The Tyee
How to pay for a new rapid transit station?
The City of Richmond raised the funds by slapping a levy on new development, a novel approach that proved to pay off.
Mayor Malcolm Brodie touted the strategy as a “win-win.”
The brand new Capstan Station is a rare addition to an existing line of the TransLink public transportation network. Located between the Bridgeport and Aberdeen stations of the Canada Line, it had its grand opening just before Christmas.
Plans for Capstan Station have been long in the making and predate the opening of the Canada Line for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The City of Richmond had been hoping to finance the station with a contribution from the developers of a massive project at the Capstan intersection. But in 2009, plans for Sun Tech City — comprising 16 highrises and some 2,000 homes by Concord Pacific and Pinnacle International — were scrapped in the wake of the recession.
In 2012, Richmond tried again.
In return for bonus density, the city charged developers in the area a levy of about $8,500 per new home built.
Richmond needed to raise $27.8 million for the new station, with the rest covered by TransLink. The city estimated that it would have collected that amount by 2027.
Surprisingly, the development boom was greater than anticipated. Richmond had the amount in hand by 2018, which meant that the station could be completed by 2022. …
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