In all the attention to the dispute between the City and the CPR, so far only Peter Ladner has been one of the few to highlight a study done not that long ago which may, as his recent Business in Vancouver column says, be a “Middle-of-road way to right Arbutus corridor right-of-way ruckus”.
Amazingly, there is a middle-ground plan that has been all but forgotten. In 2005, CP hired the highly respected outgoing sustainability director of the city, Mark Holland, and pledged to live with whatever he and a group of blue-chip planners, sustainability experts and neighbours came up with. The city, then as now, refused to participate. (At the time – I was on council – the city was rightfully preoccupied with the Olympic Village and Canada Line.)
Holland remembers that it was the community partners, representing every neighbourhood association along the route, who came up with the idea of combining the city’s low-value adjacent roads and rights-of-way with CP’s low-value transportation corridor to create a high-value, vibrant, mixed-use plan.
“Our plan had a two-way rail line, a bike lane, community gardens, linear parks, an aboriginal interpretive centre in Marpole and 12 development nodes with three-storey mixed residential and retail,” Holland recalled. “The net value in 2005, after costing out public amenities [excludingrail service], was between $200 million and $300 million. Every community association signed off on it.”
At the time, CP wanted $150 million. Now they’re said to be asking $100 million.
The plan still exists.
Yes it does. And it’s downloadable from this site:
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