Quote:
Originally Posted by logicbomb
The City got totally bent over in this deal.
As a taxpayer, I am absolutely irate. There was no real rush to make the deal other than to appease those who were unlawfully infringing on the corridor.
He mentions the corridor being used as a multipurpose pathway with the potential of it being used as a passenger /commuter rail line. They will never ever consider doing that now as it would be political suicide. The fact that the ties/crossings are being immediately ripped out highlights where the City is going with this plan. The present circumstances had the beneficial effect of preventing the corridor from being converted into anything that might be difficult to displace
The City has spent 55 million dollars to make a greenway and to allow those community gardens to be built on that corridor. That is utterly disgusting.
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There was a bit of a rush. According to federal law, all CP had to do was officially put it up for sale at "salvage value" to local transportation agencies and governments. If no deal could be reached, they could then sell it on the open market.
I think both sides were feeling pressure, because if they couldn't agree on the value, they could ask for it to be assessed by the feds. And who knows what they could have said the value was. They could have sided with the zoning and said the land was worthless because nothing could be done on it, or they could have said the land was as valuable as land on the open market, thus forcing the city to potentially pay upwards of $200 million. It could have been a coin toss as to who would come out victorious. If they couldn't reach an agreement within a few weeks of it being officially for sale, CP could sell it to whomever was interested. And maybe there is someone out there with deep pockets that would take a $150 million chance on the land. Then the city is stuck with dealing with a developer with clout and councilors in his pocket.
So CP was probably threatening to move the sale forward "officially". If the city didn't act and come to terms privately, they could have been forced into an even worse deal (or passing on the land all together) by 3rd party assessment.
As for value, in 2010, Richmond bought 14.7 acres from CP along 3.6km of Railway Ave for $5 million. That's about $340,136/acre.
Vancouver paid basically $1.2 million/acre.
If you go to BC assessment, a property on W 18 ave (the cheap side of Arbutus) values the
land at $2.6 million for about a 0.14 Acre property. So an Acre of land in the general area goes for about $18.5 million. Buying 45 acres of undeveloped land would cost $836 million, at BC assessment prices, not market. If you look at what a commercial property is worth on West Blvd in Kerisdale, BC assessment gives them about a value of $36 million/acre (for just the land of a zoned commercial building).
So, kind of a deal. I think the city should have gotten a better deal because the land will never see that kind of value, ever, but with the way real estate prices are skyrocketing recently, it's better to lock it down now than let CP get fully belligerent and try the open market.
Some Chinese investor might have been willing to put up $50 million for 45 acres of land in this market without caring about the zoning. Hell, maybe it's all a joke and the city is just going to Shadow flip the whole thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aroundtheworld
When I first heard the news, I was happy. It is good to see that they are preserving the corridor and as long as the corridor is there, anything is possible.
As for drawing any conclusions of whether or not rapid transit will be incorporated, it's too early to tell. The rendering they came up with was probably so they could just have a nice visual with their announcement.
For those who fear it will just be a bike path, the Arbutus Corridor is mentioned in the Transportation 2040 plan. Also my hunch is the city isn't just spending $55 million and not anticipating new transit + development.
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Vision might be doing everything they can to screw over the car and promote bicycle ridership, but they haven't touched the city's old streetcar plans. They haven't moved them forward one iota, but they also haven't screwed over future councils from implementing them. They haven't so much as touched the ROW they own along the south side of False Creek; they haven't removed the medians on First or Pacific, and haven't altered any of the other reserved ROW for the streetcar in downtown. They've even politely included renders of streetcars in plans for NEFC. Even the new construction on the corner of 1st and Quebec is being setback far enough to build the streetcar.
If reserving the Arbutus ROW for future rapid/mass transit use is part of an official plan (which it is), then I believe Vision will respect that. A bicycle greenway is just a lightly paved stretch of dirt. If another council decides that light rail is in the best interests of the community, it costs nothing to rip it up.
There is plenty of room there for both anyway. The render shown earlier makes the ROW look much tighter than it actually is, IMO.
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