City of Vancouver Buys the Arbutus Corridor

Well kiss any thought of affordable transit goodbye, as the City of Vancouver will never agree to have trams operating on the former interurban line, the Arbutus Corridor.

They may talk the talk, but will never walk the walk.

The Canada Line is extremely capacity constipated and light rail on the Arbutus would be a good deal cheaper to build than the estimated $1 billion to $1.5 billion needed to upgrade and increase capacity on the subway!

In fact it would be cheaper to build a stand alone LRT, from Vancouver to Steveston and Ironwood Mall, using the Arbutus Line, than just upgrading the Canada Line light-metro and extending it!

If Vancouver uses the Arbutus corridor for anything except but for transit, Metro Vancouver mayors should withhold any approval of all transit monies for the city, including the large subsidies needed for the trolleybus system.

LRT with a lawned rights-of-way would make the Arbutus corridor a real greenway

while providing an affordable transit option.Ai??

Pedestrians walk along the Arbutus corridor. The City of Vancouver and CP Rail have reached a deal — $55 million for the strip of land from milton Street near the Fraser River to 1st Avenue near False Creek, in Vancouver, BC., March 7, 2016.

Photograph by: NICK PROCAYLO, PNG

VANCOUVER ai??i?? The City of Vancouverai??i??s $55-million purchase of the Arbutus Corridor from Canadian Pacific Railway has put to rest a long-standing battle, but its intention to use the route for transit could reignite a dormant fight.

The deal was filed Monday and before it was even announced, city staff had a new purpose for what theyai??i??ve already dubbed the Arbutus Greenway. The cityai??i??s plan is to turn the 9-km route from Kitsilano through the west side into a transportation corridor featuring walking and cycling paths as well as light rail or streetcars.

Mayor Gregor Robertson said final purchase price was a fair market valuation because the land is committed to be an active transportation corridor in the future.

ai???Thereai??i??s no question thereai??i??s an enormous city benefit here,ai??? Robertson said.

ai???Itai??i??s impossible to acquire a strip of land like this through basically anywhere else in the city, east or west, where rapid transit could be installed at a very reasonable cost.ai???

City staff plan to set up a new project office to oversee the design of the greenway and public consultations.

The Arbutus Corridor cuts through a few pricey neighbourhoods including Arbutus Ridge, Shaughnessy and Kerrisdale. Counted among the residents are dentists, doctors, lawyers, professionals and chief executive officers of companies, ai???the crA?me de la crA?me in Vancouver,ai??? as Pamela Sauder, a member of the Arbutus Corridor Residents Association, infamously stated in a 2000 protest of a plan to run rapid transit through the corridor.

The quote, which Sauder later apologized for, made for an explosive and memorable moment in the debate, but it was far from the only utterance residents have opposing the idea. The fight helped sway the decision to instead run rapid transit from Vancouver to Richmond underground along the Cambie Street corridor.

But the 17 hectares of now public land remains a tempting option for at-grade rapid transit.

Under the terms of the deal, any ai???excess landai??? in the corridor that is not needed for the greenway can be repurposed or sold, Robertson said. But he stated there is no development envisioned at this time and most of the space is expected to be taken up by transportation.

If any land is sold, CP Rail gets a share of the take. According to a complicated schedule provided by the city, the railway company would get 75 per cent of the first $50 million in profit, 50 per cent of the second $50 million, and 25 per cent of the third $50 million. Any profit beyond $150 million goes directly to the city.

But the deal also leaves CP the chance to exercise option on lands between West 1st and 5th avenues. Under that alternate scheme, the city would get 50 per cent of any proceeds CP raised beyond $75 million, and CP would cease to share in the profits from any corridor land sold outside of those few blocks.

CP pressured the city in 2014 in the midst of discussions over the sale of the land when it brought in work crews to dismantle community gardens that had sprouted along the unused line. The railway claimed it intended to store railway cars along the corridor. The city filed an injunction to block the railway from reactivating the line, but that bid was dismissed in B.C. Supreme Court.

The city had offered the railway $20 million for the land, but CP wanted an undisclosed amount more, reported to be a figure five times higher.

The mayor and Keith Creel, president and chief operating officer of CP, announced the agreement together Monday morning with the rail line and a community garden in the background.

When asked if the company ever had any serious intention to store railway cars in the corridor, Creel said it did.

ai???Actually, we were serious,ai??? he said. ai???Thereai??i??s just a shortage of locations to store cars today, and so it is definitely something we would have used had we not come to this agreement.ai???

ai???We certainly regret any inconvenience that was caused,ai??? Creel said, adding he was elated a deal was reached.

As part of the deal, CP agreed to remove its railway lines and ties from the property within two years.

The mayor described the deal as a ai???fair agreementai??? and a ai???historic development that will create a destination greenway from Vancouver coming off of our world-renowned seawall.ai???

Robertson asked community gardeners to hold back on expanding their plots of land.

ai???Itai??i??s up to the community engagement to decide whether some more gardening space could be allocated somewhere along the corridor. Obviously it has to work with the transportation and the walking and biking paths.ai???