Port Metro Vancouver is sounding the alarm. The Lower Mainland is running out of the critical industrial land needed to enable trade.
The port commissioned a study that found all the good land will be exhausted within 10 years and what remains is under threat from rezoning and encroaching residential development.
This follows another recent warning from the port against Vancouver allowing itself to become a "lifestyle oasis" for the world's wealthy.
We agree it's a dire thought. With its federal mandate, the port's chief responsibility is to facilitate trade - the imports and exports that define our economy and set our standard of living.
Without a natural deep-water harbour and industrial waterfront, Vancouver would still be a sleepy fishing village.
But we also find this plea a bit rich as it comes on top of last week's story about unreasonable, all-night construction noise on a port-owned piece of waterfront land near Cates Park as it's being developed into condos.
Which is it?
Because it enjoys federal jurisdiction, nothing that happens on port lands has to comply with municipal bylaws, and as such, conflicts with residents have been plenty.
As we saw with the Low Level Road project, there were endless and unnecessary clashes with neighbours that could have been avoided if the port had been more upfront about its intentions.
So, before the port wants to start getting choosy about who its neighbours are going to be, it might first choose to start being a better neighbour to the ones it has.
