(The Vancouver Sun published the following story by Frances Bula on its website on September 11.)
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Vancouver will refuse to accept Canadian Pacific Railway’s applications for development permits on the Arbutus rail corridor, even though it will likely mean CP will take the city to court for a second time.
City planning director Ann McAfee said Wednesday the city’s first concern is to preserve the corridor for future transportation.
However there are some pieces of land on which a developer could proceed directly to building, she said.
That could result in construction beginning before the parties go to the B.C. Court of Appeal Dec. 15 to settle their dispute about whether the city had the right to over-ride the previous zoning on the land and designate it as a transportation corridor.
“Once you take one or more of these properties, then block the corridor,” said McAfee.
So the city has simply left CP’s applications and cheques sitting in its permits office. “We’re awaiting CP going to court to press us to proceed,” she said.
In the meantime, a long-time advocate for the rail line to be used as a transportation corridor is urging CP to stop “making mischief” and calling on the city to negotiate with CP for the land.
Alan Herbert, a former Vancouver city councillor who is now a director with the Society for the Promotion of Environmental Concerns, says CP’s application for development permits “amounts to putting a gun to the head of the city.”
He also says CP has put out misleading information, by implying any buyer will need to pay market value for the line. CP has indicated in the past it thinks the land along the line is worth about $100 million.
Herbert said legislation concerning rail lines clearly indicates one of the levels of government in B.C. could take over the rail line for as little as $1 a year.
However, Herbert said he doesn’t think the city should take quite that militant an approach.
Instead, he and SPEC are urging the three levels of government — city, regional district and province — to work out a deal so both the Arbutus line and the connecting rail line that runs from Marpole to New Westminster, could be used as regional transit lines.
That would create an ideal transit loop for the region that could serve the currently isolated east Fraser lands, as well as building a connection from New Westminster into Vancouver along the river.
Herbert said that any of those levels of government could negotiate with CP by offering land swaps or other non-cash trades that would make the purchase of the lines feasible.
In the meantime, if the city isn’t going to fight for the line, Herbert said public groups will likely mobilize to make sure it is preserved.
“We’ve gone this far. We’re not going to lose it now,” he said.