North Shore Outlook – Developer Onni agrees to second public hearing on North Vancouver Safeway site.

Developer Onni Group will return to North Vancouver city hall for a second go at a public hearing on the company’s divisive Safeway site proposal, after the first hearing was tainted by accusations of bullying and impropriety on all sides.

Onni’s vice-president of development Beau Jarvis made the announcement Monday, citing the “outpouring of support” he said the company received over the holidays for its 13th Street and Lonsdale Avenue condo-tower proposal.

“To be quite blunt, we got a bit of an earful over the holidays from people who had publicly expressed support for the project,” Jarvis said in a press release Monday.

“Their position was simple – ‘we want the project, we went out and supported the project and Onni should not abandon the project until the council has formally said yes or no’. At the end of the day, we could not ignore those voices,” he continued.

Read more: http://www.northshoreoutlook.com/news/186871082.html

In an effort to improve the viability of development proposals in the Hastings Heights area, the City of Burnaby is proposing that the number of storeys in the C8 and C8a District be changed in rezoning to allow for a residential mezzanine floor (or a 5th storey) in the rear portion of the grade level commercial envelope. Design details include:

• Development of a residential mezzanine should not impact the viability of grade level commercial uses fronting Hastings Street.The residential mezzanine must occupy the rear, upper portion of the commercial envelope.
• Taking into account the minimum depths for the commercial and residential mezzanine units and the established front and rear yard setback requirements of the C8 and C8a District, lots with a minimum depth of 112.5 ft. would qualify for consideration for a building with a residential mezzanine floor.

Source: City of Burnaby

North Shore Outlook – Towering concerns touch Lynn Valley.

A couple hundred people packed a District of North Vancouver council meeting Monday, as vocal resistance to high-density neighbourhoods in North Vancouver continues.

Proposed Lynn Valley Town Centre

Most were there to protest the Lynn Valley Town Centre Implementation Plan, a rigorous public consultation process on the future of new development in Lynn Valley. Attendees told council they felt the consultation plan would merely pay lip-service to residents’ concerns while high-rise development plans for Lynn Valley would go ahead regardless of the public’s wishes.

In actual fact, the implementation plan is just the next step in the district’s Official Community Plan (OCP), a long-term growth management strategy ratified in 2011 after two years of public consultations. That next step, approved unanimously by council Monday, merely directs staff “to undertake an intensive and focused community engagement initiative in early 2013 to seek further feedback to shape and refine the Lynn Valley Town Centre Implementation Plan.”

Read more: http://www.northshoreoutlook.com/news/186176101.html