Larco and Sapperton Green are sure to keep the city’s planning staff on the go in 2014.
Bev Grieve, the city’s manager of development services, said the two projects are priorities for her department this year.
“Those are the two big ones,” she said. “Our work plan is absolutely full.”
Staff will also get started on updating New Westminster’s official community plan.
“You are going to see some preliminary work on the official community plan for real this year. We are really excited about Queensborough being finalized. We can turn our attention toward the mainland,” Grieve told The Record. “We have a work plan that’s ready to go. You’ll see bits and pieces of the research work being done.”
In December, the city unveiled a waterfront vision concept plan for the Larco site at 660 Quayside Dr. Under the current zoning, the site could accommodate five highrise towers, but under the vision proposed by the city it would have three highrises, a 150-room hotel, an extended waterfront esplanade and child care space.
“That is moving along very well. We will be moving towards the rezoning of the site early in January,” Grieve said. “We will be introducing the rezoning application to council. That’s a huge one on our radar.”
While rezonings most often come from the developer, the city will be initiating the rezoning process for the Larco site.
“We have been working incredibly close with Larco, but it will be a city initiative,” Grieve said.
The city has held workshops and open houses as part of the master planning process for the site, but residents will get a chance to comment on the plan during the rezoning process.
“I have to say the feedback has been very, very positive and the people are quite excited about implementing the vision for the downtown,” Grieve said. “The issues that people raise, the big one of course is traffic. We are working with the applicant, our consultants, in looking at that issue and making sure that we can address it.”
At the same time that the city unveiled the new vision concept for the Larco site, it also presented a downtown parking strategy. Among the recommendations was the demolition of a portion of the Front Street parkade.
“You are going to be seeing a report to council within the next two months on that, an action plan to move forward on that,” Grieve said. “The timeframe we are looking for it to come down is within three years. There were a number of preconditions that were set – we are working through those preconditions to ensure they are addressed.”
Sapperton Green, a site located at Braid Avenue and Brunette Street near the Sapperton SkyTrain station, is also destined for a mixed-use development.
“The applicant made an official community plan application,” Grieve said. “We are working through the various issues and opportunities that that project is giving us.”
In the first half of the year, city staff will be working on a number of reports to be presented to council about the project.
A representative from Bentall-Kennedy appeared before council last fall to discuss plans for the 38-acre site near the Coquitlam border. At the time, some council members expressed a strong desire to see employment generating uses at the site.
“At this point there hasn’t been discussion about what the distribution of land use is,” Grieve said. “That is what is really what’s next in terms of the work program for that site, to look at the future. What will the future distribution of land use between employment generation and residential be? That, of course, turns in to identifying what the needs are for the site.”
With the development to be located near the busy Braid and Brunette intersection, transportation planning has been “front and centre from the beginning” and has involved the applicant and its planning consultants, the city, the Ministry of Transportation and TransLink, Grieve said.
