Sunday, April 19, 2015

Jordan Bateman's removal of Lions Gate Bridge in 15 years is correct. Third Crossing plans Green lighted

Mayor Walton of the District of North Vancouver sees the Lions Gate Bridge demise as being premature.  The limitation to Buses and cyclists (pedestrians too) was conditional upon there being a Third Crossing, which, in his opinion will never happen.

We disagree.

One option for the replacement costs for the Lions Gate Bridge should be borne entirely by the very fine people who built it in the first place, and then sold it to W.A.C. Bennett:    British Properties

British Properties are furthering their real estate development needs and at the same time raising havoc on the rest of the North Shore, BC Ferries and Whistler and those that already here are paying the price so the real estate company gets to rub their hands together, eh.

However, we have a much better idea for a Third crossing, one that will not add one motor vehicle to the soon to be tolled road from the Second Narrows $140 Million improvement project to the Port Mann Bridge.   The money losing Golden Ears Bridge will finally be a major player in collecting their tolls.  (Update 2023:  2017 BC NDP Government removed ALL tolls)

One other minor detail goes to the fellow, a land developer, late last year, that bought a large tract of land north west of Port Moody.

 A new player in Metro Vancouver real estate development — Brilliant Circle Group Investments Ltd — has bought 230 acres of Imperial Oil land in Port Moody and Anmore to develop a master-planned new village.

The deal, which closed last week, includes about half of the Ioco townsite as well as the surrounding area, which is forested land in both Port Moody and Anmore. The purchase price was not disclosed. The property includes some heritage buildings and is close to an environmentally sensitive salmon hatchery.

The purchaser behind Brilliant Circle Group Investments Ltd. is an unknown player in Vancouver, but already owns properties in Vancouver, including the old Buschlen Mowat building at 1445 West Georgia, according to James Cheng, who represents the purchaser and is lead architect on the Ioco land development. 

Snip
 “We’ve never planned for that area,” Clay said. When the land first went up for sale a couple of years ago, “a number of local development companies found it was too challenging. We figured it would be a 10- to 20-year time frame before anybody would develop on that land.”

“We really didn’t expect very much to happen there. The access is very poor. There’s one main road to get out of there and it’s a two-lane road. A windy road. There are creeks out there. I’m not even sure that this owner has any interest in developing this land. The selling price was quite low. It may be the land up in Anmore they were really after.”

The buzz is that the 230 acres sold for under $40 million, Clay said. “An acre in Anmore generally sells for around $1 million,” Clay said.

“What would we allow there right now? Basically nothing,” Clay said. “What would it take to put something there? It’s about getting traffic in and out.”- Vancouver Sun







British Properties: Forest-Green-to-Pink-Roads-and-Monster-Houses

West Map GIS

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I remember talk of a crossing at Belcarra back in the '80s. Please tell me that BC MoT own the right-of way and not that some connected Liberal has bought up the proposed alignment as was the practice back in Gaglardi's reign as Minister of Transportation.

North Van's Grumps said...

Much of what is available on the Belcarra side (east) of Indian Arm is BC Hydro right-of-way land.

John's aghast said...

Verrry interesting. Who is 'Clay'?
The Lions Gate Bridge is getting on in years, like the Patullo. I had the opportunity to cross the Patullo under the deck about 25 years ago. Refused to drive over it ever since.
I think it'll be replaced, and it would be nice to see the developers contribute.

North Van's Grumps said...

Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay

North Van's Grumps said...

Brilliant Circle Group Investments Ltd Executive Officers

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyOfficers?symbol=1008.HK