A massive redevelopment of Port Moody’s Woodland Park neighbourhood has been given the green light to proceed.
On Tuesday (Dec. 7), council voted to approve amendments to the city’s official community plan and zoning bylaws that will allow Edgar Developments to build 2,053 housing units in the 24-acre neighbourhood near Clarke Road that is currently comprised of 200 ageing rental townhomes.
A last-minute attempt by Mayor Rob Vagramov to delay the project until city staff could complete an assessment of the viability of building a third SkyTrain station nearby failed.
Vagramov said the prospect of bringing up to 4,000 new residents into a part of the city that doesn’t have ready access to mass transit is “the thing that would be holding me back from supporting this project.”
The mayor started his push last summer for an additional SkyTrain station to service the new development – located roughly midway between the Burquitlam and Moody Centre stops – as well as a potential future project at the old Andrés Wine site.
A consultant’s report presented to council in October said such a station at Queens Street or just a little further west would cost between $50 million and $100 million and would likely have to funded by developers.
But the report also stated the close proximity of a new station to the Moody Centre station would mean it wouldn’t attract too much additional ridership to transit anyway.
Coun. Zoe Royer expressed concern that any further delay to Edgar’s project, first presented to council in early 2020, could put it and some of the amenities the developer has promised in jeopardy.
“I think that could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” she said.
Among those amenities is a commitment by the developer to build 325 units of affordable rental housing —backed by $140 million in funding from BC Housing — in the project’s first phase that will allow most of the neighbourhood’s current residents to continue living there.
Coun. Diana Dilworth cautioned if Port Moody doesn’t jump on what amounts to the biggest provincial investment in affordable housing in the Tri-Cities in decades, “there are 164 other municipalities in this province lined up” to take advantage.
Other benefits to the community promised by the developer include:
- Daycare with 93 spaces
- 19,000 sq. ft. of commercial space that could accommodate a grocery store and café or several smaller food outlets
- Nearly two kilometres of active trails to connect the development’s five neighbourhoods
- Expansive, semi-public green space between all the buildings
- Environmental restoration and protection around three creeks that run through the site
- Newly realigned access route along Highview Place to connect a new signalized intersection at the Barnet Highway and Clarke Street
- Parcel of property on Highview gifted to the city for possible construction of a new fire hall
In its proposal, Edgar said the project’s 2,053 new homes in buildings ranging from six to 19 storeys will be constructed in five phases with completion expected sometime in the mid-2030s.
