Fight over $18M East Vancouver parking lot escalates with lawsuit

A parking lot at the centre of an ownership tug-o-war is back in the spotlight after a notice of civil claim was filed in B.C. Supreme Court against the City of Vancouver.

The Hastings Sunrise parking lot in the 2500-block of Franklin Street is a throwback to bygone days: a paved half-city blockcontaining 180 free parking spots to lure car-driving customers to the neighbourhood's small shopsand hipsterrestaurants.

The city is on the title as the owner of the property. However in the claim, Aura Ventures Corp., which owns eight properties in the 2600-block of Hastings Street, says itand other local commercial property ownersare the true and "beneficial owners"of the lot.

The claim, filed Oct. 28, says merchants in the area, in 1966,were granted a debenture or unsecured, 25-year loan from the city for$255,360.68. Thatallowed them to acquire the land and develop the lot. The loanprincipal and interest was paid off in fullin 1990.

The claim also says the property owners have continued to pay the annual property taxes, maintenance and insurance costsfor the lot, which hadan assessed value of nearly $18 million in 2018.

"We're asking the city to basically honour the deal that has been in place already for decades," said Aura lawyer Simon Lin. "We're claiming that the property was collectively held in a trust since the early days when the land was acquired and the parking lot was built."

The City of Vancouver declined comment because the matter is now in front of the court.

Surprise and confusion

Controversy over the provenance of the property erupted inJune when Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart hosted a splashy media conference revealingplans to build a women's housing project and childcare centre on the site. The announcement caught the neighbourhood businesses by surpriseand created a good amount ofconfusion.

TheHastings North Business Improvement Associationsent out a plea to its members for old paperwork to support the claim that the city had no right to develop a property it didn't own.

The BIA also hired a research company Klahanie Research Ltd. to comb through old records.Part of that effort has brought to light a fascinating slice of local history dating back 55 years.

The freeway that never was

In 1964, a plan to push afreeway through Hastings Sunrise, Strathcona and Chinatown to the Georgia St. Viaducts and into downtown was well underway.

Fearing Hastings Street was about to become a highway with noparking whatsoever, local merchants approached the cityto purchase 14 houses and a church along the south side of Franklin Streetso they could build a parking lot.

As it turns out, the freeway became the subject of bitter opposition and protests. In 1967, city council voted to cancel it altogether, but the Hastings Sunrise Parking Lot had already been approved and built.

In addition to the claim against the city, Aura is seeking to have the lawsuit certified as a class action on behalf of all the "benefitted properties," or parties that were included in theoriginal deal struck with the city.

The claim outlines a number of relief measures and alternatives,including:

• A declaration that the benefitted properties are collectively the beneficial owners of the property.
• Adeclaration that the city held the parking lot in an express or implied trust.
• A permanent injunctionto stop the city from transferring ownership.
• Compensation to class members in the amount equivalent to the market value of the lot.

"If [the value] is one dollar or 10 dollarsit doesn't make a difference," said Lin. "If the property is held in trust by someone they can't just take it for their own use."