Removing the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts would pump badly needed cash into City of Vancouver coffers and create a revitalized high-end neighbourhood that could include a beach at the east end of False Creek.
“We need to open up our thinking,” Bing Thom Architects principal Bing Thom told Business in Vancouver. “Maybe the whole east end of False Creek should be a beach. There’s no beach in the east side of the city that faces south. Crab Park Beach and New Brighton Beach face north.”
Concord Pacific’s plan to build a park on its land along False Creek’s northeast corner is part of a negotiated agreement with the city in exchange for Concord developing residential towers on nearby land.
The park would link with current parkland at the east end of False Creek near Science World and adjacent to a shoreline walkway above deteriorating wood support beams.
Thom believes False Creek could be treated so it’s safe for swimming and that sand would also help cleanse its water. He said a beach would be a good place to launch small watercraft and dragon boats, which are a common sight at the east end of False Creek.
Creating a beach and removing the viaducts could also increase real estate value in the towers that are likely to be built between the Cambie Bridge and the east end of False Creek in the next 15 years and ones that currently abut the viaducts.
Not including the BC Pavilion Corp. (PavCo) land adjacent to BC Place where Paragon Gaming had proposed building hotel towers and a casino, 11 towers are in various stages of planning for the northeast False Creek lands. Concord Pacific is expected to propose additional towers on land that it owns in the area near the future park. At least six more towers could fit on land currently under the viaducts.
City staff along with Halcrow Consulting are in the first phase of studying the impact of removing the viaducts, which are remnants of a long-rejected plan to have a highway connect eastern suburbs to Vancouver’s downtown core.
“No one approaching this land now would volunteer to put an elevated expressway above what is already a big road infrastructure at Expo Boulevard,” said councillor Geoff Meggs, who supports removing the viaducts.
“We could probably do something immediately by removing the two blocks [of the viaducts] on either side of Main Street. That would be helpful for Chinatown and good for Strathcona, too.”
The city’s viaduct removal review has thus far centred on three options:
- removing 20% of the viaducts’ east end so they could flow into Main Street (within a couple of years);
- removing one of the viaducts and turning the remaining structure into a two-way road (within 15 years); and
- removing both viaducts and reconfiguring the road system to allow Pacific Boulevard to connect with Georgia Street and Expo Boulevard to connect with Dunsmuir Street (within 20 years).
Meggs believes timelines for removal can easily be accelerated.
“I don’t want to be waiting 20 years to see what we can do with the area,” Meggs said. “Traffic problems are very solvable.”
Thom agreed.
He said public support is key to advancing the timeline and the best way to do that would be to develop a business case for the removal.
Thom estimated that removal of both viaducts and reconfiguring roads, sewers and other infrastructure could cost Vancouver $100 million.
However, the city would free up 10 acres of developable land underneath the viaducts. The property would need soil remediation, but it could still be sold for at least $150 million.
Thom said wresting community benefits from developers that propose towers on the land would provide the city with another $150 million.
Exact numbers in the business case for the viaducts’ removal would depend on:
- how much density the city allows on the underlying land;
- what zoning it would give proposed developments; and
- how much money developers could get from selling units in the towers.
But not everyone favours the viaducts’ removal.
“Removing both viaducts would absolutely have an impact on traffic,” said Vancouver Taxi Association co-ordinator Armrik Mahil. “They are a major thoroughfare for the east side of Vancouver. You already have traffic on Expo Boulevard. You’re looking at two to three times the traffic.”
Mahil, who is also president of Black Top and Checker Cabs Ltd., fears the resulting congestion would increase area taxi fares, which would discourage potential clients.
He added that people who opted to take public transit would be delayed by the small Vancouver SkyTrain stations and the system’s small passenger loads compared with counterparts in larger cities such as London, England, where the underground handles a much higher percentage of passenger trips in the downtown core.