New roads and reservoirs will be built on Burke Mountain after Coquitlam city council this week approved a plan to borrow $17.8 million.
The approval came after the results were announced from an alternative approval process, a vote held in March and April that asked Coquitlam residents to visit city hall and fill out a form if they didn't want the city to borrow the funds.
The voting method, which requires at least 10% of the electorate to challenge a proposal, is permitted under B.C.'s Community Charter and is often criticized as favouring municipal governments; for Coquitlam, that would mean at least 8,283 voters would have had to oppose the plan.
In a report to council, clerk Jay Gilbert stated the city received 10 responses over the two-month voting period.
At Monday's meeting, city council made no comment as it unanimously passed fourth and final reading of the 2013 Capital Program Loan Authorization Bylaw.
As a result, the city will borrow $17.8 million for $21.9 million worth of infrastructure projects, most of them on Burke Mountain, where the city is building a community for 25,000 new residents over the next 20 years.
City staff say the $4 million not borrowed will come from city sources, including development cost charges (DCCs) already collected and cash that is to be borrowed, then repaid using future DCCs.
Other Coquitlam news:
ROOF JOB
The washrooms at Coquitlam's Blue Mountain Park will be closed this and next week for roof repairs.
City crews shut the restrooms by the tot park yesterday (Tuesday) until Victoria Day, May 20; however, port-a-potties will be available for park users.
Meanwhile, the spray park will open on Saturday, May 18 while the wading pool will be open on June 15.
The city has made a number of changes to Blue Mountain Park this year, including adding new playground equipment and tearing down the old change rooms.
The wading pool will also eventually be decommissioned as the spray park gets upgraded, city managers say.
REVAMP
Coquitlam city hall is looking a little different these days.
This week, the engineering as well as the development services and planning departments moved to the ground floor, to the space once used by the City Centre library branch. That branch moved last year, two blocks south, to a city-owned building next to Henderson Centre mall.
The city hall renovation work does not include the relocation of the building permits, licensing and bylaws divisions, which will stay on the second floor.
