Belcarra cottages could face wrecking ball
Posted June 17, 2014 11:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BELCARRA (NEWS1130) – People living in seven cottages on the Belcarra waterfront will have their windows boarded up and electricity shut off in less than two weeks, as Metro Vancouver moves ahead with a plan to open park space and access to that waterfront.
Some of the cottages date back to the 1930s and have fallen into a state of disrepair.
“Some of them have outhouses, some of them don’t have proper septic disposal. None of them meet proper building code,” says Belcarra mayor Ralph Drew.
“Metro Vancouver is saying we have a responsibility to ensure a basic standard.”
Six of the seven cottages are actually in Port Moody and Drew says Metro Vancouver, which owns the land has given the tenants ample notice to leave.
“You’ve lived there for 40 or whatever years, this is a traumatic experience for them. But it’s not that they haven’t been given notice,” says Drew.
He says it’s not a case of being pushed out for development.
“I’m virtually certain that is absolutely not the scenario. It will go to park use, picnic tables, picnic areas, beach access, that sort of thing.”
Drew says it’s all part of a parks plan from the 1980s to open up the park space and waterfront.
The most recent notice came 18 months ago and Metro Vancouver is set to board up the cottages in 10 days.
Several of the tenants have vowed to fight on for the right to keep living there and have made no plans to leave, says Drew.
