THE VOICE OF NORTH A

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January 24, 1988 News 985-2131 Classified 986-6222 Distribution 986-1337 60 pages 25¢

Contentious WV trail keeps residents, council stumbling over legalities

THE FATE OF a contentious pathway and footbridge in
West Vancouver remains undecided while district council

seeks a legal opinion concerning property lines.

AJd. Alex Brokenshire’s motion
Monday to climinate the trail and
remove the bridge at the foot of
Dufferin Avenue did not come to a
vote as vociferous protests from
area residents led council to feel
the need for more information.

"Its hard to believe that the
municipality would consider aban-
doning its rights without a full
legal opinion,’’ submitted local
resident Richard Paisley, a teacher
of ocean and coastal law at UBC.

Long outstanding disagreements
have existed between owners of
(wo properties, currently MLA
Angus Ree and Dr. Frank Thom-
son, and the people who use two
pathways leading to Batchelor Bay
beach for recreation as well as to
get to work or school.

“I's mainly young people, but
people have got used to using this
shortcut,”’ said Parks and Recre-
ation director Frank Kurucz,

One path leads west from
Marine Drive to the bay, while the
other comes in from the west. Dur-
ing high tide, the only connection
between the two is on what is
claimed to be Thomson's and
Ree’s property.

Asa result of illegal aceretion by
the owner of one of the properties
during the early 1970s, the
municipality created a pathway ad-
jacent to this property to make the
connection,

Thomson, the present owner of
6704 Dufferin, has thought of
challenging municipal rights to the
trail, while Ree, the owner of 6712
Dufferin, is complaining about
trespassers on his property, who
are encouraged by the location of
the pathway.

Ree has gone so far as to place
two boats across the pathway to
prevent people from passing.

‘There is no other choice but to
do what is legal and proper.... As
long as the bridge remains there, it
directs trespassers onto private
property,’’ said Brokenshire, who
expressed deep regret at having
failed, with Mayor Don Lanskail,
to mediate a solution acceptable to
all concerned.

Kurucz also reported that the
trail was in very poor condition
and a potential liability.

“The only way the public can go
at high tide from Dufferin Avenue
and connect up with the trail to
Marine Drive is by using thé foot
bridge and the trail... and scrambl-
ing down the rocks to the beach

By MAUREEN RTIS
Contributing Writer

which is extremely dangerous,"
Kurucz continued.

Constructing a better connecting
trail would be cxpensive and ‘tun-
likely to withstand the elements."’
he added.

But residents spokesman Nigel
Bunning claimed that the pathway
does not lead to private property,
bur to the riprapping (rocks and
boulders) that was illegally placed
on the beach at the high tide line
and which is difficult to cross. The
former owner of Thomson's prop-
erty brought in truckloads of
rocks.

“We're not asking to trespass,
just that the verbal agreement in
1968 that a path be maintained

WEST Vancouver Ald. Alex
Brokenshire....‘As long as the
bridge remains there, it diverts
trespassers on to private proper-
ty."

across the riprap at all times be
honored,’’ Bunning said.

One problem is that owners of
waterfront property may have one
property line on record, but can
also claim land up to the high
water mark.

Paisley argued that using the
high tide line as a ‘‘magical’’
property line, was ‘‘not all that
magical,’’ and that Ree’s property
could not extend further than Dr.
Thompson’s right next to it.

As for Thompson's claim to
parts of the pathway, Paisley sug-
gested that his had come about
through illegal accretion of land,
namely, the riprapping.

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