To the editor:
Re: “‘Fair value’ for Arbutus Corridor at stake,” July 23.
The Arbutus Greenway Improvements Society (AGIS) is in full support of Mayor Robertson’s objectives to establish a greenway for gardens, walking and recreational cycling. AGIS envisions this greenway as an important part of the proposed regional trail system connecting the Great Blue Heron Way (Tsawwassen), Millennium Trail (Delta), Richmond’s Sea Dykes with Vancouver’s Fraser River trails and beyond to the North Shore’s Spirit Trail with tie-ins to the TransCanada Trail system.
We believe that the ecological and social benefits of gardens and walking paths should be quantified along with the positive health and safety benefits for off-road cycling. Economic benefits from out-of town-visitors will also accrue to the commercial communities along the corridor to substantiate the business case for a regional greenway. A potential partnership for financing should include the provincial government who ceded the land to CPR in the first place.
Let’s get this done by 2017 — the 150th anniversary of Confederation — to reboot efforts to complete the TransCanada Trail.
David Grigg,
Vancouver
