Peter Busby pauses at a lookout with an expansive view across Port Moody Inlet to admire a bald eagle perched on a barren branch high in a nearby tree.
“Do you think you can get that in the photo?” he asks.
Busby is the second architect hired by developer Brilliant Circle Group (BCG) to design a new community for the 250-acre Ioco lands. It’s his vision that residents and visitors to the project will someday be able to enjoy the same views while sipping a glass of wine or enjoying a coffee on a waterfront bistro patio.
But it’s that natural splendour that is threatened by an aspect of the development project, said a group trying to prevent the construction of an extension to David Avenue through Bert Flinn Park to link to the planned neighbourhood. The access route is a key component to ease pressure on narrow, twisty Ioco Road when thousands of new residents move into the site that encompasses the historic Ioco townsite.
As the project enters a third round of public consultation that includes a series of open houses and planning meetings beginning Thursday, PoMo resident Hunter Madsen, who started the group Friends of Bert Flinn Park, said he’s encouraged by the hiring of Busby, an architect known for his environmental design and sensitivity to sustainability.
“This is a chance to push the restart button,” Madsen told The Tri-City News.
Busby said now that he’s involved, nothing is off the table, including the possibility of finding another route to the Ioco lands.
“We have to find the right way to access the site," he said.
Still, he concedes that the David Avenue extension has “been part of the OCP [official community plan] for years.”
Port Moody council was expected to discuss at its regular meeting Tuesday a request to Brilliant Circle to fund an assessment of alternative road routes.
Busby, who inherited the project in March when its first architect, James Cheng, moved on to other projects, said his strength as a planner is what’s needed now as Brilliant Circle continues to gather input from the public about what people would like to see in the new community.
So far, the wish list is long. It includes protection for the historic Ioco townsite and its heritage buildings, including the old school; an interactive community with recreational, social and educational opportunities for residents; ready access to retail, services and transit; environmental stewardship; and a waterfront focus that could include ferry service to Rocky Point Park.
“The challenge is to find the right mix,” said Busby, whose team will take the suggestions submitted from an online survey as well as two public open houses and two small group meetings to begin producing the first drawings to give a visual representation of what the project could become.
Those drawings would be ready for a subsequent round of further public consultations, he said.
Madsen said the lack of renderings to give a sense of the scope of development planned for the Ioco lands is one of his group’s ongoing frustrations.
“How many people are they planning to bring in to the area?” he said. “We’re watching and waiting.”
Madsen said since plans to extend David Avenue through Bert Flinn Park to connect to the Ioco lands — although on the books for two decades — became widely known, he has collected 2,200 signatures on a petition to prevent that from happening. His group has also held rallies to raise awareness about the threat to the 311-acre park that is used by hikers, mountain bikers and dog walkers, as well as students from nearby Heritage Woods secondary school for trail runs.
“People feel so strongly about the park,” Madsen said, adding that building a roadway through it would “put a stake right through the heart of the park as a refuge or getaway.”
Busby said the natural environment of Port Moody’s north shore is what makes the area so desirable, and a large part of his challenge.
“How can you capture that and make a community that is part of nature?” he said. “The presence of nature here, the sizeable trees — it’s not often you get a site in as good a condition as this.”
PUBLIC MEETINGS
• The first of two small group meetings on the Ioco lands project will be held Thursday, June 15, 6 to 8 p.m., in the gym at Anmore elementary school. The second group meeting is scheduled for Saturday, June 17, 2 to 4 p.m., in the library at Pleasantside elementary. Registration is required by emailing [email protected] or by calling 778-379-3037.
• Two public meetings will also be held. The first is Saturday, June 17, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Anmore elementary. The second will be Thursday, June 22, 5 to 8 p.m. in the Inlet Theatre at Port Moody city hall.
• There’s also an online survey available through the month of June at iocolands.ca/engagement.
