HEATHER DEAL VISION COUNCILOR
Heather Deal. Vision Councilor for Vision Party joined us today.
Heather Deal was first elected to the Vancouver Park Board in 2002 and served as the Chair in 2003. She was then elected to Vancouver City Council in 2005 and was re-elected in 2008 and 2011.
Her accomplishments so far are a supporter of the Food Trucks program, 30,000 sq feet of Artists space in the city now and many bike lanes.
Marpole Park is in her sights but still has a long way to go. City council is currently negotiating but the talks have stalled. It could be a 10 acre park. What an asset! It is off Cambie Bridge on the waterfront of the Fraser River.
Lower medium income levels need attention by the city. We have 50% renters in the city today but no new rental properties coming on line. They are not deemed worthwhile by the investment community.
Ie. they are not profitable.
The city needs to hear from the public. What do you want?
City council has helped certain properties to get rental status.
We do have developers fess to put toward the park.
We can create a trail for the North Arm of the Fraser. We can have an 11 km trail.
The train tracks? What to do with the land.
CN currently owns the land but they only have usage for them as goods transportation.
The city controls the land usage. The city cant stop them from using the tracks again for transportation but there is no business case for transportation.
The last usage was for Molsons and they don’t have the need anymore.
Could they use them for container transfer?
CP has asked for 100 million for the lands. The city has offered 10 million.
They seem to be negotiating through the press and the media.
Heather went on to talk about heritage designation.
If the city designate a property for heritage status the owners of the property can sue the city for loss of value so the city has to be very careful with this designation.
Heather often asks people do you have your property designated heritage?
The speaker was thanked by Teddie.