Rail yard redevelopment would bring density, investment and revenue

First we need to fix the roads, replace the sewers, fill the potholes. Our property taxes are too high already. We can't afford it. It would cost too much. There are bigger priorities for Winnipeg.

Sentiments like these have generally followed recent public discussion over the potential relocation and redevelopment of the Canadian Pacific Railway yards northwest of the downtown. Instigated by a request to government (by the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg) for a feasibility study, the public debate has met with significant skepticism over the value of what seems to be an unachievable goal, considering the apparent costs and current economic pressures on local government.

It appears to be linear thinking to conclude we cannot afford such a grand dream. If we don't have the money, how can we spend it?

However, stepping back and re-evaluating the root cause of our public fiscal deficit, we might be led to the question: How can we afford not to consider this idea?

Ideas at the News Café rail summit

August 7, 2012 - At the end of July the Winnipeg Free Press News Café hosted a brainstorming session looking for ideas of what might replace the CP rail yards if they ever moved from the centre of Winnipeg. These are snippets of some of the ideas.

Local ideas for rail change

The Canadian Pacific Railway yards could be transformed into one of Winnipeg's most innovative neighbourhoods, complete with bike paths, a rapid transit line, a variety of high-density housing, local jobs and even an outdoor movie theatre.

That was the consistent vision at a brainstorming session held last week at the Winnipeg Free Press News Café. About 120 people -- urban planners, retired railway workers, neighbourhood activists, North End business owners and residents -- gathered to figure out what the 195-hectare parcel could look like if CP ever agreed to move its yards and shops.

In all, participants drafted more than 30 possible plans for the yards that focused on ways to integrate a new neighbourhood with established ones that already hug the yards.

In recent months, the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg has made a pitch to all three levels of government to fund a $1.5-million feasibility study that would explore the pros and cons of moving the railway yards in order to free up land for what could be a marquee urban redevelopment project.

Your wishlist: Rail yard proposals from our design summit

Summit comes up with creative ideas to redevelop CP Rail’s central yards

A linear park, rapid transit, public art, much more housing, light industry to provide jobs and even an area for urban farming and bee keeping.

Those were some of the ideas that emerged Tuesday night at an informal design summit meant to brainstorm ways to redevelop CP Rail’s central yards.

Roughly 120 people, including North End residents, urban planners and policy-makers, packed the Winnipeg Free Press News Café. In all, participants produced more than 30 concept designs for the neighbourhood, sketching out where parks, housing, amenities and even new toboggan hills could go. Those drawings will be posted on the Free Press website in the coming days, and some will be published in Tuesday’s paper.

Walkability and access to trails and transit were two key themes.

Your submissions: Readers’ visions for the rail yards

We asked for your vision of what the CP Rail yards could become, and your proposals are starting to arrive now.

Review the submissions sent in by our readers, below.  We'll keep adding more as they arrive.

Don Reimer's proposal (PDF, 6.6 MB)As part of his architecture degree course work, Winnipegger Don Reimer created a neighbourhood concept for the rail yards called Douglas Village, notable for the green corridor that follows the line of the existing rail tracks. 

Blogger Cherenkov's proposal (PDF, 120 KB)Local blogger Cherenkov envisions a rail yard redevelopment that includes a golf course, housing and a red light district, long talked about in Winnipeg as a way to combat crime and regulate prostitution.

Plan sees CP yards as rail estate

The tracks that divide Winnipeg could become a ribbon of parkland and trails that form the backbone of an innovative new neighbourhood for 8,000 people.

Douglas Village is a conceptual design created last year by University of Manitoba graduate Don Reimer as part of his professional architecture degree coursework through the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Reimer's work is the first detailed plan for what the 86-hectare marshalling yards could be if the land was available for redevelopment.

"I think Winnipeg is viewed as a city without a vision," said Reimer, who works full-time for Nejmark Architect in Winnipeg. "We do things because we like things that are economically sound right now without necessarily thinking of the future. But there are times when we surprise everyone, with The Forks, for example."

Reimer envisions a compact, dense neighbourhood where services such as doctors' offices, shops and schools are within walking distance and where middle- and upper-class homes are nestled in with affordable units of all types -- co-ops, row houses, apartment buildings, seniors units and more traditional single-family houses.

North Enders have their say

Years ago, Mary Burton's children gave her the scare of her life when they sneaked into the Canadian Pacific rail yards, fiddled with some switches and caused a minor derailment. With a rueful chuckle, that's the first thing she thinks of when asked whether the tracks should be moved to make way for a new neighbourhood.

"First of all, that eyesore would be gone," said Burton, a lifelong North Ender. "Second of all, it would be a lot safer for the youth and the children and the community. Thirdly, there's prime land right there for housing and, with a zero per cent vacancy rate in this city right now, we need more housing."

The Social Planning Council of Winnipeg has made a quiet pitch to all levels of government to fund a $1.5-million feasibility study into the cost and logistics of moving CP's 130-year-old marshalling yards that separate the North End from the southern part of the city. It's an idea people such as Rob Neufeld, executive director of the North End Community Renewal Corp., have long kept tucked in a file as a great idea that needs a good place to start. |

New CP railway boss a mover

The Canadian Pacific Railway has an aggressive new boss who's already reviewing the company's operations, making this a perfect time to debate relocating the tracks that isolate the North End, says an industry expert.

CP's new president, Hunter Harrison, has spent his career overhauling railway companies and making them more efficient. That includes Canadian National, which Harrison ran until 2009 and where rationalization efforts are considerably more advanced than at CP. In recent years, CN has consolidated operations and vacated old, urban railway yards across Canada, allowing cities to redevelop them as new neighbourhoods or destinations such as The Forks.

Harrison is widely expected to take the same approach at CP.

"If there was ever a time to be talking about the future of those yards, this would be it," said Greg Gormick, a Toronto-based transportation policy adviser who was a consultant to CP for years.

Remediating old rail yards cheaper, easier than you think

The contaminants sound nasty -- bunker fuel, solvents and heavy metals -- but the cleanup might not be so bad.

After 130 years of leaks and spills, the Canadian Pacific rail yards that segregate the North End from the rest of city could be a petri dish of chemicals requiring serious cleanup before the vast parcel could be redeveloped. Many suspect the cost and hassle involved in remediating the site could be deal-breakers.

But among the many technical, financial, and political problems that plague rail relocation, soil contamination might be the easiest problem to solve, several experts say.

It's already been done in cities across Canada, from Moncton, N.B., to Victoria, and the cost, while a factor, is a few million, not hundreds of millions. And, in many cases, the rail companies paid.

A lack of locomotivation

Nearly every North American city has them -- rail yards that gobble up prime downtown or waterfront land, blight the city and stymie development.

But almost every city has redeveloped them, or is in the process of transforming their rail yards. From Victoria to Moncton to Santa Fe, cities are slowly relocating old rail yards to make way for more lucrative and innovative developments.

Winnipeg is no exception. Nearly 30 years ago, we turned the old CN rail yards into The Forks, and the Fort Rouge Yards are about to become a big, new residential development.

But what of the city's other central yards -- the vast CP Rail tracks that segregate the North End? Recently, the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg has tried to spark a city-wide debate over those tracks, saying the first step is a $1.5-million feasibility study to find out whether moving them makes sense, what might be built instead and how the cost-benefit relation shakes out.

CP won’t sell yards, Katz says

Mayor Sam Katz said he would love to buy the CP rail yards and turn them into a model neighbourhood.

Problem is, CP says it isn't selling.

In recent months, the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg has made a pitch to Katz and federal and provincial politicians to fund a $1.5-million feasibility study on moving the CP yards, which isolate the North End. Such a study would lay out what rail relocation might cost, who might pay, how much revenue a new neighbourhood might generate, where the yards and shops could go and what the public thinks.

Katz said turning the vast tract of land into a residential, retail and recreation hub is a "no-brainer" for the city.

Timeline: Bridge over troubled yards

WINNIPEG'S love-hate relationship with its railroad tracks is as old as the city itself.

But it's been 30 years since Winnipeg seriously pondered moving the vast CP Rail yards.

That debate was sparked by a seemingly innocuous plan to build a new bridge over the yards, connecting Sherbrook Street with McGregor Street.

That plan grew to include the extension of Furby Street through the backyards of dozens of poor, inner-city residents, spawning one of the city's biggest, most co-ordinated grassroots mobilizations and a real debate about the fate of the rail yards.