Fears that the Cambie Bridge could be used as a launching point for terrorist attacks led to the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Village site being moved a few blocks east, says the head of a city advisory group.

“The real logic is to move the athlete’s village away from the bridge for security purposes,” John Irwin, co-ordinator of the Southeast False Creek Working Group, said yesterday.

“It was really close to Cambie. Now the thinking is . . . it would be far enough away from the bridge that it would be hard to do something crazy.”

The village was originally in a strip of buildings along First Avenue but the latest plan puts it in a central cluster.

Irwin, who has been working on the community group since 1996, said security was one of the reasons given to him yesterday by city planners for the move.

“The logic, unfortunately, boils down to the whole problem with the Olympics itself and that is, ‘How do you stage world events in an increasingly unstable world?'” added Irwin.

He said he’s attended meetings where there’s been talk of private homes across from the Olympic Village having their windows boarded up while the Games are on.

“So security is going to become the bane of 2010,” he added.

Bruce Maitland, the city’s director of real estate, said the 600-unit Olympic village was moved to make it a more compact core for the $167-million overall development of the industrial lands.

Maitland admitted that the proximity to the Cambie Bridge would have become a security issue, but added, “We hadn’t talked to the security people when we moved it.”

The Olympic Village will be leased to organizers for the Games for $30 million and then turned over for market and low-cost housing.

Maitland said plans for the village won’t be finalized until the official development plan is approved by council.

There are major issues surrounding security for the Games, said Coun. Jim Green.

“By the time the Olympics get here, Vancouver will have 100,000 people living downtown, and they’re from all over the world,” he said. “We’ll have security issues in the heart of our city, which is residential, and that’s going to be a real problem.”

John Furlong, Olympic organizing committee CEO, wouldn’t comment on security concerns with regards to the village, saying it’s part of ongoing planning.

“Securing the venues and the village is a priority for us,” he said.

Rene Fasel, chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s co-ordination commission, said he hadn’t heard of plans to move the village.

Last month Vancouver officials admitted they may have to move the $68-million speed-skating oval from SFU

due to cost overruns and geotechnical problems.

© The Vancouver Province 2004