Vancouver British Columbia - Locals may love biking or walking through the beautifully kept community gardens along the Arbutus corridor, but CP Rail is serious when it says it wants those and any other unauthorized structures removed by 31 Jul 2014.
 
CP wrote a letter to residents demanding they clear its property of any encroachments so it can move forward with fixing the tracks and potentially using the prime real estate to train operators or store empty cars, spokesman Ed Greenberg said Thursday.
 
The property has for years been used as a de facto greenway from False Creek through the "creme de la creme" neighbourhoods to the Fraser River.
 
Maureen Ryan, a coordinator of the award-winning Cypress Community Garden near the train tracks, was shocked to see almost all of the garden would have to be removed to comply with CP's request when she saw the property map on Thursday.
 
"It actually means sort of a blood bath," Ryan said, adding that the city-licensed garden was operating under the impression most of it fell on city land.
 
While CP hasn't yet placed stakes marking its property near the garden, Ryan hopes it can resolve its problems with the city to preserve the "fabulous public resource."
 
CP's activity on the land comes after unsuccessful negotiations with the city on the future of the property.
 
The city wants CP to leave the land alone so residents can enjoy it as a greenway until light rail transit is viable for the property in the future, Coun. Tony Tang said Thursday.
 
There are no plans to stop CP from dismantling the gardens since it's still a "hypothetical scenario at this point," Tang said.
 
"We really want to emphasize that we really want to encourage CP to respect the city and the neighbourhoods' wishes," he said.
 
But CP's Greenberg assured Metro they do indeed plan to proceed with clearing the land.
 
"For our railway to proceed, we are asking for the cooperation of residents to transplant those gardens," Greenberg said.
 
That doesn't mean cargo trains will hit the tracks 1 Aug 2014.
 
Once engineers clear the land and bring the tracks up to snuff, CP will form a timeline for operating trains.
 
In the meantime, CP remains open to continued discussions with Vancouver, Greenberg said.

Emily Jackson.