Work to complete Port Moody’s new official community plan is on hold.
In a closed meeting Feb. 13, council decided to pause the process of updating the plan until January, 2025, or the full scope of work to accommodate new provincial housing legislation is completed, whichever occurs first.
The official community plan is a blueprint for Port Moody’s direction for the next 25 years.
A draft of Port Moody’s expansive 175-page document was presented to council last Dec. 5.
Kate Zanon, the city’s general manager of community development, told councillors the draft plan is the culmination of three years of workshops, surveys and community engagement.
She said several more meetings, public hearings and town halls would be required before it’s adopted. That was expected by summer.
Mary De Paoli, Port Moody’s manager of policy planning, said the draft OCP envisions the city as a safe waterfront community of connected, complete neighbourhoods that values its natural environs, heritage character as well as arts and culture.
The plan also contemplates increased density in parts of the city like the north part of Coronation Park, Westport Village, the former Flavelle cedar mill property, the area around the Moody Centre SkyTrain station and a stretch along the south side of Murray Street.
But De Paoli cautioned, some of those density expectations could change because of the new provincial regulations.
A staff report about the legislation that received royal assent last November and its impact on city projects and policies is to be presented to council at its meeting on Tuesday, March 12. Among other things, the legislation mandates higher density development in neighbourhoods close to mass transit and streamlined procedures to approve development.
The report’s authors, social planners Liam McLellan and Shareen Chin, said the city will have to complete an update to its zoning bylaw as well as prepare a new housing needs report before work can continue on the OCP, delaying completion until the end of 2025.
The city’s current OCP was adopted in 2014 and it is typically updated every five to 10 years.
