Plans to restore a heritage home in Maillardville and build French-Canadian style apartments around it came before Coquitlam's land use committee this week.
Architect Matthew Cheng said Guang Xin Development Ltd. has bought four properties across from Place des Arts - bordered Brunette Avenue, Therrien and Begin streets - and has an offer to buy a fifth lot that has a century-old house listed on the Maillardville Heritage Inventory.
Now dilapidated and occupied by squatters, the house was originally a mushroom barn on Begin Street and owned by Tom Allard. The next owner, Tom Filiatrault, a pipefitter at Fraser Mills and a Coquitlam alderman, moved it to its present location at 1123-1129 Brunette Ave. and turned it into a fourplex with a barbershop. According to the inventory records, it was called the Red House because of its "boxcar red" colour.
Cheng said the proposal is to restore the home and move it to the next lot as well as to build 74 multi-family units around it in three- and four-storey buildings.
Cheng said he plans to submit a rezoning bid to the city this spring.
