A Port Moody councillor says the city’s recommended design concept to update Rocky Point Park ignores community concerns about its overcrowding.
Coun. Haven Lurbiecki said proposed developments that will bring thousands of more residents to the Moody Centre neighbourhood means the 3.8-acre waterfront park needs to be expanded to ensure they can all enjoy green space close to home.
“People want to feel the connection to nature,” Lurbiecki said Tuesday, July 9, as council considered results from the third round of public engagement informing a new master plan that will guide the development of Rocky Point and Old Orchard parks for the next 10 years.
"If you add 20-30,000 people near the park, you need to expand the park.”
While the recommended design concept for Rocky Point Park includes a larger, more open central lawn area, construction of a larger boardwalk along the waterfront, wider walking paths and parking improvements, Mayor Meghan Lahti noted the 34-acre Flavelle property immediately west of the park remains privately owned and is slated for redevelopment.
“We can’t go on public engagement about somebody else’s land,” she said, adding “the desire to expand the park is shared by everybody up here.”
Flavelle Oceanfront Development achieved amendments to Port Moody’s official community plan and zoning bylaws in 2018, as well as approval from Metro Vancouver’s board of directors to change the property’s designation from industrial to general urban use.
But the company has yet to bring a substantive redevelopment plan to council for consideration. It’s hoping to build 3,400 residential units in 11 towers ranging from 16 to 38 storeys, as well as retail, office and light industrial spaces and even a hotel and congregate care facility on the site of a former lumber mill that closed in 2020.
The company said it would dedicate almost one-quarter of the project to public park and open spaces, including a new boardwalk linked to Rocky Point Park.
Coun. Samantha Agtarap suggested the solution to creating more park space at Rocky Point might be hiding in plain sight.
“We have a significant portion of the park site taken up by parking,” she said. “We need to explore more options for that.”
Agtarap said it will also be incumbent on council to ensure development projects in the Moody Centre area incorporate green spaces their residents will be able to enjoy.
“We can create parks where none were before.”
