For as long as I can remember, April Fool's Day has been my second favourite day of the year. (The first is the anniversary of the day I was born.) I have always enjoyed April Fool's Day pranks and carried out a few of my own.
In the late 1990s, I undertook an apartment development in Kerrisdale, known as Elm Park Place. Prince Charles had recently visited the the city, and rather than a conventional marketing advertisement, The Vancouver Courier allowed me to create an article reporting that during his recent visit, the Prince was rumoured to have purchased a Kerrisdale condominium near a park.
A number of my purchasers phoned our office to question whether he had bought at Elm Park place. However, my favourite call was from one purchaser who was furious that I would sell to a member of the royal family without consulting the other buyers. "How are we going to afford all the extra security" she asked?
The following year I still had a couple of units left and wrote an 'advertorial' that the provincial government had secretly approved a SkyTrain extension along West 41st with a station next to my project. A surprising number of people were fooled, including one of my daughter's Crofton House classmates who brought in a copy of the Courier as her 'show and tell' story.
"There's going to be a SkyTrain to Crofton House" she told her classmates. My daughter explained that this wasn't true. It was just one of her dad's April Fools' Day jokes. Unfortunately, the girl had never heard of April Fools' Day.
In 2013 I was developing Hollyburn Mews, a small infill project in West Vancouver. It had been highly controversial with over 150 people writing letters or speaking in opposition. But it was a approved by a 4-3 vote and construction was underway. Once again, I saw an opportunity to market the project and have some fun. Below is an advertorial I purchased in the North Shore News:
Vancouver developer Michael Geller has been in secret discussions with members of the West Vancouver Council appointed Upper Lands Working Group regarding a proposal to blanket much of the property above the 1200 foot level with duplexes and coach houses linked by a network of gondolas. The housing would be similar to his development that is just now being completed on Esquimalt Avenue, across from West Vancouver United Church.
While Geller was reluctant to comment on the record, he admitted to attending recent meetings of the Upper Lands Working Group. He observed that given West Vancouver’s changing demographics, cottage-style duplexes and coach houses are a very desirable form of housing. He added that he thinks West Vancouver has thousands of acres covered in trees, especially in the Upper Lands, which should be converted to housing. If Geller’s proposal is approved by Council, West Vancouver’s population could double over the next two decades.
Geller is no stranger to controversial developments. In 1989 he managed the failed Spetifore Lands proposal that was rejected by Delta Council following 27 nights of Public Hearings. Since then he has been involved with two other mountainside developments at Furry Creek and SFU’s UniverCity on Burnaby Mountain.
Metro Vancouver`s Director of Planning Brent Bartholomew applauded the proposal. He said building on mountainsides is preferable to building on farmlands. He also liked Geller’s proposal to link the new housing to Dundarave and Ambleside villages with a network of gondolas similar to those proposed at SFU.
He noted that for far too long West Vancouver has been an enclave for the rich and very rich. By adding 14,000 new homes in the Upper Lands it should be possible to accommodate more lower and middle income households, including the children and parents of the rich and very rich.
Councillor Craig Cameron, one of two council members on the Upper Lands Working Group, said it was premature to comment on Geller’s massive proposal. “The Working Group has only just started its deliberations” he said, although he acknowledged more projects like Hollyburn Mews might be preferable to the sprawling monster homes being built around the District.
Geller will be presenting his proposal to Council at its meeting tomorrow on April 1st. aka April Fools’ Day!
Unfortunately, many readers did not get to the end and became most incensed. As a result, I had to purchase space in the following week's edition to apologize!
Last year, as the war in Ukraine continued, and with everything else going on, I wrote that April Fool's Day had been cancelled in Odessa and Vancouver. As CBC Early Edition host Stephen Quinn quibbed, with so many foolish things happening in the world, April Fool's Day pranks seemed superfluous. Here's hoping we can get back to having a bit more fun in years to come.
HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY.