News and Features
Profile: West Vancouver Mayor Pamela Goldsmith-Jones
By Adele Weder published Jun 1, 2011
A provocative proposal to redevelop Ambleside could shape the future of West Vancouver—and the political career of its progressive-minded mayor
In a crisp January evening in West Vancouver, architect James Cheng is working the PowerPoint projector. He begins his pitch to the packed municipal hall with banal images of Ambleside, the stagnant stretch of the city's main drag. Then he clicks to a shot of the seaside cafés of Mykonos, full of retsina-swilling incarnations of Zorba the Greek. This, he explains, is what it could be like. The audience bursts out laughing-perhaps not the intended reaction-and Cheng clicks to the next image: the seaside cafés of Portofino, full of Chianti-swilling incarnations of Marcello Mastroianni. The crowd guffaws more loudly, and even Cheng cracks a smile. He's here to sell the so-called AmblesideNow initiative, a major proposal that would see the 1300 block of Marine Drive redeveloped, with master planning and much of the architecture done by Cheng himself. Councillor Trish Panz turns to him: "The input from this community, I expect, will be robust."
Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, West Van's effervescent 49-year-old mayor, takes the floor to give the crowd her full-throttle endorsement. "To have a glass of wine and head to a gallery, after 7 o'clock," she says. "That would be marvellous."
There's much more at stake here than a few glasses of plonk at sunset. In West Van, this kind of urban revitalization requires a paradigm shift some regard as heresy: namely, to loosen the height and density policies on a placid low-rise part of Ambleside to allow four-storey buildings, with a few even higher. The spike in residential density would in turn attract more offices, retail, arts and entertainment activity, and create nightlife-it would challenge the community's self-image as a twee little coastal village. It's the biggest and hardest sell in the mayor's string of big ideas, which include buying back and grooming waterfront properties for the public, and entrenching a forest conservation plan for much of the mountainside. It will shape the trajectory of both the district and her own career. As West Van prepares for its centenary, Goldsmith-Jones is deciding whether to run for a third term this November. She plans to announce her decision in July. If her approach is embraced, she says she'll take that as a vote of confidence to run again. If not...
