Quote:
Originally Posted by cabotp
I assume your talking about the one on the North East corner. Where the old Esso gas station used to be.
Well I do remember back in the 70's as a really young kid when there was a Texaco at the north west corner of 41st and Knight. It closed down around the late 70's possibly very early 80's. That lot was empty till the current donut and chinese food shop when in at I believe the very late 90's. Possibly the early 00's. Now I do know a good portion of that time is due to soil contamination. But I don't know if it took longer than necessary. Basically could it have been developed sooner if there was reason to develop on the lot.
It has been about 10 years since the Essos at both 41st and Cambie and 41st and Knight have closed down. And if the Texaco lot was empty for about 20 years. Then it is possible we may have to wait another 10 years. It all depends on how contaminated the lot is.
|
Developers are notoriously gun-shy about touching any property that ever had a service station on it. There was a 7/11 on Granville & 13th that was knocked over about ten years ago to become a parking lot. Turns out that there was a service station on the property from the 20s to the 70s which was knocked over to build the 7/11. Except nobody bothered to clean up the gas that leaked into soil for 6 decades - they just re-paved the property for the 7/11 parking lot. Despite being a prime property close to Shaughnessy, it will likely remain a parking lot until the soil is remediated.
I read that the King Ed station on the Canada Line was a bit of a nightmare because they discovered under Cambie, King Ed and the former strip mall there was the remains of the leaked gasoline plume under the property. This had to be cleaned up before the tunnel and station could be built. Apparently they are trying to sue all the previous owners of the land to get back their costs for cleanup that should have been done before the strip mall was built.
I've heard that is a reason why the Evergreen line will fly over the intersection of Clark Rd & Como Lake - to bypass the Mohawk station and the former (esso?) station on the Safeway side of Clarke. By starting the tunnel north of the intersection, they won't have to worry about digging thorough leaked gas plumes from these stations. Presumably someone has already done their core samples along the route so there won't be many surprises when the digging starts.