It is April 1 but we assure you, this is not a cheeky April Fools’ Day prank from our newsroom. A developer hoping to build hundreds of units of housing above Highway 1 in West Vancouver is floating a proposal for a gondola from Dundarave to Cypress Bowl Road.
We are open to all ideas, but we see a gondola going over like a lead balloon in West Vancouver. This is the same community that convinced council to block express bus service. West Van is a community known for enshrining the status quo, not pursuing bold ideas.
But this could be the start of a very important conversation in West Vancouver, one of the most car-dependent communities in the Lower Mainland.
Cutting down trees to accommodate urban sprawl above the highway seems like madness to us in a time of climate emergency and traffic congestion. But when it comes to the uplands, things were set in motion 100 years ago to ensure they would one day be developed. As far as we are aware, there is no legal way for council to turn back those decisions. The official community plan even calls for Cypress Village, an all-new population centre, to be built on the slopes of Hollyburn Mountain.
With or without a gondola, there will be thousands more people living in the upper lands in the decades ahead. All council can do is shape the types of development and public amenities that will come along with it.
If we want people living above the highway to have a car-free option for getting around (and we most definitely do), then council has a responsibility to take a serious look at alternative transportation ideas, no matter how foolish they may first appear.
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