Local developer Doug Day is speaking out about a land issue he says impacts all land owners along the Mamquam Blind Channel, including himself.
The provincial government’s BCR Properties owns the 11-metre wide, 3,500-foot long strip from Westminster Street, in front of Day’s property at the south end of downtown, north to Pemberton Avenue.
Day argues the District of Squamish should have bought the property already as it controls access to the waterfront properties east of Loggers Lane.
“All the waterfront properties along the Mamquam Blind Channel have to cross a long narrow strip of private land to get to their land. So they have no land access,” he said.
“The city has had a gazillion years to make a deal to buy that long narrow strip, but they haven’t done so,” Day said.
“They should have done it at least a decade ago, they certainly should have done it five years ago when the market was in the dumpster.”
Day said he is considering putting in a cash bid for the land.
The BCR owned area in front of his property is the “gateway” to Newport Beach developments on the oceanfront lands Day said, so essential to making a proper entrance for the future residential, commercial and industrial development hub slated for the peninsula.
Mayor Patricia Heintzman agreed with Day that the entire strip of land is important.
“It is fundamental for transportation reasons, active transportation reasons, accessibility – it is fundamental to the whole downtown,” she said.
“It is very complicated holdings all along that area,” said Heintzman.
“Up until a couple of years ago the district owned where the railway was and the actual BCR Properties owned the road right-of-way. At about five or six years ago we swapped it all back so that we owned the road and they owned the railway.
Until a month ago CN had the lease on those lands.
It takes an order in cabinet to actually dissolve that part of the BCR Properties and CN agreement, according to Heintzman.
“We are just waiting for cabinet to finalize that deal and we are expecting that soon,” she said.
“We have been working with the province for years to acquire those lands and so we are still pursuing that.”
According to Day, land access east of Loggers Lane is only granted to the properties along the strip by an agreement with BCR that can be cancelled within 30 days, but Heintzman disputes that.
Heintzman said the district does have access to the water with road ends.
“In theory we have road right-of-way over those access points, over the railway and BC Rail is not going to do something like that. So, I am not worried about that.”
A representative for the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, the ministry responsible for BCR Properties, would not provide comment for this story.
