Dundarave proposal is a test of West Van council's—and perhaps David Eby's—resolve to address housing crisis

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      Last week, I wrote about a real-estate development-permit application that should be a no-brainer for West Vancouver council.

      Dundarave Beachside LP and the IBI Group have proposed to include 55 housing  units in a three-storey building in the quaint village of Dundarave.

      It would extend from Truffle House to Shoppers Drug Mart on the south side of Marine Drive.

      No tenants of any apartments are being evicted to make space for these 20 one-bedroom, 27 two-bedroom, and eight three-bedroom units.

      They would be built along a major artery with excellent bus service, offering connections to downtown Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay.

      But the NIMBYs ["not in my backyard" folks] are on the warpath, offering up their usual complaints about "spot rezoning" and making claims that it will turn the area into a "shanty town" when it's actually older buildings that would come down.

      Meanwhile, B.C.'s population is going to increase from about 5.1 million in 2021 to 6.5 million in 2041, according to B.C. Stats. And these people are going to need places to live.

      Liveable City Planning, Michael Mortensen, has pointed out that Dundarave's population only increased by 0.1 percent between 2016 and 2021.

      Last March, former Vancouver director of planning Brent Toderian tweeted about what he called the "populist playbook".

      It consisted of deliberately scaring people with misinformation and lies about a policy, waiting for misinformed people to complain, and then politicians saying that "clearly people are concerned" so they should "listen to the people" and reject a plan.

      By writing about the opposition to the Dundarave development proposal last week, I actually amplified some ridiculous concerns and inadvertently may have contributed to more people writing to council to complain about it.

      Here's the reality: this project, if anything, is too modest and could possibly include double the number of new housing units and still be defensible.

      West Vancouver council needs to look beyond the NIMBYs and think about what's best for the region—including for seniors hoping to age in place after selling their single-family homes.

      It's an election year, so you can be sure that politicians seeking to get back onto council will be tempted to veto the application in order to pander to the NIMBYs.

      When the project goes before Mayor Mary-Ann Booth and councillors Craig Cameron, Nora Gambioli, Peter Lambur, Bill Soprovich, Sharon Thompson, and Marcus Wong on Monday (July 25), every resident across Metro Vancouver will be given a perfect opportunity to determine whether these elected officials truly care about the housing crisis that so many families and singles find themselves in these days.

      If they kill this project, it will certainly offer evidence that NDP leadership candidate David Eby and B.C. Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon are correct when they say that strong provincial intervention is necessary to address the housing shortfall in this region.

      This development proposal should be seen as the litmus test—if this West Vancouver council can defeat a modest three-storey building on a transit corridor that doesn't evict a single household and had virtually no population growth over five years, then it's capable of halting new housing anywhere.

      Let's hope that both Eby and Falcon are watching this vote on Monday.

      This is not just a neighbourhood issue; this is a proposal that speaks volumes about what's going on far too often across the province—small groups of residents ganging up and thwarting projects that provide much-needed housing.

      If politicians cave into this pressure in this instance, then Eby should bring down the hammer ASAP and take away West Vancouver council's authority to address development-permit applications along major arteries.

      That's because West Vancouver council will have proven without a doubt that it's simply not up to the task of doing this.

      And if Eby doesn't have the guts to do this after all of his tough talk on housing, then Falcon should raise hell about it in the media.

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