The Low Level Road project is finally complete.
In 2011, Port Metro Vancouver managers came hat-in-hand to the city and touting the great benefits that would flow if council voted it through — slope stabilization, less noise and pollution from trains, bike lanes, public art, safer crossings and important connections for the Spirit Trail.
Facing an unreasonably short federally imposed deadline, a split council agreed, even though there were many big, lingering questions.
Controversy soon followed — a displaced eagle’s nest, construction noise, the “Great Wall of Richardson,” high-voltage power lines, the loss of trees, massive expansions of port terminals without health impact assessments.
Many of the headaches could have been avoided or mitigated if the Port had been more upfront during the original process. Many couldn’t. As far as white settlement goes,
North Vancouver began as Moodyville — a cluster of homes around a sawmill. Conflict with waterfront industry is in our DNA.
Even the most ardent supporters of the project on council admitted the port burned up a lot of good will to see this through.
All told, the North Shore is lucky to have an industrial waterfront. Exports are critical to Canada’s economy in the big picture and North Shore’s port tenants are good employers and, for the most part, good corporate citizens.
And for all the maelstrom, the perks promised by the port have largely arrived. The process that brought them, however, won’t soon be forgotten.
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