Port Coquitlam councillors were recently given a peek into future development applications that will — if approved — add housing, child care and industrial space to the city.
The projects were identified as in the works at city hall.
Director of planning and development manager Bruce Irvine told a recent council-in-committee meeting that the city will continue to experience growth — if not as strong as 2022’s banner year.
“I think this reflect’s a renewed confidence in this community,” said Irvine. “Not only that we’re growing but we are growing in a way that seems really sustainable.”
The development recap showed that 2022 was the city’s biggest year for housing applications, with 517 new residential units in the works.
Market slowing in 2023
However, the city is expected to see a slight dip in 2023, due to market conditions, with a forecast for 450 per year from 2024–2026 due to some large projects in the pipeline.
Key among the bigger projects in process at PoCo City Hall is Mosaic’s two tower development on Westwood Street and Woodland Drive.
The project will see a 28-storey high-rise with 556 units plus 12,000 sq. ft. of retail facing on to Westwood Street within about 400 metres of the Lincoln SkyTrain Station.
Council was told that the city is working on off-site requirements for the projects and coordinating with the City of Coquitlam, TransLink, and utilities.
The city’s manager of development engineering, Jennifer Little, said a number of other significant projects are in the pipeline including:
• a multi-family development at the corner of Prairie Avenue and Shaughnessy St., which is being proposed by Polygon for seven lots. It will have 117 residential units — and a large Douglas fir tree will be saved as part of the project.
• 44 townhouses are proposed for the Rindall Avenue and Tyler Street area. It will be in a two phase-development, Little said, and the developer is looking at how a single residential lot in the midst of the land assembly could be developed in the future.
• townhouses are proposed for property at Harbour Street and Pitt River Road. An earlier proposal for commercial at-grade and apartments above was scrapped by the new owner of the property. “The property changed hands and the new owner has decided to let that application die. It had reached third reading,” Little said. The new proposal “is in keeping with the OCP,” she said.
• a child care centre for 65 spaces that could be for $10 a day is proposed for a house on Grant Street. Little said the applicant is working to ensure that the facility fits in with the residential character of the area.
• a four-unit heavy industrial building is being proposed for 2043 Kingsway Ave., next to the Coast Mountain bus loop.
• A development permit application is in the works for a residential and commercial project in Onni Fremont Village (Parcel P). Little said the proposed development is for 200 residential units with amenities including a pool.
• Bosa is looking at development a commercial-industrial property next to Costco on Nicola Avenue, which could include an auto dealership and a distribution centre. “That will be a bit of a hybrid commercial, light industrial mixed rezoning application, “ Little said.
