At first it may come as a surprise that Coun. Harold Steves is hoping to put an end to the city's attempt to designate the Railway Avenue corridor (Railway Greenway) as a park.
But that’s only because Steves wants the corridor designated under the Official Community Plan as land that could be used for a light-rail transit line in the future.
Steves opposed the city’s attempt to designate the corridor as park land and gained the support of city council to remove the request from a recent planning department report that served to amend various parcels of park land throughout the city.
Steves said he didn’t want a repeat of what happened in Vancouver, when the Canada Line was built and residents forced it underground to save what they called heritage trees on the Cambie Street boulevard.
The corridor from Garry Street to Granville Avenue is an 18-acre linear park but is presently designated as “neighbourhood residential” zoning.
Steves wants it re-designated as “park” and “light-rail.”
“Generations before us had the vision to put in light rail transit” to Steveston, he said.
Now that city council is proposing to densify arterial roads, and especially Railway Avenue, Steves said that reality may come sooner than expected.
He said there is enough room to put a line down the corridor and maintain the trail and most of the existing trees.
City staff told council that a light rail line can be built on the corridor even if it’s designated as park only. But Steves said he doesn’t want confusion decades after the fact.
Railway Avenue used to service the Interurban Tram from Steveston to Downtown Vancouver.
A continuous linear route from Steveston Park, via the Steveston Wye Trail, to Granville Avenue was broken when houses were allowed to be built along Railway, south of Garry, in the 1990s. A new rail line/tramway would now need to run along Garry or Moncton Street to the village.
In the same council-approved report, the city has lifted the park designation for the southeast corner of No. 5 and Cambie roads, making it possible to allow a townhouse development.
