A Port Moody councillor says a decision by her colleagues to allow just 14 minutes to discuss a proposal by Vancouver-based PCI Developments to build two 39-storey rental towers next to the Moody Centre SkyTrain station is “absolutely shocking” and “irresponsible.”
Tuesday, Oct. 22, council approved first and second reading of amendments to official community plan and zoning bylaws required for the project to proceed prior to adjourning for the night at 10 p.m.
The proposal will now go to a public hearing.
Coun. Haven Lurbiecki, who voted against a motion to extend the meeting and instead wanted to defer discussion about the project to a subsequent session, accused her council colleagues of rushing to provide feedback “on the most massive development project we’ve seen in our history.”
Lurbiecki added, “This is critical to our community. I just cannot even believe this.”
PCI’s plan to build the tallest towers in Port Moody comprises 865 rental apartments — 44 of them to be made available at below market rates — constructed atop a podium that includes a 41,398 sq. ft. full-service grocery store and other commercial spaces, 4,000 sq. ft. of artists studios and an elevated pedestrian walkway connecting it to Murray Street across from Rocky Point Park.
As well, the project would see the daylighting and realignment of Dallas/Slaughterhouse Creek that bisects the site to create a new urban greenway to be turned over to the city as a park.
A new 25,000 sq. ft. public plaza would also be built at the entrance to the SkyTrain station with a one-storey commercial pavilion, public washrooms, permanent outdoor seating, lighting, signage, banner poles, bike racks and public art.
In a report, Port Moody’s manager of development planning, Wesley Woo, said the plaza would be “a major public gathering place” and “a desirable amenity for the neighbourhood.”
Coun. Amy Lubik, who voted to advance the project, said while “there’s a lot to like,” including the grocery store and artists spaces, she thinks the city still has room to negotiate for more affordable housing units given its massive density.
But Coun. Kyla Knowles said time is of the essence as “construction delays cost money,” which would be reflected in higher rents for the project’s residents.
She said the size and scope of PCI’s proposal “fits perfectly with a transit-oriented development.”
That sentiment was echoed by Coun. Diana Dilworth, who decried the Moody Centre neighbourhood’s landscape of aging light industrial and commercial buildings more than eight years after the arrival of SkyTrain.
Lurbiecki, however, wasn’t buying it, suggesting her colleagues had become “a rubber stamp factory” just as the clock hit 10 p.m. and the meeting adjourned.
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