North Vancouver Shipyards & National Maritime Museum
The jury is still out on a controversial bylaw change that could see the demolition of three heritage designated shipyard buildings on the City of North Vancouver’s waterfront, following a two-hour public hearing Monday evening.
At stake are the former Wallace Shipyards machine shop built in 1911, the boiler house, and the blacksmith shop on parcel 10 of the now defunct Wallace, Burrard and Versatile shipyard site.
The future of the buildings is further tied up in a proposal to build a National Maritime Centre on the site, something senior levels of government have not yet committed funding to and won’t until the city can bring the project’s overall capital and operating costs down. The original proposal estimated the cost of the maritime centre at $106 million. That amount is now down to about $90 million.
City staff told council Monday, the cost to dismantle and store the buildings, instead of demolition, is $500,000.
In addition to the uncertainty of federal government funding, the city also faces a time crunch to ready the land due to construction timelines on neighbouring sites.
Preparing the site involves a process known as dynamic compaction, a cheaper option than pile driving.
After a two-hour public hearing, subsequent one-hour council discussion and a brief tete-a-tete between Mayor Darrell Mussatto and city manager Ken Tollstam Monday, council voted unanimously to defer any decision on the heritage buildings until staff look to see if funding to dismantle and store them can be found within the city’s budget.
The city would have to finance the additional amount as in all likelihood the federal government wouldn’t pay additional costs, said Tollstam.
“I, like everyone in this room, want to have a National Maritime Centre here in the City of North Vancouver and we’re rolling the dice a bit,” said Mussatto. “We have to be extremely careful about how we move forward because we will be committing our taxes not just this year but for many years to come.”
Council is committed to saving its heritage but has to consider the cost, he said.
Peter Miller, president of the North Shore Heritage Preservation Society, told council that rescinding the buildings’ heritage designation for demolition is regressive and goes against city policy to save heritage.
The blacksmith shop, the most viable building of the three, should be saved and integrated into the maritime centre design, he said.
“It’s not enough to dismantle and store that building with some vague hope or promise. There must also be a firm commitment by council to incorporate it into the designs,” he said.
“If these buildings are demolished, part of our local and national heritage will be lost forever,” said Miller, a comment echoed by speaker after speaker during the public hearing.
The city has never rescinded a heritage designation and it is a rare occurrence elsewhere in the province.
However, one speaker, Ronald McIntyre of 539 W. 21st St., said the value the community places on heritage must be tempered with realism.
“My belief is that those people who worked so diligently to improve our community would not want to see progress come to a standstill on the North Shore for the express preservation of large mammoth structures which have basically been left to decay,” he said.
The city’s shipbuilding heritage can be honoured within the proposed maritime centre, he said.
Whether the maritime centre goes ahead or not, the city still needs to move forward to develop the 100,000-square-foot waterfront site, said Coun. Bob Heywood. One way or the other, the buildings have to come down, he said.
“This is a major opportunity for the North Shore to develop the site to keep the best of the heritage that we can, as much of the heritage that we can and still create a significant heritage value,” said Heywood.
Heidi Castle, North Shore News Published: Wednesday, January 16, 2008
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