District of West Vancouver buys last Ambleside waterfront house for seamless public park and pathways
A decades-long process and vision of forming a land assembly to create a continuous public park space on the Ambleside waterfront has reached its final milestone.
On Monday, during a West Vancouver District Council meeting, it was announced that the municipal government had acquired the final privately owned, single-family house lot fronting the Ambleside waterfront.
The property of 1444 Argyle Ave. is located south of the railway, and just west of the Ambleside Pier and the recently overhauled historic Ferry Building, which is owned by the municipality and used as an art gallery.
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Currently, this house is heavily concealed by dense bushes and trees.
According to BC Assessment, the 1963-built, two-storey house on a 4,144 sq. ft. parcel of land carries an assessed value of $5.07 million, with $5.02 coming from the land and $52,600 coming from the structure.
This also follows the municipal government’s 2023 acquisition of the adjacent yellow house at 1448 Argyle Ave., which was the former home of B.C. billionaire Jim Pattison. The yellow house structure was subsequently removed from the site, and its footprint turned into expanded green space. In 2021, the District also removed a house it owned at 1466 Argyle Ave. for more green space.
Existing condition:
Location of 1444 Argyle Ave. within West Vancouver’s Ambleside Waterfront Concept Plan. (Google Maps)
Future ultimate condition:
Ambleside Waterfront Concept Plan. (District of West Vancouver)
Both acquisitions represent the last of the 32 lots — previously occupied by cottages and houses — along Argyle Avenue between 13th Street and 18th Street on the Ambleside waterfront the District has targeted for acquisition since 1975. Efforts to improve public access to the waterfront first began in the 1950s.
The newly acquired house at 1444 Argyle Ave. will be removed from the site in early Fall 2025.
After this house is removed, the District will be able to fully implement its 2016-approved Ambleside Waterfront Concept Plan unimpeded.
The house at 1444 Argyle Ave. on the Ambleside waterfront in West Vancouver is concealed by bushes and trees. (Google Maps)
This concept plan involves creating continuous green spaces and east-west pedestrian pathways that form a part of Brissenden Waterfront Park, connecting John Lawson Park to the west and Ambleside Beach Park to the east. The houses in the Brissenden Waterfront Park footprint created a gap in the configuration of waterfront public spaces.
The final pathway segments, green space parcels, and other improvements replacing the footprint of the last houses will reach completion and open by Spring 2026.
On the south shore of Burrard Inlet, the City of Vancouver also had a long-term strategy to acquire the strip of Kitsilano waterfront single-family houses fronting Point Grey Road to create a continuous waterfront public park. But over the decades, especially with escalating home prices turning Point Grey Road into the “golden mile” of some of British Columbia’s most expensive homes, this has fallen from being a priority. These previous acquisition efforts are seen with the existence of about half a dozen pocket public parks along Point Grey Road.
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