Comments to District of North Vancouver Council / Feb.7 2011

February 7, 2011

Mayor and Council

The District of North Vancouver

355 Queens Road West

North Vancouver, B.C.

V7N 4N5

Dear Mayor and Council,

I want to thank the DNV Council and the Planning Department and staff for their commitment to the OCP process.  It is my experience, and the opinion of many neighbours, that the concern for public participation and engagement of our neighbourhood in the OCP process has been extraordinary and exceptional. 

The current OCP process has been a profoundly important and empowering experience for the residents of the Lions Gate community.  Through this process we have had access to a mechanism that has encouraged us to create and envision for ourselves positive changes and ways of moving towards a desirable, sustainable, and more livable community.  

This process has brought forth an authentic grass roots mobilization and awareness.  There has been a major awakening in how people view their community and challenges we face in order to navigate into a viable and prosperous future.

Many previously-held ideas within our community have come under a level of scrutiny and testing that did not previously exist.  The OCP process has been instrumental in educating and creating the willingness of residents to acknowledge that the status quo is no longer acceptable.   The process has inspired the community to actively seek the improvements that will enrich the community and its future as a whole.

This growing awareness and mobilization of area residents can be considered “citizen capital”, the profit derived from the District’s investment to date. For most residents, where they initially invest their citizen capital,  is via their community association.

In order to secure and compound this citizen capital, it is incumbent on Council to initiate a full review of their policies with regard to community associations, with the goal of ensuring due process, transparency and accountability.  Failing to act, may result in the squandering of the citizen capital created to date.

 respectfully, for Capilano Gateway Association

 

Douglas Curran