Rock blasting machines are in the Smiling Creek neighbourhood on Coquitlam’s Burke Mountain.
And ground shakes are expected to ramp up this summer when Morningstar Homes and Infinity Homes develop five properties south of Smiling Creek Park and Smiling Creek Elementary School.
On Monday, Jan. 27, city council granted first, second and third bylaw readings to rezone 1349 Soball St. — formerly 3421 and 3435 Galloway Ave. — for 92 townhomes in 21 buildings for the second phase of the construction partnership.
Council also allowed the two companies to start early site works and rock blasting in coordination with the Phase 1 offsite improvements, in an attempt to lessen the neighbourhood impacts.
Couns. Matt Djonlic and Dennis Marsden said they've received emails from area residents about the upcoming blasting, which is near a school bus pickup location, and asked the developers to communicate with homeowners.
Last June, city council OK’d the first phase of the development following a public hearing to change the Official Community Plan (OCP) for the five properties at 3409, 3411, 3415, 3421 and 3435 Galloway Ave.
According to a report from Chris Jarvie, Coquitlam’s director of development services, the side-by-side stratified townhouses on the 5.6-acre site will have three or four bedrooms each and there will be a common amenities area.
The site also has a non-fish bearing tributary, called unnamed watercourse 23, that runs down the middle of the assembled parcels. As well, the site slopes from northeast to southwest with a 68.9-foot elevation drop.
A total of 226 trees will be planted, once developed, Jarvie wrote.
In September 2023, city council received a petition signed by 67 area residents from 36 addresses opposing the townhouse development that, if approved, will generate $5.6 million in development cost charges for the city as well as $690,000 in community amenity contributions, including for child-care provisions required by the municipality.
Still, before council unanimously approved the three bylaw readings on Monday, Mayor Richard Stewart criticized a comment made in a resident’s email that called the 17 townhomes on the eastern side of the watercourse “unnecessary."
Stewart made clear the provincial government is ordering B.C. municipalities to build more homes.
“Please,” he said, “if you’re going to make representations as to have us modify a plan, come up with a reason that a particular housing unit or group of housing units shouldn’t be built there.
“Calling them ‘unnecessary’ or only there for profit […] We need 50,000 more housing units per year than we can build in this province for the next 20 years. We need to do that. None of those units are going to be 'unnecessary'; council has an imperative to approve housing, where appropriate.”
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