Twin 39-storey rental towers will rise next to the Moody Centre SkyTrain station in downtown Port Moody.
Tuesday, April 1, council passed third reading of several amendments to the city’s zoning and official community plan bylaws that will allow the project, by Vancouver-based PCI Developments, to proceed. They include exceeding the current 26-storey height limit for buildings in the neighbourhood as well as a reduction in the distance between the towers from 60 metres to 28 metres.
Council’s approval by a vote of 5-1 — Coun. Samantha Agtarap was not present — came after a public hearing that lasted almost three hours during which speakers in favour of the project more than doubled those opposed.
PCI’s proposal comprises 865 rental apartments of which 613 will be studio or one-bedroom units with average sizes ranging from 382 square feet to 549 square feet. Another 179 apartments will be two-bedrooms with an average size of 753 square feet while 54 will have three or more bedrooms. Their average size will be 958 square feet.
Five per cent — or 44 — of the apartments will be made available at below-market rents, although council did endorse an amendment put forth by Coun. Amy Lubik that the city continue to work with the developer to find funding that might increase that number.
Port Moody senior planner Dejan Teodorovic said PCI’s project would realize about $25 million in amenity contributions to the city, including development cost charges and bonus payments for increased density. But, he said, more than half that money would be used to pay for enhanced design work on an expansive 26,000-square-foot community plaza at the entrance to the Moody Centre SkyTrain station as well as the construction of a new pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks to the north of the site to Murray Street, just across from Rocky Point Park.
Teodorovic said the span would be open to everyone 24/7 with elevator access owned, operated and maintained by the developer. He added the overpass would be completed at the same time the first tower is ready for occupancy.
As well, PCI has promised a 40,000-square-foot grocery store although the company couldn’t yet say who would operate it, along with 15,000 square feet of retail spaces on the ground floor of the buildings’ podium and in a pavilion on the public plaza.
The company will also daylight Dallas/Slaughterhouse Creek that runs across the east end of the site along Spring Street and buffer it with 16,000 square feet of protected riparian area that’s to be turned over to Port Moody as a park. An “artists alley” with more than 4,000 square feet of studio spaces will overlook the new greenery.
Coun. Kyla Knowles said the scope of the development and the amenities it brings will be a boon to the city’s downtown that’s currently comprised of aging commercial and light industrial buildings.
“Right now, this land is under-utilized despite being right next to the Moody Centre SkyTrain station,” she said.
Coun. Callan Morrison agreed.
“I see a complete community and this development is the heart of it.”
Mayor Meghan Lahti said a lot has been gained since council got its first look at PCI’s proposal in 2023, including commitments from the developer to include public washrooms in the plaza pavilion as well as the planting of more than 150 new trees.
“This development is going to bring more trees into the city in a place that currently has no tree canopy.”
But Coun. Haven Lurbiecki, who cast the lone dissenting vote, said her fellow councillors are putting the cart before the horse by approving amendments to the city’s official community plan when the process to update it was put on hold last year to consider the impact of new provincial housing legislation.
Lurbiecki said PCI’s project is “too tall and too dense,” and its large proportion of studio and one-bedroom apartments won’t address Port Moody’s need for more family-friendly units.
Earlier, during the public’s opportunity to comment on the proposal, one person labelled the towers “monoliths” and “monstrosities,” that would foster isolation among their residents.
Others feared the towers’ impact on traffic and long shadows falling over nearby Rocky Point Park.
But several said PCI’s development will help create “a more vibrant sustainable community.” Some said the inclusion of artists studios and a grocery store are much needed and long overdue for the neighbourhood.
“Having a grocery store is what everybody has been waiting for,” said one.
When completed, the towers will be the tallest in the city. They’ll join three towers of 32, 34 and 38 storeys to be built by Beedie Living just a little further east on Spring Street that council approved in February. In March, council also got its first look at a 26-storey rental tower Anthem Properties wants to build just across from the Moody Centre SkyTrain station.
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