I went to the last open house discussion of the Granville Island 2040 plan on Saturday.
The local media has done a fair job of reporting the stories that came from the event, but they are missing a couple points, which can be seen in the photos below.
The type of elevator to the Granville bridge that ends up being implemented depends on if the city goes ahead with the pedestrian/bike path plan down the middle of the bridge as shown in the Vancouver House plans. The panel seemed pretty confident, based on indications from the city (ie the Vancouver House project), that the path in the middle lane is going to be implemented. There's also talk of stationing a cafe on that area of the the bridge deck, or at least integrating a bus stop at that location. It was felt that making the elevators free to the public would generate enough traffic to the Island that it would make up for the operating costs.
According to the document below the Granville Bridge Greenway is planned for 2018.
http://granvilleisland2040.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GI2040-Workshop-Discussion-Guide-EN.pdf
The panel also introduced the idea that the local False Creek Ferry companies should adopt compass. I don't know how feasible that would be though, given transfers, revenue splitting, etc.
There was also a strong desire for the city to reintroduce the trolley line to the island from the Olympic Village Station, an idea strongly backed by attendees. As that service doesn't seem to be on the city's agenda, the panel expressed a desire to work out an arrangement for the use of the OV Stations's parking lot to set up a shuttle bus along Lamey's Mill Road / Charleson.
The Alder Bay Bridge is planned to be a curved pedestrian/cycling bridge. The Granville Island location, as opposed to the shorter connection at Ron Basford Park was chosen to avoid disrupting the quiet space and natural feel in that area.
On an environmental front, the CMHC desires to work with the city's green plan. A strong push will be made to include renewable, like solar panels and the like. There are also plans to build connections to an eventual neighborhood energy grid. There's no plans to "green" existing structures, which is a little odd given that there was talk that newer buildings might be elevated due to flooding concerns.
You can find videos of the three Q&A sessions here
https://www.facebook.com/granvilleisland/?fref=ts
link to the survey for those interested in filling it out.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/gi-event