The below is an extract from an April 27, 2016 article on
REW.ca’s sister publication Vancouver Courier. To read the full article and listen to the leaked audio clips, click here – and for more local news and comment, go to vancourier.com
Two weeks before the provincial government announced it sold its part of the Jericho Lands, Squamish Nation Chief Ian Campbell told a band meeting in North Vancouver that the partnership with the Musqueam Indian Band and Tsleil-Waututh Nation wants to get 38.8 acres rezoned for townhouses and towers.
“This land can yield way more than 140 houses,” Campbell said, in a recording of the March 23 meeting that was leaked to the Vancouver Courier.
The land was valued at $480 million, but the three nations are paying nothing to acquire it. Campbell said the BC Liberal government agreed to give them a $96 million accommodation payment and a seven-year loan at two per cent interest. In 2014, the trio of bands combined with Canada Lands Company to acquire the $237 million, 52-acre federal portion of the Jericho Lands.
Campbell explained that achieving higher density would increase the land value and make it easier to gain financing to pay off the provincial loan. He mentioned the potential to build single-detached houses on the top of the property, townhouses down the slope and midrises and highrises along West Fourth Avenue.
To read Bob Mackin’s exclusive Vancouver Courier story and listen to the audio files, click here.
