Admiralty Point, a 190-acre piece of shoreline nestled within Belcarra Park, is being taken over by Parks Canada in a move aimed at protecting the land from development.
A 99-year lease of the Crown land to Metro Vancouver expired in 2011 and Moore said the Tsleil-Wauthuth First Nation had expressed an interest in developing the property.
Without a plan or lease agreement, the park was in what Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam MP James Moore called a "legal no man's land." Now that the federal government has taken back the land and absorbed the property into the Parks Canada system, he added, it can be better protected.
"Belcarra park is an incredible jewel," he said during a press conference last Friday at the Belcarra park picnic area. "It is a remarkable place. Admiralty Point is integral to Belcarra park and we need to protect the park and keep it as is."
Absorbing the park into the Park Canada inventory does not stop the the Tsleil-Wauthuth from launching a land claim for the property but Moore said the federal government is committed to protecting it from any development and maintaining the property as a park.
"If at some point in the future there is a land claim we will cross that bridge," he said.
As part of the agreement, the federal government has allocated $100,000 per year for maintenance, trail upgrades and fire protection.
Last year, Belcarra village council passed a resolution demanding the federal government either give or lease Admiralty Point to Metro Vancouver to preserve it as a park in perpetuity for future generations.
Admiralty Point was originally marked off for military use in 1860. Col. R.C. Moody, after whom Port Moody is named, figured its strategic location overlooking Burrard Inlet, Port Moody Arm and Indian Arm made it the ideal spot for a cannon to deter attackers heading towards the colonial capital of New Westminster from the north.
It has been parkland for more than a century since Ottawa leased it first to the city of Vancouver in 1913 and later to the regional district.
It is estimated that more than 900,000 people visit Belcarra Regional Park each year from all over the region and beyond.
- with files from Jeff Nagel
