Article content continued

Photo by Mike Bell / PNG

Lon LaClaire, the city’s director of transportation, said the real challenge with the option lands is they’re too close to Fir St.

“We wouldn’t be putting people walking and cycling on that corridor because we couldn’t make the crossings safe at the lanes, at the arterial and at the minor streets,” he said.

LaClaire said there were other options in the area that could connect the Arbutus Greenway north to False Creek that are “greenway-like in feel.”

If CP Rail decides to exercise the option and re-purchase the lands, it will have to put them back up for sale, according to the purchase agreement. Then, if and when they sell, CP Rail would keep the first $75 million of the purchase price, plus 50 per cent of any cash over and above that. The other 50 per cent would go to the city.

The purchase agreement does not stipulate who the buyer of the lands must be, but Jerry Evans, the city’s director of real estate services, said it would likely be a developer.

“Obviously we can’t see the minds of CP, but you would imagine that that would be the rational thing to do.”

The re-purchase would have other consequences for CP. If the railway chose to buy the lands, it would cease to share in the profits from any corridor land that was sold outside of the blocks in question. As it stands now, CP would get a significant cut of a sale of such lands by the city — 75 per cent of the first $50 million, 50 per cent of the second $50 million, and 25 per cent of the third $50 million.