City of Vancouver considers selling part of Arbutus Corridor back to CP Rail. The price: $1

The City of Vancouver is considering selling part of the Arbutus Corridor back to Canadian Pacific Railway for $1.

The deal would allow CP to buy back a 0.62 hectares of land at the north end of the Arbutus Greenway for a loonie. It would then have to sell those parcels of land.

The railway would keep the first $75 million of the purchase price and 50 per cent of any cash over asking. The city would get the other 50 per cent.

Vancouver bought the former Arbutus rail corridor in 2016 and turned it into a greenway.

Most of the land stretches about four blocks and it’s sandwiched between buildings. Early on, these parcels of land were identified as being ill-suited for light rail, walking or cycling because of engineering and safety concerns.

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“We identified these lands as somewhat problematic just because they are so close to Fir Street and a preferred option would be to widen Fir Street rather than have the intersections that close to Fir,” City of Vancouver director of transportation Lon LaClaire said.

“The land use is restricted by the zoning. So the zoning that’s in place there is generally light industrial. There’s some mixed use and then on the very northern parcel there’s really no development that’s able to be built unless there is a rezoning process.”

CP did not comment when asked for additional details.

A public consultation is being held on Wednesday night.