Meanwhile out in Marpole, native archaeological artifacts might have been found, but private property rights in the province appear to have been lost.
In the eye of this real-estate storm we have a pair of small-business people.
More specifically, a couple in retirement age that has spent a lifetime building and maintaining a business in the Vancouver neighbourhood but, because of government back-pedalling, now faces the prospect of losing a retirement nest egg and proposed $42 million development that could benefit area business and provide affordable housing for Marpole residents.
Details of Gary and Fran Hackett’s plight are included in BIV reporter Glen Korstrom’s story (pages 10 and 11), but here are a few noteworthy elements for other property owners and prospective developers to consider.
•Both municipal and provincial governments have long known that there might be a native burial ground on or near the one-acre southwest Marine Drive property, but, as the Hacketts point out, there’s no encumbrance on any deeds or title to the land indicating that the site has any significant heritage value.
•The Hacketts’ provincial permit secured in December 2011 allows any remains found to be relocated, as has been the case in other instances of aboriginal archeological finds in B.C, but the province has prevented the Hacketts from doing so, ignoring its own permitting rules in the process.
•The costs of the archeological dig and other development expenses on the property borne thus far by the Hacketts and their developer partners is more than $10 million.
•The Hacketts say that a Musqueam representative originally approached them in 2004 indicating band interest in buying the property, which has been in the Hackett family since 1960, but no offers were forthcoming until after Musqueam protests over the development began back in March. Needless to say, the property market’s value pre- and post-protest is markedly different. According to the Hacketts, the band’s post-protest proposal was “so unreasonable it wasn’t worth a response.”
•At no time during the lengthy development-permitting process did any level of government tell the Hacketts that they wouldn’t be allowed to build their project.
•The Hacketts and their development partners have received no compensation or land swap offer from government or native band, even though the property has now been effectively frozen and the Musqueam given veto power over it.
So the archeological aspects of this stalled neighbourhood business initiative and native band interests in the property have been moved atop government agendas.
But who has stepped up to the plate for the Hacketts?
Not the “families first” provincial government. Not the “housing affordability” municipal government. Not fellow business people. Not Marpole neighbours.
Requiring the Hacketts to reapply for permits that have lapsed because of band and government-imposed delays is not an equitable compromise here. Allowing relocation of the remains found on less than 0.1% of the development site so that the original development can proceed is. But when it comes to native protest over land issues in B.C., the target of that protest runs out of friends and neighbours very quickly.
That’s a red alert for developers and investors all over the province. •
