Published: September 26, 2008 2:00 PM
Updated: September 26, 2008 3:04 PM
The City of New Westminster is involved in closed-door meetings to buy the Westminster Pier from an Alberta investor group. The deal could be completed within a month.
The Westminster Pier is a seven-acre former dockside property located on the Fraser River, east of the Fraser River Discovery Centre and the Larco property parking lot. Acquiring the land would allow the city to continue its goal of reclaiming its waterfront for public access.
But the deal is in jeopardy, say some members of New Westminster council, now that details of the sale are public.
Voice New Westminster, which released the information Thursday, counters some council members' plan to use the announcement of the purchase to score political points with New Westminster electors, who go to the civic polls Nov. 15.
"If this is being trotted out as an election goody, there better be some substance to it," said Blair Armitage, the mayoralty candidate for the Voice slate.
"I'm sure (Mayor Wayne Wright) wouldn't comment about trotting this out as an election goody but the timing of everything is once again too coincidental," he said, referring to the mayor's 2005 announcement regarding the Plaza 88 development prior to the 2005 civic election.
"If they're going to do this again, let's have the substance behind it."
Voice learned about the sale when members of the civic electors group spoke to surveyors working at the site, said Armitage.
But Coun. Johnathan Cote accused Voice councillors Bob Osterman and Betty McIntosh of revealing information about the deal, which was discussed by council during an in-camera meeting.
"This release of information may compromise the city's ability to complete this incredibly important deal," said Cote.
Armitage came to the defence of the two Voice councillors, and explained that he asked Osterman about the land deal and was told he couldn't discuss it because of its confidential nature.
Mayor Wright refuted Armitage's claim that the land purchase was aimed at gaining votes.
"We've been really diligent in trying to get this for a waterfront park for some time. That part is public knowledge," Wright said. "We've been trying to get the waterfront back for over 30 years."
The land had been owned by the provincial government but was then sold to Westminster Pier Development Corp., which planned to build residential towers on the site. The land was then sold to the Alberta investment group when Westminster Pier Development Corp. ran into financial problems.
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7 comments:
Parkland is good and we need more of it in New Westminster especially the way Wright has been granting variance after variance to developers and allowing them to double building heights. With that huge influx of residents our need for parkland has increased dramatically.
The sad thing is that if we'd been getting the same rate of DCC's as our neighbouring municipalities we'd actually have money accumulated to purchase this.
I can't say I'm looking forward to next year's tax bill.
Wow, this guy just doesn't give up. It seems to me he was trying to get the Tall Ships down to the waterfront in 2002. I guess he sees this as his last chance to spend taxpayer's dollars on his own pet project.
Wright says, "We've been trying to get the waterfront back for over 30 years."
It's too bad the raft of doubled in height towers he and his cronies approved over the last number of years have all but obliterated the "heritage riverviews" talked about in our OCP.
Ah yes, there is nothing like the announcement of a shiny new project to distract from the many failed projects that have been promised but never delivered.
I am tired of hearing of all of the wonderful things that are coming but never seem to arrive... it's become a recurring theme for this Mayor and Council.
"Half-way Wright" is an able promoter but he's no finisher, and now, at the eleventh hour he wants to build a park that will probably be replaced by Patullo bridge infrastructure?
For all of the taxes I pay, after six years in office, I would like to have seen something (or anything) from this Mayor other than a useless tin soldier.
The mayor says we (as a city) have been trying to get back our waterfront for 30 years. It’s interesting that he would finally get on the case a few weeks before the election.
And if the election timetable is in fact motivating the purchase, as it seems to be, doesn't that put the city at a negotiating disadvantage? If the property owner knows the purchaser is "motivated" to buy, the property owner has the upper hand in terms of the price they can extract from the purchaser.
Why weren't steps being taken last year or the year before that, or even further back in time, to secure this property if getting back our waterfront has been high on the city's agenda for 30 years. Why has purchasing this property become such a high priority item just before an election when the election timetable will obviously have an impact on the price we’ll have to pay?
What if I don't share El Presidente's vision of a pocket ship terminal?
Does Joe Public get a say or will this vision just be handed down from on high?
The North Fraser Perimeter Road hasn't been brought up.
How much park will be left when a 4 lane road is put though and the train tracks are moved out toward the water.
Who wants to go to a park so they can walk along 4 lanes of Truck Traffic and the trains. Let alone crossing the trains and traffic to get there.
Will the province spend millions more to drive the pilings to support a tunnel. The province was just stung with 3x the original price of diving pilings at the expanded Vancouver Convention Center.
Are the current owners selling the property because they know the answers. Could this be the Wright council leaping before looking again.
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