The mayor of Anmore is lashing out at Port Moody Mayor Rob Vagramov after a decision by that city’s council to remove the right-of-way for a David Avenue connector through Bert Flinn Park.
In a statement posted on John McEwen’s Facebook page, he called Vagramov “disrespectful” for failing to consult the village’s council prior to Tuesday’s vote by Port Moody councillors to remove references to the right-of-way from the city’s official community plan, along with amending that plan to restrict development of the Ioco lands within its borders to its current zoning for 253 homes.
McEwen said the decision also puts residents of Anmore and neighbouring Belcarra at risk as it could restrict access by emergency vehicles in the case of a disaster such as a wildfire, a point he made in a letter submitted to Port Moody council prior to Tuesday’s meeting.
In that letter, McEwen said, “The current emergency routes (East Road and Ioco Road) are winding and slow-moving,” adding access is even worse in the summer when they’re congested with traffic heading to Belcarra Regional Park and Buntzen and Sasamat lakes.
McEwen also said the city has never discussed with Anmore council options for alternative routes linking Port Moody and Anmore that were presented in a 2018 report by ISL Engineering. That report, which the public got to see during an open house at PoMo city hall in May of that year, looked at 16 alternatives, from making enhancements to Ioco Road to improve the flow of traffic while not increasing the route’s capacity to construction of a bridge across the Burrard Inlet to Barnet Highway or a tunnel beneath Bert Flinn, the latter two of which were discounted as being too expensive.
In his letter to Port Moody council, McEwen criticized the report as “significantly flawed” and “poorly executed” as it only looked at alternatives to building the David Avenue extension rather than considering the best way overall to accommodate traffic from new development in Anmore and Belcarra, as well as from increased use of the parks.
McEwen said “this lack of consultation is extremely disappointing,” adding the two communities have a memorandum of understanding signed in 2015 that they would work together on any projects at the Ioco lands.
But at Tuesday’s meeting, Vagramov said that agreement only applied to development applications, and as Port Moody has yet to receive any sort of formal proposal from the owner of the Ioco lands, Gilic Global Development Management Inc., it was under no obligation to consult with Anmore about decisions it’s making about the property.
Rather, Vagramov said, Port Moody has yet to hear anything from Anmore about a proposal by Gilic to build a mixed-use community for 4,200 residents, called Burrard Commons, on a parcel of its property in that community.
McEwen called that assertion “ridiculous” in his Facebook post. He said the village is just beginning its process to look at the Burrard Commons project that “would include discussions [with] Port Moody council.”
THE POST
Here is McEwen’s Facebook post in full:
After witnessing Port Moody’s Council meeting last night, I cannot stay silent. It’s bad enough that the decision made by Council to remove the David Avenue Connector right-of-way will have serious ramifications for our community and those who live in Belcarra and along Ioco, but the situation is further exacerbated by comments by Mayor Vagramov indicating that our Council was consulted on the decision.
In fact, we were not consulted.
Even all the way back to 2016, we were caught by surprise when we learned that Port Moody was going to consider a motion to remove the right-of-way. There has been no meaningful consultation with us regarding the so-called “options” for alternative routes, and in fact, it’s evident that these options were not even pursued or evaluated to determine their true feasibility as we have looked into them further, and it’s clear they would not work. We were not advised ahead of time, let alone consulted, before Council passed the resolution in October 2019 to remove the right-of-way, and we have not been consulted since that decision. All we got was an offer to submit comments as part of the Public Hearing process which is a legislated requirement. And based on what occurred in the meeting last night, it’s evident that this offer was an empty gesture.
This lack of consultation with our Council is extremely disappointing given that removing this right-of-way would have implications for our community and the region. But the lack of consultation is even worse as we have a signed Memorandum of Understanding with Port Moody Council from 2015 that involved a commitment by our two Councils to work together on matters that relate to the Ioco Lands. Instead, we were ignored.
During a recent meeting in Anmore with myself, Mayor Vagramov and our respective CAOs, Mayor Vagramov told me that we were not following the MOU. His accusation is ridiculous given that our Council is not the one that has made any decisions about the Anmore Ioco Lands. We are just now starting our process and have plans to do extensive consultation, which would include discussions Port Moody Council.
Instead, the MOU has been ignored by Port Moody as they have made a number of decisions related to the Ioco Lands - not just about removing the right-of-way but also to change the zoning in the area to remove any possibility of the initial project reviewed during the pre-application process. Both of these key decisions were made without consulting our Council.
While Port Moody has not respected our Memorandum of Understanding, our Council took the initiative to share a detailed letter as part of the Public Hearing process, outlining our many concerns. This includes the fact that removing the David Avenue Connector right-of-way will cut off emergency access to Anmore and Belcarra for emergency services, which affects the safety of our communities. We highlighted the impacts on Ioco Road as there will still be growth in our region – and not just residential. We are also seeing increased industrial truck traffic to and from the Imperial Oil lands and BC Hydro’s Burrard Thermal sites and more people accessing Metro Vancouver’s Belcarra Regional Park and BC Hydro’s Buntzen Lake.
At the meeting last night, it was evident that the majority of Council had their own personal agenda to push through the vote to remove the right-of-way, regardless of regional impacts and our stated concerns. The lack of meaningful consultation is disrespectful to all of the residents who we represent and who will be affected by last night’s decision.
So let me set the record straight. We were not consulted. We do not support the decision and in fact are categorically against removal of this right-of-way as it takes away important emergency access and will result in serious transportation impacts in our area, especially on Ioco Road.
