tonight. My current role, other than being a parent of two children in the school system in North Vancouver, I am also the Chair of the North Vancouver Parent Advisory Council at the present time. I would like to speak in support of this motion for a few reasons. My comments will focus on the fact that despite the extensive needs of our schools and classrooms our professional staff also need to be housed safely and comfortably in offices suitable for the work being done in this day and age in the School District. We have very professional needs and very professional staff and this cannot be overlooked in the atmosphere of making sure our education dollars are always benefitting our students. The reality is we do have administration to support and adults deserve to be in an appropriate and professional environment in order to do the best for our school kids.

I do not view this project as being a choice between seismically or cosmetically upgrading schools where children and staff spend their time and they desperately need a replacement of the School Board Office and anybody who has seen it would know that that is indeed the case. Both of these things need to be done and I certainly believe that the best efforts are being made by the School District to move forward on addressing all of the needs of our aging infrastructure that supports those students, our teachers and our staff in the other administrative areas of the School District. I also think that the Education Services Centre as it is proposed would certainly support our students both directly and indirectly by bring the Artists for Kids Gallery front centre in the community as well as providing more appropriate meeting space that is easy to access and very pleasant to be in and will engage more members of the community in issues involving our education in North Vancouver.

I also believe the Lonsdale Heritage Building is of much less esthetic and practical value than either Queen Mary or Ridgeway and is a choice that had to be made because we simply cannot afford to do heritage restoration on every building that we would dearly love to do. I think that there is a nice trade-off here, that there are other ways that we can honour the history of the Lonsdale Corridor through some of the suggestions that have been made through Artists for Kids Gallery and demonstrations in models and presentations of where our history has been and redirect some of the potential funds that are being raised through this project to Ridgeway, for instance, just makes a lot of sense when we cannot have everything at every location.

The distinction between the Capital Budget funding made available by the Ministry for seismic upgrading and these are alternative sources of funding that the Board offices require to have them as opposed to creative locally developed land sales and use is an obvious choice that the District has had to make to be able to raise the money to do the School Board offices. As previously mentioned, the capital funding simply is not available from the Ministry to deal with it.

City of North Vancouver Page 22 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) My practical side simply says we just cannot keep everything we had. That the reality of the Lonsdale Corridor’s increasing density makes this location a very logical place for administrative and public spaces with schooling alternatives close enough at hand and a good new facility such as at Westview and the surrounding school that will adequately serve this area for now. I don’t believe that this project is the last or least of the creative opportunities and ideas that are going to come up in the future. As things change we are going to come up with more good ideas and there will be other opportunities down the line so I don’t think that doing this now by closing this particular school site permanently will in any way inhibit our ability to come up with more creative solutions in the future, should demographics change or anything else shift in the Lonsdale Corridor.

I just would like to say that I appreciate very much the process that the School District and the City have gone through with the public consultation on this. As the Chair of the North Vancouver Parent Advisory Council we spend a lot of time concentrating on the fact that people have the right to be heard and that we like to have the ability to have those conversations over time with some thought put into them. And, we will never make everybody happy, but I think that we have all had a lot of opportunity to see this evolve. I think there have been changes and concessions made and I really would hope to see this project go forward. I think it is a very exciting opportunity to bring the professional image of our School District, which is very highly regarded around the Province, to head, to think it a very important focus for the whole community and not just for those people that have children in schools now. Thank you very much.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Ms. Cartwright. The next speaker I have is Clay Knowlton. Welcome Mr. Knowlton.

Mr. Clay Knowlton, 1736 Scott Road, North Vancouver I reside at 1736 Scott Road in Lynn Valley. Your Worship and Council, I am also President of the HYAD Society and I am one of those 60 plus parents that Vera was talking about. In November of 2006 Council gave us unanimous support for the HYAD concept of providing a secure home that encourages an independent lifestyle for young adults with developmental disabilities. With your continued support tonight that dream can become a reality. I was just thinking that this school project of some four years old; we started about 3½ years ago on our journey, the parents, to getting this concept going as well. It will create a legacy for future young adults with similar needs and hopefully also a template for other communities in the Lower Mainland. We have been told that this has been a very unique project and one that has not been presented in other forms so we are kind of pleased with that. It will also allow fourteen young adults to continue to contribute to North Vancouver’s community and its economy. Most of our young people are holding down part-time jobs and also volunteering are very active socially within the City of North Vancouver. Short and sweet, thank you very much.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Knowlton. The next speaker I have is George Pringle. Welcome Mr. Pringle.

City of North Vancouver Page 23 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

Mr. George Pringle , 1004 – 125 West Keith Road, North Vancouver I will try to be a little shorter than him actually too. The name is George Pringle. I reside at 1004 – 125 West Keith in the City. I support the direction of this project. The demographics are clear. This site will never be needed as a school. It provides family oriented housing that doesn’t exceed four storeys and provides for special needs citizens. This is an acceptable development and what I would like to see most in Central Lonsdale, is to end up looking like this. And the absence of the 12 to 18 storey highrises is quite welcome and I am sure it would be welcomed in most parts of our city to have developments down at that five storey height. I would prefer it if the project was just slightly less dense. Perhaps the fourth floor that Mr. Penway mentioned, that is not being built now, will never be built. Thank you very much Mayor and Council.

Mayor Mussatto Thanks very much Mr. Pringle. The next speaker I have is Dave Gilbert. Is Mr. Gilbert here? Welcome Mr. Gilbert.

Mr. Dave Gilbert, 730 Andover Crescent, West Vancouver My name is Dave Gilbert. I live at 730 Andover Crescent in West Vancouver. I have been a resident of the North Shore for over 40 years. I attended elementary and high school here in North Vancouver. I am a parent of a Hyadian and I do want to point out that this location is exceptional for these kids, actually young adults. It is centrally located so they are able to get along in the community just like the rest of us do. My son plays soccer at Carson Graham. He plays baseball across from Harry Jerome. He swims at Harry Jerome and he works on the North Shore. He rides his bike, he walks and he takes public transit; as all of these kids do. This location provides them the ability to commute just like everybody else because of its perfect location. I hope we can get your support. I thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Gilbert. The next speaker I have is Mehrdad Rabar. I guess not. I will come back and check later in the evening. The next speaker I have is Danny MacLean. Welcome sir, please, if you wouldn’t mind just coming down to the podium. It would be very helpful. Welcome Danny.

Mr. Danny MacLean, 1866 Cliffwood, North Vancouver Hi there. My name is Dan MacLean. I am 26 years old and first I am part of the young adults, HYAD’S, moving into the apartments and am looking forward to it. I am a service clerk at Safeway at Westview and I also volunteer at the Harvest Project. Last month I was elected to the Caucus to represent the North Shore BCACL and the reason why I want to move to HYAD is my friends, some of my friends, are here tonight. That is one of the reasons why I want to move into the HYAD apartment. I can live with my friends. I want to live in Lonsdale. It is closer to my work and the Special Olympics and it helps me to get to where I am going. I would like to thank Mayor and Councillors and everyone here and my parents and my parents’ friends for giving me this opportunity and my friends this opportunity here tonight. Thank you.

City of North Vancouver Page 24 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

Mayor Mussatto Dan, I want to thank you for your very well done presentation this evening. Thank you. The next speaker that I have is Christina Kroecher. Welcome Ms. Kroecher.

Ms. Christina Kroecher, 540 East Kings Road, North Vancouver Good evening Your Worship and Councillors. I also don’t like to see any of our interests pitted against other people. I have worked with the School Board over the years and I love what they do and I was instrumental in getting the string instrument program into Carisbrooke School back in the early 1970’s and I have empathy for them. But let me say first that it seems like history is repeating itself here tonight. What I am talking about happened about 40 years ago, that is before the time of some of our young ones here that the people in Vancouver had to fight to preserve some public land that belonged to the City of Vancouver and of course the hungry developers saw more highrises would fit there on the north side of Georgia, west of Denman, and it was a major long debate and fight and negotiations. And fortunately Council was patient enough to wait and see what the real needs of the people were and I don’t think there is anybody today that drives to Stanley Park and sees that addition, actually it is now of Stanley Park, entrance way there. I don’t think there is anybody that wishes that it was an avenue of tall high rises there but I do know that when we go to Lynn Valley and look at the what it is called, the Demonstration Forest, or even Princess Park or some of our beautiful parks here and we see stumps half as big as this whole area here and we do say, too bad that that was an all or nothing deal back in those days. We would love to see the real thing today too.

I think this deal does not have to be an all or nothing thing. I would love to see the HYAD Association have their dwelling there, their residence as it is called, their facility and it is a facility. It is a residence and I am sure with your expertise here without any change of the present zone it would still be accommodated. We would love to see it harmonizing with and in the style of the building that it would be in harmony with. This heritage building, which people here tonight have been afraid to even mention, it is like some of my family that when somebody dies they think you never should mention their name again. So, with a building, it is like as if it doesn’t exist then it is supposed to be forgotten except for a few stones or beams or something, which I find very unfitting.

Now you might wonder why more outcry did not happen five years ago, because we did not know. The way it was presented was tricky from the start, and still is, as you can even see today the white sign that is in front of the Lonsdale School right now. It says Heritage Designation Public Hearing. Everybody that I talked to there thought that referred to Lonsdale and they said, oh, that school is going to be designated Heritage. No, you know, that actually applies to a totally different area, a totally different school and it was like this, it was like that, as well this Rey Sargent Park that proposal amendment or whatever. Do you really think that 3,033 people were going to search this out from a notebook in front of the City Clerk’s desk and figure it out what it meant and then they have to qualify all these points?

City of North Vancouver Page 25 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) It is like a custom’s declaration sheet. And so went the whole process from day one five years ago, whatever, ten, four years ago, it was really not something, much discussion was wanted.

However, I would like to see both sides being met. I would like to see the Artists for Kids. I am so in favour of art and art in the schools and given equal time with sports etc. and these are, like you say, museum quality pieces. We would like to see them displayed in a museum character building which can easily be, well I am not saying easily, can creatively be revamped to service the needs of the art gallery. And I understand the relationship….

Mayor Mussatto Ms. Kroecher, I think maybe you have got more to offer. I am going to ask either you wrap up really tight or you can come again. Probably better if you can come back.

Ms. Kroecher Right, I do have a lot more to offer but for one thing I will show this picture here right now. These are kids that are very happy.

Mayor Mussatto I am going to give you a choice. You can come back later or you are done.

Ms. Kroecher I will come back later. One hundred years and counting. This is Capilano School.

Mayor Mussatto I am going to put you back on the list again. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Jack Anderson. Welcome Mr. Anderson.

Mr. Jack Anderson, 3798 West 35th Street, Vancouver Your Worship and members of Council, my name is Jack Anderson. I reside at 3798 West 35th in Vancouver. I am a member of the HYAD Society and a supporter of the HYAD Society and the young people that are served by it. I am here to say one or two simple things. Do what is right. Do what is necessary. There are always members of a community that need and deserve our help. This development will provide in a small measure a portion of that help in perpetuity. It is the right to do. Please support this worthy project. Please support this rezoning. Tonight is the night.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Anderson. The next speaker I have is Reimar Kroecher. Welcome Mr. Kroecher.

City of North Vancouver Page 26 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mr. Reimar Kroecher, 540 East Kings Road, North Vancouver My name is Reimar Kroecher. I live at 540 East Kings in the District of North Vancouver. I have a petition here with 2,340 names which were gathered by a bunch of volunteers over the last few weeks. Please stop the clock while I hand this out. This is 2,340 names on this.

Mayor Mussatto Could you please stop the clock for a moment please? Thank you. I don’t know if we are going to be able to have that copied in time.

Mr. Kroecher I would like to read the petition to you. “We urge the Council of the City of North Vancouver to reject the application for rezoning of the former Lonsdale School site while allowing the small gift of space for the HYAD Association small group home to go ahead. At a time when density in the Central Lonsdale area is steadily on the increase it is of the utmost importance to us citizens that we keep our public land available and open for public use. We further urge Council to designate our three historic school buildings, Lonsdale, Queen Mary and Ridgeway heritage status to be preserved and maintained for public interest use such as art gallery, park administration, education, garden, park etc. “

Let me say that this has been one of the easiest petitions I have ever worked with. Talking to people on the street it becomes clear, very quickly, that people have no appetite for this deal. Three out of four people without hesitation will sign this petition. I challenge you to go out there with a petition which says demolish Lonsdale School, sell the property, and build an administration building there. I challenge you to get 200 signatures on a petition like this.

I have a series of question which I would like to ask. I don’t expect answers now on the spur of the moment but maybe I can get answers by email. Does it make sense to sell Lonsdale School when the Ministry of Education projections show that by 2014 the declining enrollment will stop and will reverse itself and student enrollment will increase again? That is from the Ministry of Education web site. Does it make sense to sell Lonsdale School when the City grows at 3% per year? That means the population doubles every 24 years. 24 years from now we will have twice as many people in the City. 48 years from now we will have four times as many people. 72 years from now we will have eight times as many people and 96, roughly 100 years from now, which is the age of the old Lonsdale School, we will have 16 times the population that we have now. To sell that school now requires extreme short term focus and an unwillingness or a lack of ability to look at the long term situation in the City and good planning requires good long term decisions.

Does it make sense to sell the Lonsdale School now when the Ministry of Education has made a U-turn and is urging School Boards not to close schools, not to sell schools as a feature article in the Vancouver Sun, June 24, 2008, because they are planning to expand the kindergarten program and they are expecting shortages of space?

City of North Vancouver Page 27 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

Does it make sense that I have toured the Administration office of the School Board on Chesterfield Avenue? Does it make sense to practice what I would call deferred maintenance at this property? Not install double glazed windows, as many home owners have done, not put insulation in the walls, not to put a high efficiency furnace in there, not to fix peeling paint and then claim that the building, which is only less than 60 years old, is at the end of its useful life span. There is no such thing as an end of a useful lifespan of a wooden frame building as long as proper maintenance is practiced.

Is it ethical to create myths that one school has to be sacrificed so two others can be saved when the figures clearly show that all the money that is raised from the sale of Lonsdale School is earmarked for the new administrative building? I am out of time. I have more questions and more comments. I am looking forward to get another five minutes. Thank you very much.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you Mr. Kroecher. We certainly will afford you that. I don’t know if Mr. Penway is able to discuss the issue about the City’s growth rate. Okay. Thank you Mr. Kroecher. Mr. Penway, are you able to address the growth issues? And maybe I will ask the School Board with regards to the enrollment issue.

Mr. Penway Your Worship, I suspect he is looking at a maximum growth rate that is referenced in the Official Community Plan. In fact, the growth sticks within less than half of that, at about 1 to 1½ percent, per year.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Penway. Mr. Lewis are you able to address the issues with regards to enrollment?

Mr. Lewis Our facilities currently have the capacity to accommodate 18,000 students. Presently our enrollment is 15,100. It is going to decline to 13,500. Even if we were to add all four years old, all three year olds, which is not what the Ministry is suggesting, but if we were to add all three year olds, all four year olds, we would be looking at a projected enrollment of 15,000 students but accommodation right now of our operating schools is 18,000.

Mayor Mussatto The next speaker I have is Nachiko Yokota. Welcome Ms. Yokota.

City of North Vancouver Page 28 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Ms. Nachiko Yokota, 125 West 2nd Street, North Vancouver I am Nachiko Yokota, 125 West 2nd Street. Your Worship, members of Council, by the way I was sitting in front and I could barely hear people speaking. I wonder if I am the only one. They were very interesting speeches but I could not hear them.

Anyhow, Your Worship, members of Council, I am a grandmother blessed with three grandchildren ages 3 ½, 2 and 6 months. I often use the drop-in at Mickey McDougall RecCentre to keep them occupied on rainy days, and that means most of the winter days. The drop-in is bursting at its seams with toddlers. Similar numbers can be observed at John Braithwaite Neighbourhood Centre and Neighbourhood House. What I am trying to say is, there is a wave of upcoming toddlers that I doubt have been accounted for by the present School Board, and who are going to need schools in the next few years. The Vancouver Sun carried an article on June 25, 2008 mainly dealing with this subject. It claims that the B.C. Education Ministry has abruptly changed its message on school closures and it is now urging school boards to think long and hard before shutting down more schools. There is even a rumour that the Education Ministry is going to place a moratorium on further school closures this fall, until it decides whether to make kindergarten available to all five year olds. Richmond already is one of the districts that could find themselves strapped for space.

This brings me to our Central Lonsdale School the subject of this public hearing. Taking into consideration that many more young students are expected in the coming years by the Education Ministry, it would be more than prudent that long-term planning regarding school properties should be on the City Council’s agenda as well. The moratorium on school closures in the fall will be too late to rectify the Official Community Plan on the Lonsdale School if approved. I urge you to save, keep this most valuable publically owned Central Lonsdale School property and its historic school building for our future generation. Once it is gone we cannot buy it back again.

I would also like to add that I am in favour of HYAD housing and would like to see the Artists for Kids Gallery located in the renovated historic school building. Respectfully yours. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much for your presentation Ms. Yokota. The next speaker I have is Linda Buchanan. Welcome Ms. Buchanan.

Ms. Linda Buchanan, 508 East Keith Road, North Vancouver I am Linda Buchanan. I live at 508 East Keith Road. Your Worship, members of Council, this evening I am speaking on behalf of the Ridgeway Heritage Committee, a group of Ridgeway Elementary School parents, teachers and residents, many of whom are here this evening. I am a parent with children at Ridgeway and a local resident. As you know our group has been campaigning hard to save this historic school building over the last 18 months. We have spoken and written many times about the importance of such buildings in our community and broader society so I won’t go over the same arguments again this evening.

City of North Vancouver Page 29 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Suffice to say that Ridgeway and Queen Mary are two of our most important heritage buildings. They are cornerstones of our community. They have built our community and provide our community with roots. To lose either would fill our community with shame.

The School District’s survey last year showed 99% support for preserving and upgrading the existing Ridgeway building for continued use as a school. That is 99% support from a large open and public meeting. It is hard to think of another issue that enjoyed that level of support. Throughout our process we have continued to consult the community. We have been involved in discussions with the School District since early last year. City staff and Council have also been closely involved. The proposal before you today is a result, in part, of that process. It is not perfect, admittedly, so I will address a couple of the concerns that we have heard.

Firstly, the demolition of Lonsdale, clearly we do not condone the loss of this heritage school but there is a large funding gap to fill at Ridgeway and Queen Mary will also need funding as well. Simply put this would be a compromise to secure the long-term future of two of our most valued assets. During our long discussions it became clear that this was the best available option in adverse circumstances. Secondly, the cost of restoring Ridgeway in the scheme of things, looking at other government expenditures, it is really not a large amount when we are creating a legacy for another 100 years. Most importantly this is public money, our money, and this is how we want to spend it. Clearly the clash of the development deal with Amacon poses a major challenge. The proposal enjoys our full and enthusiastic support assuming it stands as proposed and without revision. The School District tells us its commitment to Ridgeway under the proposal remains solid but clearly there is now an air of uncertainty. Our bottom line has been that we want a clear and binding commitment by the School District to the latest design proposal for Ridgeway, which would preserve both the 1911 core and the 1926 wing. One concern is that the School District would get the green light this evening and later back track on its design saying it can no longer afford it under a new development plan. We believe there must be checks put in place to prevent such a situation.

It is also vital that funds for Ridgeway under this proposal be ……… so that they are not used to meet shortfalls for the other projects, the result of perhaps of cost overruns or lower land values. The original proposal appears to meet this condition but in the circumstances guarantees or assurances might be prudent. Finally, this is not just North Vancouver’s problem. It is a Provincial problem created by the need for seismic upgrades and inflexible Ministry of Education funding guidelines. Dozens of similar historic buildings across the Province are under threat. We know there is a strong interest in Vancouver, and the wider Province, in this project and it is viewed as a model for solving a difficult dilemma. This is an excellent opportunity for North Vancouver to play a leadership roll. Again, this proposal is not perfect but life is not perfect. All sides have made important compromises. Our view is that for Ridgeway and Queen Mary it is the best opportunity we have of preserving the future of two of the greatest community assets.

City of North Vancouver Page 30 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) If the uncertainty is addressed we ask you to support it. In closing, we would like to thank Council and the City and the School District for their constructive and cooperative efforts in getting us this far. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Ms. Buchanan for your presentation. The next speaker I have is D.J. Gilbert. Welcome Mr. Gilbert. Is this the first time you have been before City Council?

Mr. D.J. Gilbert, 730 Andover, North Vancouver Yes.

Mayor Mussatto Welcome.

Mr. Gilbert I won an award as top athlete and I play in Special Olympics. I work at the Self-Storage Depot which is in North Vancouver and I go to Capilano College starting in September and…

Mayor Mussatto Don’t be nervous.

Mr. Gilbert … and I would also like to live in HYAD and I hope it gets support from Council. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Gilbert before you go I just want to thank you very much for your presentation. We encourage people to come up at a young age and speak in front of Council. I could not have done it when I was your age. I can tell you that for sure. Thank you. The next speaker I have is John Watson. Welcome Mr. Watson.

Mr. John Watson, 852 Cumberland Crescent, North Vancouver My name is John Watson. I live at 852 Cumberland Crescent. Mr. Mayor and Council, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to this. I think most of what I was going to say has been said so I will be brief. I am mildly in favour of it. I don’t like Official Community Plan changes, as you may be aware, but I think there is a net public math in here and then there are tradeoffs and choices have to be made. I just want to make one observation with respect to the density projections that were done for a 100 years from now. I assume they are based on the assumptions that Councillor Keating will continue to serve on Council for another 100 years.

City of North Vancouver Page 31 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mayor Mussatto Well, he certainly is young enough. Thank you very much Mr. Watson. The next speaker I have is Ivan Leonard. Welcome Mr. Leonard. I hope Councillor Heywood is around 100 years from now making those decisions. Welcome Mr. Leonard.

Mr. Ivan Leonard, 310 – 215 St. Andrew’s Avenue, North Vancouver Ivan Leonard. I am at 215 St. Andrew’s Avenue. As you see there are many people in this City who have concerns, who have concerns about this whole project. People do care and they care about people. They also care about schools and they care about school property, about public property, and they care about what is happening in the City today. I too care. I care a lot about this project because I care about schools, because I care a lot about the children, and because I care a lot about the citizens in the City. And I care a great deal about the constant amending of the Official Community Plan, a document that was created as a vision for the City for the future.

However, there are many concerns, and many directions for this multi-complexed project to turn but I will limit my comments to the Lonsdale Elementary School project on Lonsdale. Since the latest twist confronting this project of the sudden withdrawal from the proposal by the developer, Amacon, and the co-applicant, I have difficulty in understanding why we are still going through this Public Hearing. Surely it is important that both our Council and the public be informed of the reason why the developer withdrew from this project before we continue with the rezoning application. Why are we discussing a project that may be seriously flawed? As our Mayor was quoted as saying in a newspaper recently, to approve the rezoning for this project as it now stands would mean putting a covenant upon the project therefore placing a straightjacket on any developer attempting to rejuvenate the project in an entirely different economic climate.

I have attended many presentations and public meetings on this project and I am pleased to see the HYAD Housing Program included. It is very much needed in this City and believe it or not I am also in favour of adding the unique Artists for Kids Program, which I believe needs more public exposure and a better home than it currently occupies. But I have always been and had reservations about the administration building itself. While I understand that it is probably necessary to replace and modernize the present School Board offices on Chesterfield I question the timing, a period of needed restraint. As the School Board themselves, have identified several schools for potential closure and others for safety upgrades.

I question why, as I was led to believe that most of the entire income from the sale of this property, a whole of a City block, is to pay for a very ostentatious Administration building, when I understood part of the money was to be help cover the cost of upgrading Queen Mary and Ridgeway schools. Now, I understand the School Board intends to pay from the upgrade of both the heritage schools of Queen Mary and Ridgeway from the “creation of transferrable density that can be sold to other development sites in the City”. This leads me to ask what are the estimates that they hope to gain from this endeavour.

City of North Vancouver Page 32 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Have they discussed selling this density, which presumably also includes transferrable height, to the City to bank and if so how much? It would appear therefore that at present there is no money available for these upgrades and no schedule has been set. So what will happen to the money from the sale of Queen Mary property and the old administration building? Will this not go towards the upgrades? I find this very disturbing. I see I am running out of time and there is a couple of comments I do want to make. I’ll talk faster if I may?

Mayor Mussatto Or you can come back later Mr. Leonard, whichever you choose. You have 25 seconds left, otherwise you can come back.

Mr. Leonard So, the dilemma the Board faces is to find the funds for the upgrades of the two heritage schools from a diminishing budget due to the declining enrollment and the lack of government funds. It is very disconcerting, but my concern is that these decisions should have been based upon long-term policies rather than the short-term. I need not remind you that once the school property is sold it is lost forever and this City is densifying at an alarming rate and no one knows more than our present Councillors of the potential need for schools in the near future. Indeed that is, aims of densification to bring more families to the City, and I will come back in a while.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Leonard. The next speaker I have is Chuck Heath. Is Mr. Heath here? There he is. Welcome Mr. Heath. I hope it is cooler out there than it is in here.

Mr. Chuck Heath, 245 West Windsor, North Vancouver Thank you, Mayor and Council. My name is Chuck Heath, a resident at 245 West Windsor Road in North Vancouver. I am the former teacher/librarian at Ridgeway Elementary. I am speaking in support of the three bylaws before Council tonight. This is a proud day for our community when a bylaw calling for the heritage designation for Ridgeway Elementary School is before us. Some of us have been working for over 15 years to reach this goal and I am happy we are finally here. I would like to thank the children, parents, teachers and community members who have been part of the process that got us here. I would also like to recognize the significant leadership role the City’s staff has played in ensuring a healthy process. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Heath for your comments. The next person I have is Mr. Peter Miller. Welcome Mr. Miller.

Mr. Peter Miller, North Shore Heritage Preservation Society Mayor and Council I come as the President of the North Shore Heritage Preservation Society to make our statement. I actually live in West Vancouver.

City of North Vancouver Page 33 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mayor Mussatto Thank you.

Mr. Miller We have a group of over 100 members who are supporters dedicated to preserving heritage buildings in both North and West Vancouver. Two years ago our group lobbied Council and the School District and others to incorporate the Lonsdale School building into development plans for the site. Built in 1910 the stone and brick clad building is notable for its size, prominence and striking façade. It is included in the City of North Vancouver’s heritage register. It provides a landmark for the Lonsdale Corridor and a rare surviving testimony to the early and economic social development of North Vancouver. The building is also of course of sentimental value to the many children who have been schooled there. The school architects, .……Barker were renowned builders of schools and other institutions in Vancouver at the time and we wish our voice had been heard and we wish the school were being restored in the plans before you today. But even as the Heritage Preservation Society we don’t believe in living in the past, so my comments this evening will judge the current proposal on its merits.

There are clearly many angles. From a purely heritage perspective we welcome the ..….. of some funding to the restoration of Ridgeway School. As we all know there is a multi million dollar shortfall between the cheapest option, demolition, and replacement and restoration. Other positive aspects include retention of the full façade at Ridgeway, including the 1926 wings, and legal protection of the Ridgeway and Queen Mary sites. The interior of Ridgeway would be rebuilt but the School District promises to hire a specialist for recommendations on the retention of heritage elements. Finally, we note that the School District has made efforts to incorporate elements from the Lonsdale heritage building into the site development.

Any sale of public land should yield community benefits. We believe the heritage restoration of both Ridgeway and Queen Mary represents an important community benefit and must be given at least equal weight to the project’s other components. Our main concern is that there are question marks over the project, especially now that the developer has pulled out. Although the School District have said it would advance a strong proposal for restoration of Ridgeway the Ministry of Education has not signed off on it. Circumstances could change. Ideally we would prefer a firmer commitment. We have discussed the issues many times over the last few years both at our board meetings, and a wider group, and on a personal level. For the last year or so our society has lent conditional support to the School District’s proposal, considering that the positive aspects outweigh the negative. We reaffirm that support tonight.

Information: We deeply regret the proposed demolition of Lonsdale but we welcome the proposed funding for Ridgeway and Queen Mary and the legal protection of those sites. We do have reservations about the lack of final approval for work on Ridgeway and the lack of detail on funding for Queen Mary. We believe there must be guarantees protecting the funding for both Ridgeway and Queen Mary. Thank you.

City of North Vancouver Page 34 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much for your presentation Mr. Miller. The next speaker I have is Mr. Andrew Oberti. Is Mr. Oberti here? Okay, I will come back to Mr. Oberti at the end. The next speaker is Brenda Rich. Is Brenda here? Welcome Ms. Rich.

Ms. Brenda J. Rich, 404 – 128 West 21st Street, North Vancouver Good evening Mayor Mussatto, Councillors, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Brenda Rich. I have owned and resided at West Side Strata, 404 – 128 West 21st in North Vancouver for just short of five years and I serve on our Strata Council as Treasurer. I am proud to call North Vancouver home for over 27 continuous years. Characteristics that I hold very dear are a strong community, the smaller town feel, its picturesque setting, which has been maintained for over 30 years that I have been in the Lower Mainland. In the time I have owned my current residence I have kept abreast regularly with Ian Abercrombie at the School District office regarding the condition and the future of the Lonsdale School property as our building and my unit are directly adjacent to the school. I wish to add that as a mother of children, now adults, who attended North Vancouver schools, Ecole Sherwood Park, Dorothy Lynas and Argyle that I have been involved and experienced alongside the children, school staff and board members, the associated hard work and efforts needed for funding. One, for the challenges of population changes we experienced major increase and the construction of schools and two, the annual education budgeting.

The North Vancouver School District is giving up property never to be regained. As a future grandmother I do not desire the thought nor, heaven forbid, the reality of yet again rallying for my grandchildren to be provided with adequate facilities, resources for their respective education for lack of foresight as was in the Indian River area. My concerns for the proposed development have been, and are to varied degrees, and I hesitate on putting in a sense the height of the proposed offices and the Gallery with fitting in the neighborhood and along Lonsdale, because it is a long ways down before we hit anything that is that height. And I have a concern for the future of the Lonsdale Corridor, in that sense.

Density, the adjacent homes on the north of West 21st and West 22nd number in the mid 180’s range of units, fsr 1.6, and I will give way to the fact that the proposal has come down from the ideally higher number of units first sought by the School Board with the additional 5th or 6th storeys on one building in their ambitions to fund Queen Mary and Ridgeway restorations. I have noted there is a transfer of density of 11,000 sq.ft., approximately, for each 10 units included for Ridgeway restoration in the current proposal, so it is up to 1.7 fsr. I do not wish to live in an overcrowded fish bowl such as was allowed to be constructed at the west of West 22nd and Chesterfield and West 23rd. Our homes may be off the main corridor of Lonsdale however we are a residential area albeit not suburbia.

City of North Vancouver Page 35 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Traffic and safety are grave concerns both as daily issues and in the event of highway, bridge congestion, delays, and stand stills. The traffic study does not look productive, conclusive enough, to my liking. There is potential for major problems during construction for starters. I would like to see a comprehensive plan for parking of construction workers away from the streets of West 21st and West 22nd. Safety issues include emergency and repair vehicle access to existing buildings with removal of the laneway and overall pedestrian protection under higher volumes.

I support the HYAD residence for those who will be residents and their families. However, we would request that a covenant ensuring that this is retained as housing set out for members of society with disabilities. Pleasure: In its present condition Rey Sargent Park is a poor example resulting in poor use. It is hardly enough of a park for the current residents ergo I applaud any addition in refurbishing the greenway between the proposed development and current buildings is hopefully welcome and a respected addition to the neighbourhood. Therein however there are some potential problems. We have experienced some and it may require some regular patrolling. Homage to Lonsdale School has been incorporated in the proposal and justly so. I am glad to see it.

Mayor Mussatto Ms. Rich have you much more to go?

Ms. Rich I have two more sentences.

Mayor Mussatto We will let you finish then.

Ms. Rich The development preceding with simultaneous construction is desirable for a lesser term of destruction to the neighbourhood and I would seek strict adherence for the bylaws for construction in consideration of those who live in the vicinity. A breach of that would probably stir up some very strong voices. The Artists for Kids Gallery, I can not say enough about it. My daughter has enjoyed that herself.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much for your presentation Ms. Rich. Anything you can pass on to the City Clerk here can be distributed to members of Council. Thank you. The next person I have on the list is Garth Roberts. Welcome sir.

Mr. Garth Roberts, 508 – 150 West 22nd Street, North Vancouver My name is Garth Roberts. I live at 508 – 150 West 22nd Street which is directly across the road from this proposed development. Mr. Mayor and members of Council I think there are a couple of points here that have been missed and I haven’t heard mention of. I heard a little bit of mention of one here, I believe, and I think a lot of people believe, and I saw a petition that a fellow brought up with 2,300 signatures on it, is this property

City of North Vancouver Page 36 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) is actually by owned by the taxpayers of North Vancouver, the paying public. It is not solely owned by the School District. Another point I would like to bring up and I think Council should take a very good look at is that what has put us in this position to start with. Why all of a sudden are we selling off or the School District is going to sell off a very prominent piece of property here? Again, what has put them in that position? Is it poor planning? Is it mismanagement? Is it a bit of both or is something that they need to open up to the public and let them know as what has evolved here?

One point I feel very strong about is that this property, once this property is sold, it will never be regained. It is a very, very valuable piece of property and once it is gone, it is gone. They will never be able to obtain a chunk of property like this in North Vancouver ever again. As far as the development itself goes I have a problem with that. I hear the School District and I hear people say that the reason they are closing the schools down is because there is no enrollment. The enrollment is way down. If in fact the enrollment is way down in the School District then why are we building a school facility that I believe is almost double the square footage of what they are in now? I fully understand that the buildings that they are in now on Chesterfield are very old. There is leaky roofs. There is all kinds of problems with them. Again I fully understand that but when I talked to Mr. Abercrombie from the School Board I believe he said that he figured, he didn’t know when I talked to him first of all how many square feet that facility was, and then when I questioned him again he said he believed it was around 25,000 to 27,000 square feet. I understand that this new school facility that is on this proposal here is 70,000 square feet, so that is more than double what they have now. So, I might be missing something here.

There are not the kids, because we know why, because the price of real estate in North Vancouver is so high that young families cannot afford to live here. Now, maybe that will change one day who knows. We don’t have a crystal ball. But I really have a hard time with this whole project as far as this 70,000 square foot and the density. I think that Council needs to take a real good look at this and the School Board or School District needs to come up with a new proposal here. Another thing is I see this little Rey Sargent Park there that, you know, it is basically nothing. I see no green space in this development whatsoever. A laneway, again it seems to me that this is totally towards the developers. I think this whole project can be revamped. I think there is a better way of doing it. I think there is a more better way for the School District to manage the funds of it. I saw some figures of, I believe it was $38.1 Million, and the school facility is going to cost $38.1 Million or close to it. So I really think they need to look at their budget on this and redo it and maybe cut down on the school facility. Cut down on some of the density here.

As we all know that area is getting very crowded there. There is condos going in all over the place. There was just a development recently a couple of years ago right at Chesterfield and West 22nd there up to West 23rd.

City of North Vancouver Page 37 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) We now have another condo building going in behind the Chevron on West 23rd. I believe also the RecCentre is slated for demolition. I don’t know. Rumour has it that that is slated for highrises. I think when you look at that whole area there and the density of it I think it is just too much. Once they do that RecCentre and that lawn bowling thing, I believe it is not going to stay there forever, that is going to increase density. So, I think you have to look ahead to the future here and just take a good look at the density of that area. Thanks.

Mayor Mussatto Thanks very much Mr. Roberts. We have come to the end of the people who signed up earlier this evening but I am certainly going to allow the opportunity for people to speak who have not spoken yet tonight. Please just put your hand up. We are going to get everybody in. So, if you come down please sir and just give us your name and address for our record and we will write them in our list here. Welcome, Mr. Hanlon.

Mr. Joey Hanlon, 345 West 20th Street, North Vancouver My name is Joey Hanlon. I live at 345 West 20th Street in the house that Mrs. Hanlon- McMillan mentioned near the beginning of the meeting. Some of the people here know me because I have been working on it for a long time, too long. I would just like to speak about this in regards to, I guess my feeling is that our public lands are priceless, irreplaceable resources and with so much talk about Ridgeway and Queen Mary and I want to preserve those. I am fully in agreement with preserving Ridgeway and Queen Mary. I think Ridgeway is a beautiful school and Queen Mary. I went to school at St. Edmund’s and as a matter of fact my grandparents were the first couple that were married in St. Edmund’s church when they first immigrated here about 1910. I used to walk past Queen Mary every day and it is a beautiful school and it is a good thing that we are going to preserve.

I don’t understand though why the 100 year old Lonsdale School is considered less value and why we should have to sacrifice that in order to preserve the other two great heritage schools. I think we really have to struggle and fight to preserve what is left of the North Vancouver that my father grew up in and I grew up in. As far as that land there goes I agree with the previous speaker that we are seeing development and condominiums and density increasing everywhere and we have a jewel here with tremendous potential for the benefit of the community and we are getting a little benefit in that one little corner. It looks like about 20% of the site maybe 25% of the site. It is going to be these great new buildings that are going to be a huge benefit to the people living with disabilities and the Artists for Kids Gallery. I applaud both of those initiatives. I think that you have gone this far and of course let us go ahead and try and get the HYAD House built. I agree the Artists for Kids Gallery would be a tremendous asset here. But I also agree that with some creativity we could use the existing building, Lonsdale School, preserve that heritage building and we could put some of those, you know, we spend the money fixing up that school, keeping it a heritage building, and accommodating the Artists for Kids Gallery.

City of North Vancouver Page 38 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) The last thing I want to say is that Lonsdale is the heart of our City. Ridgeway is off out of the way from the centre of the City. Queen Mary is a little off. People go to Lonsdale. That is the commercial and, in many ways, the social heart of our City and it is a stark uninviting place. There is no place where you can sit and relax. We have got our little fountain here, which does not really cut it. There is no green space on Lonsdale. Victoria Park is down below everything. There is no green area in Central Lonsdale except for the Lawn Bowling Club, which is okay if you are lawn bowling but you can’t really go. Cities like Paris, New York and Montreal, when you walk through the downtown area there are parks, right in the middle where all the commercial stuff happens, you can walk across the street, drink a coffee. Seattle is great for that. But Central Lonsdale does not have a nice green area where people can relax, kind of a social centre. So, to take that site there and fill it up with more residences is to me the last thing we should do. I think we should preserve the green space, keep the public lands for public use, and don’t sell off our heritage.

Councillor Perrault briefly left and returned to the meeting.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Hanlon. Ken come on down please and if you wouldn’t mind just for the record give us your name and address.

Mr. Ken Hawthorne, 236 West 2nd Street, North Vancouver I have done this before. My name is Ken Hawthorne. I live in the Lower Lonsdale at 236 West 2nd. I was sitting this evening at home having a pleasant scotch thinking well this is all to do with Central Lonsdale so why should I bother getting off my comfortable couch to come up here. I watched the TV about this and it kind of ticked me off seeing what was happening here. You know, as far as I am concerned, the developer has pulled out of this project and I think this gives the School Board a wonderful opportunity to go back to the drawing board. I mean as far as I am concerned why do they need a 70,000 sq.ft. Administrative building that is going to be five storeys high. It is going to be a concrete edifice right on Lonsdale and it is going to dominate the whole of that area where there was beautiful open space from the school kids park, lovely big Chestnut trees and that kind of thing. To me this is all about the School Board wanting to build themselves a brand new spanking building where it is not entirely necessary, based on the fact that School Board enrollment is going down, so why the heck are they wanting to build an even bigger administrative building.

This gentleman here said it perfectly correct when he talked about all the things that need to be looked at here. I watched you guys when he was talking and you were all kind of fidgeting around, looking down, not wanting to be engaged in this because this gentleman hit a sore spot and he hit it right on the head, that apart from the fact that the School Board wants to build this edifice, and I know there is a HYAD, and I think that is a wonderful thing because there is one down on West 2nd where I live, and I think it is great. It is a real benefit to the local community, and also, the Artists for Kids, why does it have to be housed in the concrete edifice?

City of North Vancouver Page 39 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) We have got a huge spanking brand new Library being built. We have got the old Library. Why can’t this facility be put in either of those two locations? The School Board does not need a huge big project, a big new building like this.

Finally, the School Board have picked on something that is very near and dear to the hearts of Council here. It is called providing density, providing affordable housing. My god, there is no such thing as affordable housing unless it is provided by the B.C. Government or some of these Kiwanis or people like that. A developer does not build affordable housing. So this project is being based partly on the fact that the School Board has got a nice little thing going. They understand that, oh, we have got the sympathy from a soft Council who are hot on building density, and you guys know who you are. I could point them out but I don’t want to name names. You know who you are. And, it has happened time and time again. You guys are putting us through a phony hearing here that does not have to happen because we do not have a developer. My god, what does that tell you.

We went through this thing with Site 8. You guys put the whole community through hell on Site 8, which didn’t have to happen and you guys know who you are, who voted on that, and now you have postponed it until after the election. Very good. Very clever move. So, I think this one should be postponed until after the election. This gives you guys a great opportunity to get your act in gear. It gives the School Board an opportunity to get their act in gear, to redesign this thing so that it is friendly to the community and to everybody else. I am going to finish now. I know you have heard my story before and I know it falls pretty well on deaf ears, apart from one or two Councillors, which is sad because I don’t think I am just unique or an individual spouting forth. I think there are a lot of people, that for many reasons other than what I have said, who really would like to see this thing rethought. I would like to thank you all for the opportunity of speaking here. Maybe something will happen or not happen. I think it should be rethought. Thank you very much.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you, Mr. Hawthorne for coming out this evening. Yes, please. Welcome. I am sorry. I have forgotten your name.

Ms. Jeanette Langman, 402 East 5th Street, North Vancouver My name is Jeanette Langman. I live at 402 East 5th Street and I am a member of the Ridgeway Heritage Committee, but I am actually speaking on behalf of myself as a member of the community and of two children in Ridgeway School. I feel the School Board and the City have followed due process in regard to this issue. I am a member of the Ridgeway Heritage Committee and we have worked for the last 18 months to ensure that this development addresses our main concerns. We formed this committee the night that a proposal came to Council to tear down Ridgeway School and I would really like everyone to know that because you have followed due process. You have listened and tonight we have to save this school and to designate it and I think that needs to be said to your benefit.

City of North Vancouver Page 40 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) I support this proposal especially in a time frame when the School Board does not receive sufficient funding from the Federal Government to seismically upgrade and no funding for heritage projects. The Vancouver School Board is closing, boarding up and tearing down their heritage schools. This is a proposal that gives us all the opportunity to support a landmark project and I encourage you to give it your support. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very Ms. Langman for your presentation. Are there other speakers who wish to make comments with regards to this item this evening? Just please raise your hands. Yes, certainly, Ms. Heal. Welcome. I certainly want to recognize you are a previous Chair of the School Trustees, of the School Board.

Ms. Pat Heal, Chair, School Trustees, District of North Vancouver My name is Pat Heal. I am a School Trustee. I live in the District of North Vancouver. I have been a trustee for coming up 18 years now and I have seen a lot of change and seen a lot go on in the School District. I am very comfortable to have the background of 18 years on the School Board to support this project and why the School District is going ahead with it. It is a combination of having the Artists for Kids on the main floor and all the administration services, from the School Board office and also from the Lucas Centre and the Leo Marshall Centre, to all be in one building so that all of the services for students is in one building and I think that is very important.

The facilities that we have right now, the School Board office, is very run down and I know in the summer when I have been the Chair, I had phone calls from the office telling me that they have had to close down the office because it is too hot for people to safely work in the building. This project has been on the books and been looked at for a long time. I would say at least eight years of where we were going to go and how we were going to do it and it started out to be a project of building a higher storey building down at the Chesterfield site and having the Artists for Kids and a highrise and it was turned down. We listened to what the community had to say. We have consulted thoroughly with the community and we feel that this answer is listening to the community and what the needs are and to us it gives us a Board office. It gives us a chance to renew two schools that can be added to in capacity and have a higher heritage value than the Lonsdale site and are in use and can continue to be in use and I think it is very important that we look at this. I also think it is really important, having been on the Board from the previous Board, that the HYAD group had approached us before about finding a place in the community and we did not have a spot to be able to put them. We have worked with them and the Council has worked with them and I think that this whole proposal is a really good thing for this community and I think it will make a wonderful gateway to the City of North Vancouver. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much for your comments Trustee Heal. Are there any other members of the gallery wishing to speak? Yes, Ms. Young if you would come to the microphone it would be great.

City of North Vancouver Page 41 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Ms. Irene Young, Secretary/Treasurer, Board of Trustees, School District No. 44 (North Vancouver) A number of members of the public are under the impression that the Education Services Centre remains at 70,000 sq.ft. That was the very original proposal. We have since brought that down to 59,000 sq.ft. and that includes 14,000 sq.ft. that is available for the Artists for Kids Gallery. The reason the remaining building is larger than the placement space at the Board Office on Chesterfield is because of, as Trustee Heal alluded to, was the significant number of staff in the program, in the curriculum development areas, that we have at the Leo Marshall Centre and the Lucas Centre so it is also a consolidation because although we have talked about the poor condition of the facility at Chesterfield, the condition of the Leo Marshall Centre is equally poor and the Lucas Centre is not far behind it. It is an effort to consolidate and provide some efficiency because then the staff doesn’t have to travel back and forth.

Mayor Mussatto Are there any other members of the gallery who have not spoken yet just please raise your hand? Mr. Adbi please come down. Welcome.

Mr. Sam Adbi, 1944 Jones Avenue, North Vancouver Good evening everybody. My name is Sam Adbi. I live at 1944 Jones Avenue in North Vancouver. The school has been affecting me. I work for the Library. My daughter was going to that school. The School Board, in my opinion, made a mistake now I have to use a gallon of gas, go around everyday, take my daughter to Queensbury way up and before it was a five minute walk. I could take her to the school. The School Board, I went to that meeting and unanimously, Mr. Richard White one of them at that time, and the rest they voted unanimously to close the school. I lobbied, I called MLA, Campbell’s office and I was hoping, at that time they were saying the school is not safe, they were short of $400,000. My understanding after the closure they got $3 Million more than they needed. They scared the parents that the school is not safe. I did some research. They could accommodate every single student in the portables. Those portable classes were four years old. So, do the math. I don’t know where that logic and why they created that fear and third, in the community to close down the school. My hope is to you, Your Worship and the rest of the Council, to just not support this proposal. The rest of the public has spoken. I think it is wrong. In the future the geographic or the number of kids could change and at that time the working class cannot pay 20 times of the $38 Million to buy back that land. Thank you very much. Have a great evening.

Mayor Mussatto Are there other members of the gallery who have any comments to make or questions to ask? Then I am going to go back. There are only two. I don’t know if Mr. Rahbar is here. He may have gone. Is Andrew Oberti here? No. Then I am going to go back to the Kroechers. I had Christina first but if Reimer wants to come up ahead. Welcome back Mr. Kroecher. We did, just as you probably saw, all members of Council did get a copy of your petition. Thank you.

City of North Vancouver Page 42 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mr. Kroecher I want to emphasis that is 2,341 signatures. Regardless of what the audience here in this Chamber says it is not representative of the general public. The general public has no appetite at all for this project. If you don’t believe me go out just a few feet on Lonsdale and talk to the people walking by.

The lady who spoke just a moment ago from the School Board who had 19 years of experience on the School Board said it very well. She said the Chesterfield office is run down. I toured the Chesterfield office. I asked the School Board for permission to tour the Chesterfield office and I did. Thank you very much members of the School Board for allowing me to do that. It is run down. It is a solid wooden frame building. It is less than 60 years ago and with proper maintenance it could be in fantastic shape. It is run down.

I am still intrigued by the linkage, which I hear again and again and again, which I call the myth, that one school has to be destroyed to save the other two, the linkage between destroying Lonsdale and saving the other two schools. The figures I have seen, the figures I have put in the North Shore News, they have not been contradicted by anyone, show very clearly there is no such linkage. Lonsdale School will be put down, will be bulldozed, and not a single penny from the sale of Lonsdale School is earmarked for the other two schools. The only thing that is earmarked is some density transfers. If density transfers can take place without knocking down Lonsdale School but that myth was created and it is out there in the community and when I talk to people on the sidewalk they say yes, but, we want to save the other two and that is the only way we can do it. So, that linkage to me is just mystified.

I close asking questions previously. I have a few more questions. Is this ethical for the School Board which was gifted the Lonsdale School in 1959 by the City. The School Board paid $1 for the Lonsdale School in 1959 on the understanding that it was to be run as a school. Until 1959 the City ran it as a school. Now, is it ethical for the School Board now to turn around and sell this land at market value and make all kinds of money and use all of that money to build a nice new bells and whistles Administration building on Lonsdale? It may be legal but is it ethical. Is it ethical for the City which purchased the property in 1910 from a Mr. Roger Mc…… and it is signed an indenture and the indenture states for $16,000 the City purchased it. Incidentally, we had a historic search done on it. For $16,000 and it says on the indenture “in trust for school properties”. In trust for school property. 1910. Is it ethical now to sell that land or to rezone this land for condominiums, which clearly is not for school purposes? Is it ethical for the bureaucrats of the School Board to spend $38 Million on their new building when so many schools are in desperate need of just basic stuff? Is that ethical? Does it make sense to aggressively, to push up density on Lonsdale, while at the same time selling 3½ acres of precious public land? So, the public is squeezed from two sides. First the density goes up, highrises, and secondly we sell the public land. And let us not kid ourselves, School Board land is public land. It belongs to the School Board but the School Board belongs to the people. So, it is public land. I had the opportunity, incidentally I want to point out that people think the answer is no.

City of North Vancouver Page 43 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

Social scientists who have studied the behavior of bureaucracy and there are numerous studies of this and they all show the same thing. If you want to understand the behavior of a bureaucratic institution you have to realize that they come up with policies which favour the bureaucratic institutions. No surprises. This policy clearly favours the bureaucratic institutions and that people on the street, the 2,400, and the thousands of others who …..

Mayor Mussatto …. Mr. Kroecher if you could just wrap up please. You have a few more seconds.

Mr. Kroecher Okay, I am just finishing my sentence …. they have no appetite for this but it is a good policy for the bureaucratic institution. Thank you for the opportunity.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you Mr. Kroecher. Now I am going to go to Christina. Welcome back again Christina.

Ms. Kroecher Yes, Your Worship and Councillors. We did do some research and the historical archives, the Land Titles Office, when they found out what it was for and then came time to pay, we wanted to know how much, and they said, you know, when I see where this is going for I am don’t have the heart to send you an invoice. Let this be my contribution. This issue has ground swelled people from Vancouver, people from Mexico, people from Europe, come over and say where are the esthetics. The house I live in is 200 years old they tell me. Now, I have heard such contradicting things in some of the talks here tonight. I heard of course the School Board’s logo, a natural place to learn. What could be more natural then that playing field out there and that solid stone building, which as the architects and the principal of this other school, the Capilano Elementary School, which is celebrating its 100th birthday, and they say about these old buildings are really solid, is what he is saying there. The history is visible in its architecture and these kids are learning to appreciate heritage already while they are young and they are learning that the dollar is not necessarily the bottom line. I don’t know if somebody studies marketing or developing or something they are going to have another slam then somebody who doesn’t study anything but just life and people and the experience of getting older.

Now, I was saying I have empathy for the School Board. I would have liked to have seen some of that money; a lot of money has now been spent in the soft costs of this proposal. I would have much rather liked to have seen that money renovating and enlarging their Chesterfield site because there is ample space there above and on the sides to renovate and enhance and enlarge it to their needs.

City of North Vancouver Page 44 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) And since they are, as I heard Councillor Schechter remind me, of the cousin type relationship, I would like to see the City Council help the School Board with a small portion of its $148 Million in the coffers to give the School Board a boost that they could preserve and fix up that Lonsdale Heritage School and if they don’t need it for students at the time there are so many options of what they can use it for in the meantime before the demographics do switch again. There is French Immersion, there is Dance Schools, there is Daycare, you name it.

The North Vancouver citizens have a vision as well and we have a vision of public open space where maybe on a Saturday there is a swap meet and the next Saturday there is a Farmer’s Market and maybe there are dog training exercises and you name it. The possibilities are endless and the Hyadians could take care of the Community Garden. They love gardening. That is being the kind of creative situation that I would like to see where nobody has to suffer. You don’t say that when you have three crown jewels and say well we’ll just chuck one because this is centre and Lonsdale School is no less historic value than the other two. It is derelict. It is sad to see. It has gone ….. deferred maintenance because of I suppose the anticipation of this plan, which nobody knew. Years ago people just thought, okay it is vacant because the School Board has not decided yet what they will use that building for next. I asked years ago. I said what is going to happen to Lonsdale School. I asked that years ago. The School Board said we don’t know yet what we are going to do with that building. So, it was all very quietly orchestrated until all of a sudden this is in our faces.

We would like the School Board to go back to the drawing board and we would like our B.C. Centennial of 150th birthday and North Vancouver’s 141st, and B.C. 150th. We would like to see that celebrated by let this school building become a Centenarian. As one of citizens wrote here, let the School Board go back to the drawing board.

Mayor Mussatto Ms. Kroecher, unfortunately your time is up. You have had 10 minutes. Thank you very much for that. Mr. Ivan Leonard. Welcome back, Mr. Leonard.

Mr. Leonard Thank you. The figure that everyone is batting around, the $38 Million that we were going to get to build the Administration building, that was from Amacon, but we don’t have a developer now so we don’t know what they are going to pay for this project. So, where are we with that?

I just want to say a couple of more things. These were comments that I read in the paper. The recent statements emanating from Victoria was urging that the school boards to think long and hard before shutting down more schools. I think we all read that in the paper last week, which this reverses the governments previous position. It introduces an important new factor in the equation that our School Board should be paying attention too before they move ahead on this project. The Throne Speech, somewhat a while ago, the government has suggested that the entrance age for kindergarten will soon be reduced to three or four years old.

City of North Vancouver Page 45 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) When these statements are considered together with the recently created Early Childhood Learning Agency that the government has put together as part of the B.C.’s government’s drive to make “B.C. the best educated and the more literate province in Canada”, we certainly have a new scenario developing in the Ministry of Education. The new direction that the government seems to be steering may be a warning to the School Board to slow down.

So I would be inclined to park this project for a while and wait to see what the new policy is being shaped by the B.C. government in preparation for the next election. No doubt in light of the softening real estate market and the recent announcements from Victoria, Amacon the developer and the co-applicant for this application, saw the writing on the school wall and made a very sensible and business decision and withdrew from their partnership. So, I ask Council not to ignore the same signals but rather step back and do the sensible thing and not approve the rezoning at this time but wait until a new partner is found and the School Board has time to respond to the B.C. Government’s new education initiatives. Thank you very much. Ivan Leonard.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Leonard for your presentation this evening. We have come to the end of our Speaker’s List. Yes, we will see that every member of Council gets a copy of that. Yes, sir. Welcome.

Mr. David Pike, 827 Sutherland Avenue, North Vancouver Good evening Your Worship and Council, my name is David Pike. I am a City resident, 827 Sutherland Avenue. I just have a quick question, two quick questions. First, either the School District or the City staff will clarify. First is a clarification of how many millions would be available for the heritage project at Queen Mary and Ridgeway and the existing development as proposed? I mean originally it was $4 Million and hearing tonight it may have changed to $3 Million but that is not in the public domain. The second is on some clarification, which Ivan Leonard asked for earlier, but which was not given, was I think, it is Site A or Block A or whatever it is at Queen Mary, the future density transfer from that as to how much that might be worth. I know you will say well we don’t know until we sell it but you must have a ballpark figure, is it $10,000, $10 Million or whatever and what it is the procedure for allocating that? Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you Mr. Pike. I will ask the School Board to respond but I did, for the record, hear them say there would be a minimum of $3 Million going from the sale of this site to the Ridgeway Heritage and I don’t know about the other.

Mr. Wollenberg You are correct Your Worship. The School District is prepared tonight to articulate their commitment as a minimum of $3 Million. But I want to emphasize that that is part of the larger and more important commitment, which is to retain the Ridgeway School, which will require the cobbling together of resources from a variety of places and it is not just this revenue.

City of North Vancouver Page 46 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) I know we have been asked in public many times to put a value on the transferrable density that is generated on Parcel A and we are extremely reluctant to do so because we have no guarantees that that transferrable density will see the light of day. You know better than I, that in order for that transferrable density to be used at all there have to be other properties in your community that you are prepared to (a) rezone to a higher density, and (b) make it a condition of that rezoning that the applicant obtain the density from the School District. We, of course, have no ability to guarantee that there will be other rezonings and we certainly have no ability to guarantee that you would require such an applicant to obtain the additional density from the School District.

However, there is a further commitment the School District can make and this has been discussed with your staff. Any proceeds from the transferrable density on Parcel A at Queen Mary are to be earmarked first and foremost for heritage school related projects and until such time as Ridgeway is well and truly complete and all of the necessary upgrades to Queen Mary are well and truly complete, not a penny of any transferrable density that is sold from Parcel A at Queen Mary will go to any other School District project. Now, if it turns out that in some distant date the sale of that density generates funds that are more than that obviously the School District must use it for School District capital projects. If they are fortunate enough that that is after the needs of Queen Mary and Ridgeway are met all I suppose I can do is assure you that on behalf of the School District that the money will be well used for important school projects. I am pretty sure that the situation in which Victoria does not fund 100% of what they ask for will persist for some period to come. Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you Mr. Wollenberg. Okay. We have gone through the list here and we have had a tremendous amount of input from the people. Now I think it is time that we just go to members of Council for clarification. Are there any questions from members of Council with regards to this? Councillors Perrault, Keating and Fearnley.

Councillor B.W. Perrault Yes, I have a couple of questions, Your Worship. First of all through you to the School Board, my question is and I want to take the emotion out of this. I want to ask the question, Lonsdale School, what would have to be done cost wise and in terms of upgrades to bring in up to par to make it available as a school or as a community centre or whatever? What exactly is the problem with Lonsdale School? Would you please, take the emotion out of it, and give us the straight goods please?

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Lewis, are you going to respond to that, or Mr. Wollenberg?

City of North Vancouver Page 47 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mr. Lewis I wouldn’t mind starting in that the School District submitted a capital plan in 2000 based on a facilities audit. All school facilities that are submitted by Boards of Education across the Province submit a Facility Audit. The Audit rates the building systems looking at the structure, its function, heating and ventilation systems, electrical systems, all the rest of the systems. Lonsdale School in the year 2000 was rated at 23 out of a score of 100. It was significantly deficient in 2000. It was rated as the worst condition school in the Province. It was approved for funding at the that time for a replacement school. The modular building was provided in 2003 as a temporary measure to accommodate the students while the School District worked on how best to proceed with replacement of the school. It was not a question of upgrading, modifying, renovating the facility. It was just far to costly to even entertain that as an option. Perhaps our Facilities Director could provide some additional information.

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Abercrombie did you have anything to add to that?

Mr. Ian Abercrombie, Facilities Director, School District The main deficiency with Lonsdale School is its capacity to resist seismic events. One of the things that makes Lonsdale unique is its rubble granite foundation but it also makes Lonsdale School very weak. So to seismically upgrade that school it would require significant placement of concrete in the building. So that is just one thing and as Mr. Lewis has stated there are major mechanical deficiencies with the building. The heating plant dates back to the turn of the century. Until fairly recently there was a fan with a leather pulley in it so it is truly an antiquated building. And I should add that there was yet another audit done after the one that was 23% and it went down to 18%. It was truly one of the worst school buildings physically in the Province.

Councillor Perrault And my other question was cost wise. If you have had to bring all those things up to par, cost wise, what would it have cost the School Board?

Mr. Abercrombie We are doing a similar exercise at Ridgeway School and we find to build a new Ridgeway School costs about $14 Million. You have to add somewhere between $6 and $7 Million in order to do a seismically, or to do an upgrade, in a heritage restoration fashion. So it is that sort of proportion, about one third extra capital cost.

Councillor Perrault In terms of the heritage architectural, integrity of the building, did you have any architects look at it to indicate what, you know, is it a good heritage building in terms of the time that it was built?

City of North Vancouver Page 48 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mr. Abercrombie We had an architect review that and I think, whether it is a good heritage building in terms of its time, that is a fairly subjective question. What we have been advised is that it is not up to the standard of a Queen Mary or a Ridgeway. We had a number of heritage consultants go through it and so they have advised as to the features of the building that are worthy of retention. Those features being the heavy timbers, the rough sawn fir beams which are, I think, 3” x 16” a size that you do not find today that we intend to reuse. The granite foundation, which by its nature makes the building seismically unstable, is also something that we will be using along the pediment of the new building. There are other sort of minor features such as the granite archway at the front door that we intend to put into the complex in a significant fashion.

Councillor Perrault Thank you for that. I have one more question, Your Worship, through you, to City staff. In order for us to have, if Council decided to proceed with this, in order to have a clear and binding agreement with regards to the heritage upgrades of Queen Mary and Ridgeway School is there a possibility, is there a legal document, that Council can bring forward in that regard? Would it be a covenant or exactly how would that work?

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Penway!

Mr. Penway Yes, Your Worship, it would be a covenant indeed and a draft covenant has been prepared. So there are three tools that are contemplated here. The first two tools are the bylaws before you, so the heritage designation of both Queen Mary and Ridgeway School will provide the assurance that it be within Council’s control if those buildings are to be altered and if so how. That would include façade changes, or structural changes to the building or new construction on the site so Council will be in a position of control which the School District is understanding and agreeing to on the basis of the overall package that contemplated. That control will be there through that Municipal Heritage Site designation and then separately as part of the overall agreement, which will be secured by covenant, which confirms a variety of aspects about this site. Part of that will specifically be this minimum $3 Million contribution specifically for Ridgeway School as part of this package at this time. So, they will be assured to Council in those three ways.

Councillor Perrault Okay, thank you Your Worship.

Mayor Mussatto Councillor Keating!

City of North Vancouver Page 49 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Councillor C.R. Keating Thank you very much Your Worship. I have just one question at this time. Councillor Perrault asked some of my questions. The Central Lonsdale Study is currently underway. Mr. Penway informed us at the outset, given the fact there is no developer associated with this project at present that we would allow this rezoning were it to pass tonight’s Council meeting to sit at third reading until a developer was involved. I believe that is correct Your Worship. Will the Central Lonsdale Study, given the fact that the Lonsdale site would sit at third reading if it passed tonight, would the Central Lonsdale Study include the study of this site as well in terms of its density and height calculations etc.?

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Penway!

Mr. Penway Your Worship, the Central Lonsdale Study is a broad study looking at a large generic area and includes all of Central Lonsdale, essentially from Victoria Park up to the Trans- Canada Highway, so this has been generally included as part of the considerations. It is not specifically contemplated and certainly the intention is not that the Central Lonsdale Study is going to override or somehow change what is contemplated in this package. My understanding would be that the Central Lonsdale Study is a separate entity that is dealing with broad policy considerations and it is not site specific for this property in the way that this rezoning application is.

Councillor Keating And Your Worship just to clarify. I did not mean to suggest that we exempt this property from the Central Lonsdale Study but I am just wondering whether the Central Lonsdale Study will include this property regardless of the process that goes on tonight.

Mr. Penway Your Worship, it would be my understanding that it would, in the sense that it is part of that broad study, of that broad area.

Councillor Keating Thank you very much Your Worship.

Mayor Mussatto Councillor Fearnley!

City of North Vancouver Page 50 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Councillor R.J. Fearnley We have started a new period where we are seeing a downturn in housing sales. It looks like we are going to see a significant downturn in housing starts. With that, we are also seeing, because there are more trades people available, more materials available or reduced costs for buildings. And I am wondering, even the possibility of such a slow down, if we may even see some deflation of housing prices. Has the School Board taken all these factors into consideration at this point and what can you tell me about your planning for those sorts of things? I mean, these are very serious questions that we are looking at now.

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Wollenberg are you able to respond?

Mr. Wollenberg Your Worship, I will offer some perspective and perhaps the Superintendent might like to add something else. Interestingly this project commenced at a time when the market was not as hot as it has been of late and our original estimates for the way the numbers might work on this project are probably more in line with what we are looking at today than might what have been the case three or four months ago. There are always cycles in the Vancouver real estate market. I think what is really important to realize about this project is it was not something funked up in a hurry in the short term in order to take advantage of a hot real estate market and build an ostentatious and large School District building. I heard the phrase think long and hard many times tonight and the School District did think long and hard about this project before arriving at the point where it believes that this is the optimal way to deal with this opportunity and this property.

It is a good project whether or not the real estate market is super heated or just normal. It is possible, it is hypothetically possible, there is a bit of a chill in the market. It may mean that it takes a little longer to implement but the School District is not doing this, as I said earlier, to be opportunistic. This project was born many years ago and it has involved a substantial amount of community consultation. There is nothing about this that is a surprise. I think it is a robust project no matter what. It is conceivable that the School District may have to relook at some of the capital budget for its own building. It is conceivable it may have to revisit the capital budget for the Artists for Kids Gallery. It is conceivable the project will go ahead identical to the drawings that you see before you. We did not come before you with these applications in the belief that this project would only work in the white hot real estate atmosphere that we’ve seen over the last little while.

Mayor Mussatto Anything further? Mr. Lewis, sorry.

City of North Vancouver Page 51 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mr. Lewis Just to add, for Councillor Fearnley, that one of the offsets that we have been able to work with is that the decline, if there is a decline in the residential property development, we have an offset with what had been anticipated as escalation costs for construction. So while the costs of residential developments have cooled so too have the escalation costs that have been factored into the construction with our projects.

Councillor Fearnley Through the Chair, second question, we have heard much tonight about the fact that we may see a time when there are more children available to go to this school. I know for example that some schools, for example Catholic Schools are full, and I am wondering what you have done to plan for the possibility that we may see far more children near where this school has been located. I am wondering if you have considered the possibility at some point of leasing, instead of sale, for example so you have a future availability at the site to build a school.

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Lewis!

Mr. Lewis The School District has given consideration to the different uses of land whether it is for lease purposes to retain it for future use or for the outright sale of the property. This is looking at the sale of a property while there are other properties that we have that we would continue to hold or to utilize on a lease basis. The School District has 33 elementary schools presently. Five of those are closed schools so we are operating with about 75% capacity within our current schools. Westview School to the west of the Lonsdale School site has capacity for 75 additional students today. It has capacity as well to be expanded to accommodate four additional classrooms, which accommodates another 100 students. So, we have taken into consideration the demographics globally across the School District and also regionally to make sure that there are schools that are adjacent that have excess capacity. And that is the situation that we are experiencing presently and while we are at 75% capacity today in the elementary that is going to continue to decline and if it were a changing government policy, which has to be taken with some degree of hesitancy, we could still accommodate all four year olds and all three year olds if the mandate was expanded without reopening one of the five closed schools we presently have.

Mayor Mussatto Anything further Councillor Fearnley?

Councillor Fearnley Yes, I am wondering if anybody with the School Board or with the City staff could tell me, we heard from a gentleman today that this site was sold by the City to the School District for $1.00 and I am wondering, and I guess we can take that at face value although I guess maybe we need to confirm that. Can somebody tell me what the terms and conditions of that were and if you cannot do it now when can we find that out?

City of North Vancouver Page 52 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Lewis are you able to provide the information?

Mr. Lewis We did a comprehensive review of the site and the history and the funding for the site. School Districts used to be under the operations of the local municipalities so the School District was under the auspicious of the City of North Vancouver and also the District of North Vancouver. It was important for the School District to prove the purchase of the property to determine whether it was in the category called Local Capital Reserve or Capital Reserve. If the property came into the possession of the School District through the means of the School District and the City, in this case it became Local Capital Reserve, which placed the control over the disposition of that property and the capital that would generate in the hands of the School District. If it was funded by the Ministry of Education it would then fall to the Ministry of Education who would look at a property and say that funding was provided provincially it would return provincially. Lonsdale School site, the Chesterfield site were both identified eight years back when the initial plan came forward. They were prime sites because they were funded initially by the City, which was the governing structure for school districts, before school districts became an entity themselves as a Board of Education. It is a convoluted process but we can go back and we have thick documentation of the possession of the School District site and the Chesterfield site as well.

Councillor Fearnley And terms and conditions?

Mr. Lewis It belongs to the School District. It was transferred from the City to the School District.

Councillor Fearnley Where there any terms and conditions on that?

Mayor Mussatto Excuse me. There is one meeting going on. You had your chance to speak. It is up to Council now.

Mr. Lewis We would have to get the package of material for you as a resource to show the research that was done both on the Chesterfield site and the Lonsdale site. I cannot answer the question directly though.

Councillor Fearnley I have another question but I need the results of this and I am wondering when staff can give us some sort of input?

City of North Vancouver Page 53 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mayor Mussatto Maybe we can go to Mr. Penway now. Mr. Penway are you able to respond? You probably have not researched this at all.

Mr. Penway Your Worship it is a question that I don’t have an answer for here. It is sort of a historical fact, so in terms of providing an answer to you I could not provide an answer to you today. Some information is apparently being submitted but we really want to do our own title search to understand that we have got complete documents and the source of those documents and Land Title records are what they are and they do take some time to work through. So that would probably be more of a legal search of a full title search of the property. In terms of how or when that would get back to Council I would defer to the City Clerk in terms of the process and the timing for that coming back to Council in a context of a Public Hearing if it was Council’s desire to receive it.

Mayor Mussatto Ms. Dowey!

Ms. Dowey It will come back to Council when we come back with the bylaws before they are finally adopted.

Mayor Mussatto Would that be appropriate then, Ms. Dowey, we would be fine to do that?

Ms. Dowey It would be in the form of a staff report, Your Worship.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you. Anything further Councillor Fearnley?

Councillor Fearnley Yes, I have a last question. It relates to, I mean if you have been on Council long enough you have seen some things. I remember we had a project on East 1st that we approved a very high quality building, lovely exterior, and the building was flipped a little while later and the developer came along and built the building and it was in my opinion an inferior building; vinyl siding. It was not what we wanted and because we had already approved it all it came back to haunt us. I am wondering without a developer here about the potential for that and I would like staff to reassure me that I don’t have to worry about this.

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Penway, I think you explained it for Councillor Perrault. Do you have a response?

City of North Vancouver Page 54 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mr. Penway Your Worship, well a little more clarification in terms of the comparison with the other project, which was somewhat infamous for us here in the City. The key difference between those two projects is that when that project was approved it was simply zoned for the use and density and setbacks and such things. There was no specific link to a design for the buildings that ran with that approval, in a legal sense, and that left the developer in a position where they could redesign it so long as they met the zoning requirements.

In this instance we also have a zoning control in place that will be specific to the site to control the density, the height, the setbacks and other such things. But in addition to that we will have a covenant that confirms that it is to be built in accordance with the plans presented at this Public Hearing and the plans that are attached to the reports that you have got and the expectation is they will do one of three things. Either find a developer who is satisfied with that design and in which case it will carry on and that can happen in any event. Projects do get approved and different developers pick them up and you know Amacon could have sold this property after the Public Hearing and after the final adoption but with the assurance that it be built in accordance with the plans. So, the covenant in this case will provide assurance that they are built in accordance with the approved plans either as are or if it requires a minor change for example, if it is a minor change about the colour of bricks or some finishing materials they are not that happy with, that would be something our Advisory Design Panel and staff would resolve. If it is a substantive thing that involves the shape or any ………. impacts on zoning then Council would have to deal with that and that would come back to Council and depending on the nature of the change it may necessitate a new Public Hearing. So, there are sort of three scenarios for how that could unfold but the point being that Council will be in control through the presence of the covenant if adoption does happen.

Councillor Fearnley Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Councillor Bookham!

Councillor P.J. Bookham Thank you Your Worship. My question, I guess, is for Mr. Wollenberg and it is a follow up to your comment about the viability of the project not being dependent on a white hot real estate market and if so why then did Amacon pull out at this late stage?

Mr. Wollenberg All I can really tell you is that the parties negotiated in earnest but in the final analysis were unable to agree on some business terms. Failure to agree on those terms meant that Amacon elected to not proceed.

City of North Vancouver Page 55 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Councillor Bookham What is the basis then for your optimism, that this is viable, given the changing conditions in the real estate market?

Mr. Wollenberg Well the reason the School District is optimistic about the project is when the property was offered to the market via an RSP in a competitive process a large number of developers expressed keen interest. We believe that some of those developers will still be interested in the project. The fundamental nature of this proposal, four storey wood frame apartments in the Central Lonsdale has, I think, has a market appeal that was not unique to the one developer that happened that the School District elected to initially enter into negotiations with. We found a high degree of market interest in the premise of four storey frame apartments in this location. Now, we do not have a signed agreement with a second developer yet. The School District intends to proceed with that and I guess it is unfortunate, the timing in the sense, that the one deal came unglued immediately prior to this event. But as I said earlier it does not really alter the School District’s fundamental premise that this is the appropriate use of this land and an appropriate way to fund the kinds of amenities that it wants to achieve with this project.

Councillor Bookham The funding of the amenities of course is the critical question, whether or not that is possible. I don’t think there is anyone who would disagree that there are developers who are willing to provide housing of this sort in this prime location but for what price and what will that mean in terms of the funds necessary for preservation of Ridgeway, and the other plans for the HYAD.

Mr. Wollenberg As Mr. Penway has indicated if you approve this you are essentially approving exactly what you have seen and exactly what you have been told, which means that the School District is committed. If it proceeds with this project to make the commitments to Rey Sargent Park that is indicated, the commitment to create the Artists for Kids Gallery, the commitment for the quality of design that you see here. It does not have any opportunity, if you approve this zoning because it is so site specific, to come back and say ha-ha, fooled you, we are going to go ahead but we are not going to give you any money for Rey Sargent Park or we are going to go ahead but we are not going to do the Artists for Kids Gallery. If it turns out that for any reason the project needs to change, as Mr. Penway has indicated, the School District will be back to you and you would have the opportunity, at that time, to either approve or not approve any amendments that someone might propose.

Councillor Bookham Thank you.

City of North Vancouver Page 56 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mr. Wollenberg I guess I would like to emphasis by the rezoning here, you are approving a development. You are not approving a developer.

Councillor Bookham Just to clarify, I think what we are approving is a development with certain benefits. That is the way it has been presented to Council and the community.

Mr. Wollenberg Absolutely and when I say a development I mean inclusive of the public amenities that have been offered as part of this package.

Councillor Bookham Thank you. One more question, Your Worship, and it has to do with future enrollment and needs for our schools and the location of those schools. Now we heard comments about the existing capacity in light of what you anticipate to be the future need. We are undertaking a 100 year planning process. I am looking way out at the horizon and the figures that I saw for 100 years puts the City at a population of 115,000. I hope some of them will be children. The other thing is the density has been designated for the Lonsdale Corridor and it would seem to me that it may well be that you have schools that are under enrolled but they are in the suburbs. They are not in that central area where the growth is taking place. We do know from looking at what has happened in Yaletown and even what has happened in Lower Lonsdale that we have children who are living in our higher density areas. Can you assure Council that there will not be a need for a school in the Lonsdale Corridor such as on this present site? Who can speak to enrollment, please?

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Lewis!

Mr. Lewis Thank you Councillor Bookham. Through Your Worship, the schools that are adjacent to Lonsdale presently are Westview Elementary, Queensbury Elementary, Queen Mary and Ridgeway to the east. One hundred years from now we are going to have Queensbury School will then be 150 years old. It will have been replaced in the interim and it will not be a school for 250 students, it would become a school for 400 students. So, there has to be a sense of maintaining sites but also the ability to increase capacity for the schools when they are in a place of replacement. The current Ridgeway Elementary School will have an increase in capacity when it is redeveloped in the heritage restoration structure and then there is still the retention of the Ridgeway Annex property looking at what needs there will be for servicing the population that would be expected in the Lower Lonsdale area in addition to Queen Mary itself. So, certainly if the population increases to 115,000 within the City we too hope that a good portion of that is represented in children to be able to enable our schools to continue to operate.

City of North Vancouver Page 57 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Councillor Bookham Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Councillor Heywood!

Councillor R.N. Heywood Thank you Your Worship. The first thing I would like to try and clear up is the new building proposal for the School Board office is 59,000 feet. Is that the right figure? 59,000 feet, and that includes 15,000 feet for Artists for Kids?

Ms. Young Approximately 14,000 feet.

Mayor Mussatto Perhaps you could go to the microphone Ms. Young, for the people who are watching on television.

Councillor Heywood So, that says approximately 45,000 feet is to be dedicated to the School Board office?

Ms. Young Correct.

Councillor Heywood Could you tell me at the present time the size of the present School Board office and the size of the space that is now occupied by people that would be moving into the new building from the Lucas Centre and the Marshall Centre? Can you give some idea?

Ms. Young I don’t have them fresh on the tip of my fingers but the existing School Board site is around 24,000 sq.ft., give or take, and the space of the Leo Marshall Centre is about 18,000 and another 2,000 sq.ft. at the Lucas Centre, because there is staff in both of those facilities.

Councillor Heywood So, that is roughly 44,000 sq.ft. that you are currently using. So the space that you are looking to include in the new facility is not much enlarged from what you are using now, is that correct?

Ms. Young Exactly, that is correct. In fact we are trying to find ways to shrink the building. For example we have recently undertaken a whole document management system that will allow us to reduce storage capacity, as an example.

City of North Vancouver Page 58 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Councillor Heywood Can you give us any indication of what the future holds for the Lucas Centre and the other spaces up there that you will be vacating?

Ms. Young Once the Artists for Kids and the Student and Program Services are moved to Lonsdale, hopefully, there is still a number of programs and staff still situated at both Leo Marshall. Leo Marshall Centre currently houses the Maintenance Staff as well as Maintenance Yards. There is some Continuing Education programming happens there. There is the Youth Learning Centre. There is Windsor House. So, there are a number of programs there that, again, because of this situation of the deteriorating facilities there we are trying to find alternative homes for those programs and services. We have not done that yet but we are hopeful for the future.

Councillor Heywood One more question, if I may, Your Worship.

Mayor Mussatto Certainly.

Councillor Heywood And that deals with the $3 Million that you are guaranteeing will be set aside for Ridgeway. How much is needed for Ridgeway to complete the restoration project there?

Ms. Young It is approximately $7 Million has to be our School Board’s contribution from local capital. The Province has already indicated that they will pay for a new Ridgeway School. A Ridgeway Replacement School is considerably less expensive. I think the number you have heard from our Facilities Director was to the tune of $14 to $15 Million. Again, depending on what you use for estimates of escalation, so on top of that cost there is a premium of about $7 Million. Now there is a couple of variables there because it depends if the City was interested in putting a daycare in there because there is an existing daycare operated by North Shore Neighbourhood House, for example, so we would have to work closely with City staff to examine that.

Councillor Heywood How much additional funds are needed for Queen Mary School?

Ms. Young Right now Queen Mary School has been approved for a seismic project upgrade. Well, it was notionally approved but the Province did not give it the green light to proceed because the cost of seismic upgrading, it exceeded the Ministry’s standard of 7%, so it would, I believe, and perhaps Ian can correct me, it is at least the replacement cost of the school plus a premium as well, would you say $4 to $5 Million. Perhaps I will let Ian answer.

City of North Vancouver Page 59 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Abercrombie!

Mr. Abercrombie Just to answer that question regarding the additional cost to do a heritage restoration of Queen Mary School, it is very expensive actually even to do the design work in order to do that calculation. So we have been basing a lot of our estimates on what it is going to cost to do the heritage restoration on Queen Mary to what it is actually costing with much better developed drawings at Ridgeway. So that is why we have a figure of it is going to be probably between $4 and $7 Million.

Councillor Heywood So, the fact remains then that even if the Lonsdale project here goes ahead we are still going to be short about $7 Million in terms of the restoration projects of Queen Mary and Ridgeway?

Mr. Abercrombie We are continuing to look at other funding sources for Ridgeway. We feel much more confident with that. With the money that would be coming in at this and as well as with what Councillor Fearnley has said is the change in market for construction costs. I think that is a silver lining in this whole scenario with the economy right now. We are continuing to look at that. I think with Queen Mary that one is not in the same condition as Ridgeway. It is not as imminently needed the renovation as at Ridgeway. So, we have several years to see how the density bonusing is going to work that is going to hopefully result from this project.

Councillor Heywood I guess what I am hearing, that even if this project goes ahead the renovation of Ridgeway still has a way to go to achieve financial ability to proceed.

Ms. Young We are looking at, you know, the School District has other lands. Cloverley is a possibility. Certainly we can look at the cost of construction. We have recently tendered two school seismic upgrade projects and they both came in under budget and this is the first time that we have seen that happen in five years. So we have reason to have hope that other seismic upgrade projects and replacement projects will also be more reasonably priced. This is a fairly recent change so all our cost estimates are based on a red hot construction market. We will need to revisit those numbers and I feel confident that they will be brought down.

Councillor Heywood But also, if I may add to that, if the reduction in land values exceeds the reduction in construction costs are you going to be in difficulty to put up the $3 Million guaranteed to Ridgeway School?

City of North Vancouver Page 60 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Ms. Young No, because the way the value that we have calculated the $3 Million, it is the value of an approximate value of the density on both sides in excess of 1.6 fsr, so as long as the developer give us a per sq.ft. for every buildable sq.ft. than there will be an amount of money set aside for Ridgeway. And $3 Million, I think, is a conservative estimate but given that I haven’t had an actual bid yet because I have not asked for one then I felt more comfortable with a conservative bid.

Councillor Heywood Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Just before we go to Councillor Schechter, then quickly back to Councillor Fearnley, we need a motion to carry on past 10:30 p.m. Councillor Schechter!

Councillor S.A. Schechter So moved!

Mayor Mussatto Councillor Heywood!

Councillor Heywood Second!

Mayor Mussatto All those in favour! Opposed! Carried Unanimously! Thank you. Councillor Schechter!

Moved by Councillor Schechter, seconded by Councillor Heywood.

THAT the requirements of the Procedure Bylaw to terminate the meeting at 10:30 P.M., be waived, and the meeting continue to 11:00 P.M., if necessary.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

Councillor Schechter Thank you Your Worship. I have a few questions, first to Mr. Wollenberg or Ms. Young. What is the market value of the HYAD project or the cost?

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Wollenberg!

Mr. Wollenberg Do you mean what is the construction cost of the HYAD project? I think I should ask a HYAD representative to speak to that because we are not directly involved in that.

City of North Vancouver Page 61 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mayor Mussatto Mr. Schlep or Mr. Knowlton. Mr. Knowlton are you able to respond?

Mr. Knowlton, HYAD It is very tentative because we not ….. architectural; $2.9 Million.

Councillor Schechter $2.9 Million. Thank you.

Mr. Knowlton But please take that as real ball park.

Councillor Schechter I understand that it is not a number in stone.

Mayor Mussatto $2.9 Million.

Councillor Schechter Your Worship, to whoever wants to field the question. What is the approximate market value or the cost, I guess a better estimate in just not being sold, the cost of the Artists for Kids Gallery and space?

Mr. Wollenberg The preliminary estimate is $8 Million.

Councillor Schechter And finally, I heard some discussion of the façade on Lonsdale as being concrete. What are the façade characteristics of the building facing Lonsdale?

Mr. Wollenberg If I may, Your Worship, I have a drawing if you want me to pull in up on the screen.

Mayor Mussatto If you got it on the screen it would probably be better for us. Thanks. I think Council was distributed this earlier.

Mr. Wollenberg You have this material in your package. I don’t want to step on the Architect’s toes but I would characterize it as a mix of brick and steel, glass and concrete.

Councillor Schechter Thank you Your Worship.

Mayor Mussatto Councillor Fearnley has something quickly to ask.

City of North Vancouver Page 62 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

Councillor Fearnley You know another question comes to mind and it is due in part to some of the discussion by other members and that is this, that one of the reasons why we are contemplating the demolition of Lonsdale is that we will be doing this to preserve two other schools. What guarantee is there here that these other two schools are in fact going to be preserved because I am not seeing that right now? I am seeing tentative, sort of, we hope.

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Wollenberg are you able to respond again on that one or Mr. Lewis?

Mr. Wollenberg Keep in mind that one of the bylaws in the package before you is a bylaw to designate it as a heritage site, which Mr. Penway I believe has explained, will put you in the driver’s seat in terms of determining any possible changes to those buildings. And I think the other thing you heard from the School District tonight is the institutional commitment to recognize the value of these as two operating schools that it wants to retain.

Councillor Fearnley Okay.

Mr. Wollenberg There is no shell game Councillor Fearnley.

Councillor Fearnley No, no, and I am not suggesting that but it is important that people understand that.

Mr. Wollenberg I am a little uncomfortable, if I may say, with the premise that in a sense it is one building that is being sacrificed for others. The challenge with the Lonsdale Elementary School you have heard structurally is one. It is an expensive building to renovate. It is also important to keep in mind it is a very small building. We looked at the possibility of keeping that building and using it for other things that the School District might be able to accommodate in its project but had a very difficult time feeding any meaningful program into that building, in that location, which is removed from the Lonsdale frontage. And the final challenge with it is not in the fault of the building, it is the fault of the siting of it. It is not possible to keep it without, in effect, also taking roughly a third of the site and eliminating it as a possible source of revenue for all these other things that the School District is trying to create. Because there is not enough room between the north elevation and West 21st, sorry, the north elevation and West 22nd or the south elevation and the lane, to do anything with the part of the site that is fore and aft of the building. If we keep reasonable side yards on both sides of it to respect a heritage building, if you visualize it, we are taking a huge swath through the middle of the property to retain the building.

City of North Vancouver Page 63 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) And that is part of the challenge with it as well because it is not possible to keep the building on its own very small postage stamp without acknowledging the impact it has on the ability of the balance of the property to generate revenue.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Wollenberg. Now, Ms. Dowey, we need to move forward on this.

Ms. Dowey Your Worship, we would then go into the next Public Hearing, it is continued. The next one is the OCP Bylaw No. 7934 to amend Schedule A of the “City of North Vancouver Official Community Plan Bylaw, 2002, No. 7425” to change the Land Use Designation for a portion (Sites ‘B’ and ‘C’) of 721 Chesterfield Avenue, legally described as Lot G, Block 111, D.L. 548, Plan 13407, from “School & Institutional” to “Residential Level Five: Medium Density” (1.6 FSR).

Zoning Bylaw No. 7935 is to rezone Lot G, Block 111, D.L. 548, Plan 13407, located at 721 Chesterfield Avenue. The amending bylaw will have the effect of reclassifying the said property

FROM: P-1 (Public Use and Assembly 1) Zone

TO: CD-558 (Comprehensive Development 558) Zone

Site A: This site would be subdivided to create a distinct site for Queen Mary Elementary School. It would be assigned a density of 1.0 FSR in addition to the school buildings. Queen Mary Elementary School will remain.

Site B: To permit a 44 unit, four storey apartment building. Parking will be located underground with vehicular access from West 8th Street. Additional density is transferred from Site ‘A’.

Site C: To permit a 43 unit, four storey apartment building fronting on to Chesterfield Avenue. Parking will be located underground with vehicular access from Chesterfield Avenue. Additional density is transferred from Site ‘A’.

Heritage Designation Bylaw No. 7936, in conjunction with Bylaws Nos. 7934 and 7935, Lot G, Block 111, D.L. 548, Plan 13407, at 721 Chesterfield Avenue, the lot occupied by the heritage building known as Queen Mary Elementary School, would be designated as a Municipal Heritage Site.

The applicant is NORTH VANCOUVER SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 44 and Council will consider this under items 13, 14 and 15 this evening, Your Worship. Also, Your Worship, I have received 11 letters in favour and one letter opposed and all these letters have been circulated to Council.

City of North Vancouver Page 64 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Council will consider all the bylaws pertaining to the Lonsdale School site and the Queen Mary site after this Public Hearing concludes, Your Worship.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you Ms. Dowey and Mr. Penway is going to be giving the staff presentation with regards to this site and the Queen Mary School.

Mr. Gary Penway, Deputy Director, Community Development Yes, and perhaps just to clarify for members of the gallery that there are two applications being processed for the School District, they are the applicant for both sites, the owner of both sites. The first one we have dealt with is the 2151 Lonsdale site. This is the Chesterfield administration building and the Queen Mary site.

So, this is a context for the site and it is the site where Queen Mary School is located in the centre as an operating school. Keith Road is to the south, Chesterfield Avenue is to the east, West 8th Street is to the north, and West 13th Street is also to the north and slightly to the west of the mound on the westerly edge. So, it is an entire block of land with the exception of a small piece of property on the corner of West 8th and Chesterfield Avenue. It is a fairly large site at 3.4 acres. Again, in this instance there are three bylaws under consideration. There is an Official Community Plan amendment, a Zoning amendment and a Heritage Designation bylaw.

The Official Community Plan for this site currently would appear as this where all the lands owned by the School District and used for school purposes or for School Board administration purposes have a school institutional designation. The land use on the corner is a medium density apartment building with a fsr potential of 1.6. The proposal is to amend the Official Community Plan by creating a separate parcel of land, which would be to the south of that called Site C, and one to the west of that called Site B and these two would receive an Official Community Plan designation of the Residential 1.6 fsr Medium Density which would be the same as the designation on the corner. So, that provides for four storey buildings at 1.6 fsr.

The Zoning for the bylaw would create one comprehensive development zone for the site, which would be called the CD-558 zone, which would include Site A, which is the remainder of the school property which will remain in operation, Site B which would a four storey apartment building and Site C which would be a four storey apartment building. Vehicular access for Site B would be from West 8th Street and vehicular access for Site C would be from Chesterfield. Again the fact sheets are attached to the Council Agenda Package and are presented at the back of that.

There is a density transfer, which happens from Site A to both Site B and Site C as part of this and results in an effective floor space ratio of approximately 1.9 fsr on each of the properties. There is no change to the Queen Mary School building as part of this application. Its site would stay. Site A is assigned an fsr of 1.0 which would exclude this heritage school buildings.

City of North Vancouver Page 65 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) There is the potential for that 1.0 fsr then to sit as a development potential with a portion of that, as part of this bylaw, being transferred to Site B and C.

The Heritage Designation for this would include all of the lands that would then remain as part of the Queen Mary site and that is the area shown cross hatched here, which is part of the Heritage Designation Bylaw. Queen Mary School is situated in the middle and again it is not intended to be changed as part of this application and the School would remain open.

Your Worship, this project also went through a variety of advisory body inputs. In terms of outstanding items they are really just a draft covenant that you have got, which was presented in a package last week. There are a variety of off-site works which are happening with this property that include upgrades to public realm around all of the Sites A, B and C. And again, it is the same situation with the developer not being part of the package at this point in time and that is the same situation as the previous discussion that we have had. Your Worship, that concludes my presentation, so I will turn it over to the applicants.

Councillor Schechter briefly left and returned to the meeting.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Penway. Mr. Wollenberg are you making the presentation in this section or is it Mr. Dorais? Thank you very much.

Mr. Dorais Thank you, Your Worship and Council. On behalf of the Board as well as the School District as a whole, I am happy to start off the presentation for the School District on this particular proposal, which as you know is part and parcel with the Lonsdale proposal for us. The two go hand in hand. One happens with the other and we are hoping for support on both this evening.

I don’t have much to say on this particular proposal. I will leave it to Mr. Wollenberg to go over the details. However, I do want to just emphasis the commitment this evening that the School District has made in its proposals to heritage and it is significant. There have been some legitimate questions around that commitment but just to reiterate, the School District has said that out of these developments a minimum of $3 Million is intended to go to Ridgeway. Then we have the transferrable density with an agreement that would be put in place with the City that says any funds coming out of that transferrable density would strictly go to heritage for Ridgeway and Queen Mary until they were done. So, that is a significant commitment and we recognize, as Councillor Heywood had pointed out, that the costs are higher and regardless of that those commitments are being made.

City of North Vancouver Page 66 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) I just wanted to finally point out is that the proposal here, of the residential development, is in line with the neighbourhood. It also takes an Administration office out of a neighbourhood and puts it where it belongs, which potentially will be on Lonsdale Avenue, and I think that is significant in terms of the appropriate use as well as transportation issues as well as accessibility for those who are walking or on transit. So, with that, thank you again for this opportunity and I will turn it over to Mr. Wollenberg to take you through the rest of the proposal.

Councillor Heywood briefly left and returned to the meeting.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you Mr. Dorais. Welcome again, Mr. Wollenberg.

Mr. Wollenberg Thank you, Your Worship. I would like to just highlight a couple of elements of this proposal and to expand on some of Mr. Penway’s comments. One of the residential parcels, which is this one which fronts on Chesterfield, essentially occupies the site that the bulk of the building currently occupies. There is no net change to the school yard that results from changing use of that part of the parcel. The second residential parcel here occupies a portion of the site, which is occupied by a very small piece of the School Board building, because it actually is an L-shaped building that comes through here. There is a portion of the School District building that is being removed from there but the bulk of this site is currently used for parking for the School District office building. The school parking lot itself is over here and is being reconfigured somewhat in this proposal in terms of changing the entrance and exit but the two pieces of property are essentially replacing the building and the parking that comes with the School District.

While there are some changes to the playing field that result from that in this vicinity the net effect is that the usable play area in the school increases. There is some reallocation of use. There is some hard surface area that is being moved from one place to another and these fields are going to be slightly reconfigured but it is confirmed that they continue to meet the needs of community, meaning soccer. There is a proposal for ….. and landscaping here for anyone who is concerned about the hedge of the school ground and the property. In some respects the hedge will actually be better. It will be more attractive and these uses in effect will appear elevated relative to the playing field.

The driveway for the Chesterfield building is here sort of in the middle of the building. That was driven in part by comments from your Engineering Department that wanted us to maximize the distance between the driveway and this turnaround. The driveway for the other residential parcel is here adjacent to the existing residential building. That is driven partly by an Engineering desire to maximize the length West 8th that could at some future date be downplayed in terms of the volume of traffic typically. You will see some amendments here to the existing intersection of West 8th and West 13th. That intersection has been regarded for some time as less than optimal in terms of safety.

City of North Vancouver Page 67 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Various solutions for this intersection were explored including the actual closure of it and the replacement with a cul-de-sac that would happen in here. Interestingly that was a proposal that met with extremely little, if any, support in the neighbourhood. Most residents who came to our meetings much preferred a solution that revived the geometry but retained the intersection and that is the proposal that you see.

I made comments in my earlier proposal about the general public consultation program. I won’t repeat those because these two projects have run in tandem so all of the public events that we have been associated with since June of 2006 address this property as well as Lonsdale property. In effect two years we have been out in the community discussing this proposed use.

This portion of the redevelopment is obviously contingent on the approval of the Lonsdale portion and as a result of that at least some of this construction would lag Lonsdale. In effect this residential building cannot be built until the Lonsdale building is completed and the School District would then move in. It is possible that this one could go early. In involves a little bit of partial demolition of the School District building but we have confirmed that is possible.

The public benefits associated with this project are in effect the same list that I read to you from the previous application because the School District views these two applications as a piece. While they are separate bylaws and separate pieces of land obviously the entire project is part of the same overall objective. So, this portion of the overall package in its own way contributes to the Artists for Kids Gallery. It contributes to the School District’s ability to make the site available for HYAD. It is contributing to the School District’s ability to fund Ridgeway and, ultimately Queen Mary, if the transferrable density is provided. In addition there are improvements being made to public open space in this location and we have been requested by your staff to shift the community gardens over here and improvements will be made there. You can also see street trees being added in at various locations around the site. It is part of a comprehensive program of landscape upgrades in the public realm.

As you could imagine the meetings that we had in the community about this site were attended by a smaller number of people but no less concerned about questions relating to the impact of the project in their neighbourhood. The bulk of the concern that we heard was to do with traffic. We completed a traffic study which was reviewed by your staff and has been accepted. The net effect is actually relatively small because as it has been pointed out while these 80 odd units, 87 units, are of course creating some traffic we are also taking an entire office building out which is reducing some traffic and the net effect is an effect on the overall traffic situation in this area which is regarded as not a significant concern.

City of North Vancouver Page 68 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) We engaged in discussion with the community about building height. You probably recall that this site was the subject of a former application that involved a taller and denser building that was not passed. I think the community immediately recognized and was pleased by the School District’s commitment to pursue a low rise alternative here. From the perspective of a planner looking at this from 20,000 feet it might actually look a little odd because the truth is there are some pretty tall buildings right up and down this side of the Chesterfield corridor, balanced against the fact that we have to keep in mind there is relatively low density development here, and relatively low density development here, and to the north of the church which is here. So, the School District has tried hard to recognize the community’s concern about height and density generally hence the four storey proposal which is pretty much consistent in height with the existing building here. Thank you, Your Worship.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Wollenberg. Did we have a sheet that was circulated Ms. Dowey?

Ms. Dowey Yes, we did Your Worship.

Mayor Mussatto Okay and we didn’t have anybody sign up. I am going to ask by an actual show of hands people that would like to speak with regards to this application that is before us this evening. Please just raise your hand. Ms. Kroecher please come down. Welcome again Ms. Kroecher. If you don’t mind for our records your name and address.

Ms. Christina Kroecher, 540 East Kings Road, North Vancouver My name is Christina Kroecher. My address if 540 East Kings Road in the District of North Vancouver and we certainly consider all our town and still this proposition does not address the fact that we have gotten rid of walking distance schools for our children in the Central Lonsdale area. And I thought the Council of North Vancouver had a mandate for encouraging biking, walking and busing but school kids now cannot walk to school in the Central Lonsdale area. Also, when a question was asked about the price of the study done to how much it would cost to upgrade the Lonsdale School that was never answered. It never was done. This picture of how it should look and how it would look with a Dutch Colonial architecture being part of our history is, you know, if it is a smaller building than Ridgeway or Queen Mary then it shouldn’t cost much, but there has been no attempt to find out how much it would cost.

So, again I am saying that I would like to see some of the money allocated to share between our three heritage schools. Not one, not two but three and there would be a way and if the City would help out a bit from its coffers and then also, the Ministry in Victoria, the Provincial Ministry. I know the Vancouver School Board has gone there and lobbied and they had quite a good listening ear and they are going to likely get more money to upgrade their heritage schools. They are also going to stop being shortsighted and not close them all down until they have lost everything.

City of North Vancouver Page 69 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)

So, this is connected with the Lonsdale project for sure and if we lose one we in essence have just as much shame as if we lost Queen Mary or Ridgeway School. So, I would like you consider that. Just because the building has been left derelict for the last three years, and deferred maintenance before that, no wonder it went down on the scale from 24 to 18 because nothing was done to it. We know there are studies that show that older buildings are actually more efficient as far as using natural ventilation.

Mayor Mussatto Ms. Kroecher, if I could just; stop the clock for a moment there, please Sue. Ms. Kroecher we are trying to keep our comments in this case with Queen Mary School and the intent of this is to try and deal more with the Queen Mary site now. We want to give a bit of leeway in case people mention the other site but we want to focus, if we can, our comments on the Queen Mary site not the Lonsdale School site, which was the subject of the previous Public Hearing.

Ms. Kroecher Well, we didn’t come to terms with the financial research that had not been done and we never did get figures on how much it would cost to properly upgrade the Lonsdale School. That still has not been done.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much for your presentation. I have Mr. Pike. Welcome again Mr. Pike. This is all recorded so there has to be a name and address. Thank you.

Mr. David Pike, 827 Sutherland Avenue, North Vancouver My name is David Pike at 827 Sutherland Avenue. Your Worship and members of Council forgive me, I am going to ask the second question I asked before, again, because it was not answered which is the approximate value for density transferred site. I will phrase it in two easier ways so it might be easier to answer. First I don’t want to do your job for you but it is actually in your interests to give a number here. I mean there are a lot of concerns on Council and in the public about the sheer scale of funding needed for these two schools and how you are going to meet it. There is only $3 Million being given now but you are talking about maybe $10 or $14 Million. You know, where is this $10 Million going to come from? I am concerned but I am also curious. So, one way of looking at it is if you had sold it today what might you get in an approximate range? If that is too hard to answer or if that cannot be answered what is the value of an equivalent sale in Vancouver in the last five years or so? Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Who would like to handle that for the School Board? Mr. Wollenberg could you give it a different approach this time?

City of North Vancouver Page 70 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mr. Wollenberg I guess we owe you an attempt at an answer. What is being proposed from Queen Mary is the potential to transfer on the order of 145,000 sq.ft. of space. As I mentioned earlier, contingent on you rezoning other properties to accept it and contingent on you requiring that such a rezoning obtain the zoning from the School District. So, what we need to keep in mind is that a prospective purchaser of this additional density could be in a position to bargain. I mean we don’t know how many purchasers you are going to create ultimately by a rezoning. Is it 10 possible people competing for this space or is it only one. We can do some simple math. If the space sold for market value, I have some difficulty believing that the market value would be less $100 sq.ft. buildable, it is probably more than that, but a $100 sq.ft. buildable applied to a 145,000 sq.ft. of space, and, if I am doing the math right, I guess is about $14.5 Million. That is maybe a fair target for its value but without knowing the extent to which the prospective purchaser would have an ability to negotiate that it is difficult to say. Certainly the School District would like to be in a position of receiving $15 Million for that density and if it happened I think based on the other numbers you have heard it is enough to handle any existing shortfall from Ridgeway and certainly any funding gap that might exist for Queen Mary.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you Mr. Wollenberg. Just before we carry on I need a motion to carry on past 11:00 p.m. Councillor Schechter!

Councillor Schechter So moved!

Mayor Mussatto Councillor Heywood!

Councillor Heywood Second!

Mayor Mussatto Any discussion! All those in favour! Opposed! It is Carried Unanimously! Thank you.

Moved by Councillor Schechter, seconded by Councillor Heywood

THAT the requirements of the Procedure Bylaw to terminate the meeting at 11:00 p.m., be waived, and the meeting continue after 11:00 p.m., if necessary.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

Mayor Mussatto Now, other people who would like speak or have any questions to ask please just raise your hand. Yes, Mr. Hawthorne, please. We are recording this and we just need your name and address for the record.

City of North Vancouver Page 71 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mr. Ken Hawthorne, 236 West 2nd Street, North Vancouver Again, the name is Ken Hawthorne. I live at 236 West 2nd Street. We have seen a lot about density transferring and this gentleman here, Mr. Wollenberg, talks about you, possible future density transfers, I guess that the City may grant the District and I don’t understand it. If that is over and above what they are getting here, in other words, is the School Board sort of implying that if more funds are needed to preserve or upgrade the two schools, Queen Mary and Ridgeway, would they not maybe asking or coming to the City for another bunch of density so that they can cover this? So, we are looking at sort of a moving target of density transfers which gets us to the point of, oh, wait a minute, we don’t even have a density policy, a transfer policy, in the City so it looks like if they need more density to cover the costs for increased costs to rehabilitate these two schools, I am sure based on the will of the City and the way the City operates they will just get. And so now we are getting more and more density being transferred to cover costs, that as far as I am concerned, the School Board should have figured out a long time ago. In other words if you are working in the real business sense all the kinds of airy, fairy costs are numbers that these guys have thrown out are just coming from no where. If you were in real business these guys would be out on their neck because the CEO’s of these companies would say hey, where are the facts and the hard costs to cover all that you are planning to do. And I think they are relying on you guys down the road to give them the extra density to cover these extra costs. That is my suspicion. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Mayor Mussatto Thank you very much Mr. Hawthorne. Are there any other members of the gallery who have any questions to ask or comments to make just please raise you hand. I see none then I am going to go to members of Council. Are there members of Council who have any questions to ask. Questions to ask, period! They don’t get comments yet. Councillor Schechter, you have a question?

Councillor Schechter Yes, Your Worship, I do, to Mr. Penway. How much density is currently in the City’s density bank that the City has proprietary interest in?

Mr. Penway Sorry, Your Worship, I missed the last part of that question.

Mayor Mussatto I didn’t hear it either.

Councillor Schechter How much untransferred density does the City, as a Corporation, currently owns in its own density bank?

City of North Vancouver Page 72 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mr. Penway Your Worship, the way the zoning regulations work on it, and there is policy with regards to this in the Official Community Plan, in Zoning Bylaws as well, there are a few properties that had been zoned with the intention of potential transfers and Presentation House would be one and the City Hall site, the Civic Centre site here, is only the second one, that has any potential for transfer. And the Presentation House site, I don’t have right in front of me, but if Karen Russell is here she can get the CD zone for that, that would help me out. I think it is in the area of a hundred and somewhat square feet but I would need to confirm that.

Councillor Schechter While she is checking that number how long has that been out there?

Mr. Penway Two years. It could be more than two years. The bylaw will come with a date.

Councillor Schechter And the second site for City Hall how long has that been on the market or out there?

Mr. Penway The City Hall site has a roughly 60,000 odd square feet and that has only been in place now for about a year and a half.

Councillor Schechter Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Councillor Bookham!

Councillor P.J. Bookham Thank you Your Worship. My question is also for Mr. Penway regarding density banking and transferring and selling. Is my understanding correct that the amount of density we are talking about is the equivalent of 2½ Administration Buildings? Is that the amount of density that has to find a home somewhere, it is a 145,000 is it?

Mr. Penway The Site A, which is part of the residual Queen Mary site, is assigned an fsr of 1.0 and if you look at the fact sheet you will see that the total density then is 161,000 approximately for Site A, which is the assigned density potential. Of that we have density transfers that are happening to Site B and C that are taking away some of that and that leaves the residual, which is the roughly 140,000 odd that Mr. Wollenberg was speaking about. So that is a potential that is sitting there and it is not transferrable in the sense that it is just sitting there and somebody can go and negotiate with the School District. It is a density potential that sits on the property. If at a subsequent time Council chooses to rezone the property, to move some of that density to a different location through a transfer that would go through a Public Hearing process.

City of North Vancouver Page 73 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) It would have to secure the fact that this transfer has been made from this site to another site by covenant.

Councillor Bookham Thank you, Mr. Penway. Through you, Your Worship, but just so that people understand the implications here, for this density to have value, for it to be converted to cash, it has to be sold and it has to find a home on some development site and we have no way of knowing where that density may land?

Mr. Penway That is correct, Your Worship, where or if. There is no commitment that it will ever be transferred either.

Councillor Bookham And if it is not transferred then the money that is to go to heritage preservation will not then materialize, am I correct in that?

Mr. Penway The $3 Million, which is being generated now at the minimum, will be. Future amounts will have to be determined through future rezoning processes.

Councillor Bookham But as Councillor Heywood brought out by his questions for Ridgeway alone the estimated amount for heritage preservation is $7 Million. The School Board is guaranteeing only $3 Million and is looking at this as the source for the additional funding for Ridgeway alone, is that correct?

Mr. Penway No, I wouldn’t put it that way, Your Worship. I think I would describe it more in terms of this zone will provide a potential for revenue generation for the School District for purposes that Council deems to be appropriate with revenues going to public purposes that Council feels are appropriate and so Ridgeway School and Queen Mary School and possibly other things could come up as well. For example there has been talk about rubberizing the track at Sutherland Field. The School District will have a variety of issues they will face over time. There could be future upgrades to other facilities. But the first priority that has been identified for this has been Queen Mary and Ridgeway because they are known to require upgrades. There is known to be a funding shortfall. So, the amount that is on the table now at $3 Million at the minimum, as I understand it, is enough for the School District to say they are prepared to work with Ridgeway School as a protected heritage building and find a way to upgrade the building in a way that works with heritage conservation principles. With Queen Mary School they don’t have a funding source that is in hand, in terms of funds coming from this application, but the bylaw is providing a potential funding source in the future should Council choose to use it in the future again through that Public Hearing process. So, there is a certain amount of money coming now.

City of North Vancouver Page 74 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) There is a potential funding source because this potential rests with these zones but it doesn’t have value until Council chooses, in its own wisdom, in the future, to do any further density transfers.

Councillor Bookham Thank you. I will try the question and ask for a slightly simpler and shorter answer from the School Board. And that is, where will the additional money come for heritage preservation of Ridgeway above and beyond the $3 Million that you are guaranteeing?

Mayor Mussatto Ms. Young!

Ms. Young Thank you, Your Worship. The most likely source of additional funds to support the heritage preservation of Ridgeway would be from the sale of another school property. You heard earlier mentioned that we have five schools that have been closed over the past number of years and there is no expectation that they will ever be reopened and one of those or more of those schools could be sold and some of the proceeds designated towards the heritage preservation of Ridgeway and/or Queen Mary.

Councillor Bookham Do you have any expected time line for that sort of transaction to take place?

Ms. Young Well, I beg your indulgence, but we do plan to come forward with Cloverley probably next spring.

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Penway, did you want to make a statement?

Mr. Penway Just an answer to Councillor Schechter’s question about the density potential at our Presentation House site; that is the site at 333 Chesterfield Avenue. The site was granted a development potential of roughly 100,000 sq.ft. and there have been two transfers off of that and it is now sitting with a potential of 63,000 sq.ft.

Mayor Mussatto Councillor Heywood!

Councillor Heywood In this development was any consideration given to changing the location of the entry into the north building proposed and the closure of West 8th Street?

Mayor Mussatto Mr. Wollenberg!

City of North Vancouver Page 75 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mr. Wollenberg Yes the complete closure of West 8th Street was actually one of the options that were considered early on. I should not say complete closure but the stopping up of this intersection and truncating West 8th for some length along here with the creation of a cul-de-sac. That option was considered in the traffic study. The Traffic Consultant’s opinion is that it didn’t really make a significant change in the total volume of traffic on any of these streets other than literally in this section right here with or without. The Traffic Consultant recognized that there was some safety value in improving the geometry of this intersection but no real value in a complete closure. The closure was originally proposed by your staff not so much from a traffic concern but simply a desire to possibly create some public land in here that might be available for open space for some other function. I think I mentioned in my early remarks if we got one message from the neighbourhood that was really loud and clear about this it was a complete lack of interest in the premise of terminating this street. For that reason what has been worked out with your staff in the detail planning here is this revised geometry to create a safer intersection with a keep the street open. To be perfectly honest the School District is indifferent to this. It is your street. If you elected to close it I don’t think you would see us objecting. The one effect it has here is if you were going to close, it depending on how far along, it obviously might influence the location of the driveway. We have been asked to keep down towards this end to maximize your possible future flexibility in doing such a closure but the applicant here is not advocating that.

Councillor Heywood Thank you.

Mayor Mussatto Are there any further questions from members of Council? I see none. Ms. Dowey, what do we need?

Ms. Dowey A motion to conclude the Public Hearings, Your Worship.

Mayor Mussatto Councillor Heywood!

Councillor Heywood So moved!

Mayor Mussatto Councillor Keating!

City of North Vancouver Page 76 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site) Mayor Mussatto Any discussion! All those in favour! Opposed! Carried Unanimously!

Moved by Councillor Heywood, seconded by Councillor Keating

THAT the Public Hearings conclude.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

The Public Hearing concluded at 11:08 p.m.

Certified a true and accurate transcript of the Public Hearings regarding Bylaws Nos. 7932, 7933, 7938, 7934, 7935 and 7936.

Original signed by ______Sandra E. Dowey, City Clerk

July 21, 2008 ______Date

City of North Vancouver Page 77 of 77 Public Hearing Re: North Vancouver School District No. 44 July 7, 2008 2151 Lonsdale Avenue (Lonsdale School Site) 721 Chesterfield Avenue (Queen Mary School Site)