For the first time in a decade, there will be a competitive election for the mayor’s office in West Vancouver.
The community boasts some of the highest real estate prices and average incomes in British Columbia.
Sitting Mayor Michael Smith is bowing out after two terms in office, both of which he won by acclamation.
The race for the mayor’s office is shaping up to be a three-way contest between two sitting city councillors and a former mayor.
Mary-Ann Booth is a two-term city councillor, former school trustee and Crown prosecutor who says she’s running to try and balance the West Vancouver way of life with needed development.
Christine Cassidy is a one-term councillor and former stockbroker pledging to restrict waterfront development.
Mark Sager wore the mayor’s chain from 1990-1996, and says he’s back in politics because, with so many Metro Vancouver mayors leaving office this year, the district needs an experienced hand.
A lawyer, Sager was also subject to one of the race’s first twists; he’s facing a citation from the Law Society of B.C. for allegedly accepting gifts from a client. Sager says it was a family friend who never paid him for legal services.
Densification
As elsewhere in Metro Vancouver, the debate over housing is front and centre in the race.
West Vancouver council approved its Official Community Plan (OCP) earlier this summer, a document that envisions adding 5,000 new units in the next 25 years.
What that will actually look like will be shaped by the Local Area Plans. All the candidates agree more density is coming to the British Properties, but elsewhere they differ.
“What I want to see is that a product is built that is in keeping with the character of the neighbourhood,” said Cassidy, who says she doesn’t want to “overbuild,” and is campaigning on preserving the Ambleside waterfront.
Booth said the city needs to adopt a form of “gentle density,” clustered close to amenities such as transit.
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She pointed to the Ambleside-Dundarave area, where she said she’d like to see a restriction on high rises, but acknowledged the need to offer density incentives to woo developers to build.
“Low-level, modest thoughtful development, more like a European village feel, and not a tunnel or moat type, where you just have four-floors along the corridor,” she said.
Sager said there are “limited opportunities” for high and mid-rise condo development in West Vancouver, but said the district could be creative with rezoning, looking at sites like the six gas stations in the city, for potential developments.
“It’s a matter of going to people who own the land and saying, ‘Listen, if you come up with something people like, it’s not going to take you three years to go through the process,’” he said.
Affordability
Sager is adamant that the city prioritize affordability measures, including resident-restricted housing, warning that workers can no longer afford to live there.
Sager floated a Whistler-style municipal housing authority, and said too many of the district’s service sector workers are now commuting from places like Squamish and creating traffic congestion.
Cassidy agreed there could be a role for subsidized housing for workers, but added it will be up to the public to decide whether it wants to pay for that.
She said the district needs to look at smaller units, including duplexes and live-in caregiver suites.
“In West Vancouver, affordable housing is almost an oxymoron. I would prefer to use terms such as achievable, obtainable,” she said.
For Booth, solving the affordability puzzle is about prioritizing housing types in the “missing middle,” including row and townhouses.
“The way you make things more affordable is smaller units, rental, and gentle densification,” she said.
She, too, backs subsidized housing on city land, to be held for families and people who work or volunteer in the community.
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Taxes
With some of Canada’s most expensive homes, West Vancouver has been at the epicentre of the debate over the NDP government’s new speculation and school taxes.
Outgoing mayor Michael Smith has been one of the taxes’ most vocal critics, and Sager, who has his endorsement, is pledging to keep up the campaign.
Sager said it’s a misconception that everyone in the district is rich, and argues the taxes take money away from district services.
“I think people all across the province realize that the province coming in and using the municipal tax base to raise their revenue is really pretty fundamentally wrong,” he said.
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The school tax earned equal levels of scorn from Sager’s rivals. Cassidy said it will lead to millions of dollars exiting the community with little return to residents.
“About half of the homes in West Vancouver are valued above $3 million and so will be subject to the new School Tax,” said Booth, adding that she’s already met with Finance Minister Carole James to plead for alternatives.
But on the speculation tax, Booth said she’s supportive of measures to cool foreign investment, and that she’s been pleased to see prices and speculation moderate since its introduction.
Cassidy, too, expressed support.
“In many areas of the upper part of West Vancouver, they are virtually ghost towns, so if you buy it and you don’t intend to occupy it, then I do think you need to pay a speculation tax,” she said.
Two other people have thrown their hat in the ring for mayor.
Nolan Strong is a business major who describes property tax hikes and “overpaid union labour” and bad bylaws as the biggest issues facing the city, and calls for Uber as a solution to the region’s transit woes.
Rosa Jafari did not respond to Global News.