Ambitious Plans Envisioned for 31-Acre Flavelle Mill Site
The owner of the 31-acre Flavelle mill waterfront property in Port Moody has formally submitted their application to amend the Official Community Plan in order to redesignate the site to allow a new high-density mixed-use waterfront development.
Flavelle Oceanfront Development, which owns the site, is the real estate division of Mill & Timber Products, a family business based in Surrey that acquired the cedar sawmill operation in 2000. To date, they have proceeded with development plans on their own rather than entertaining a sale or partnership arrangement.
A redevelopment of the site, occupied for over 100 years by the Flavelle Sawmill Company, has been in the works for several years in conjunction with the City of Port Moody’s new OCP, which was adopted in 2014.
A point of contention had been the site’s designation in Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) as industrial use. Its conversion to residential uses can only happen with Metro Vancouver’s approval to remove its industrial designation. The Board previously declined to amend the RGS designation for the site in 2014 – partially due to what they viewed as an incomplete development plan. Further community and stakeholder consultation coupled with the completion of the Evergreen Skytrain extension has created a renewed impetus to move forward with redevelopment.Flavelle had previously applied in June 2015 to amend the OCP land use designation, and then held open houses in early 2016 to present their preliminary redevelopment plans to the public, and subsequently to stakeholders such as the Port of Vancouver, Translink and Metro Vancouver in addition to 24 other organizations for feedback. Brook Pooni Associates has been working with the owners on the urban planning and public communication phase. Wensley Architecture has contributed to the design work to date.
A full land use plan has now been developed for the City of Port Moody’s consideration. Details of the current proposal include:
- 3,397 residential units
- total density of 3,850,000 SF
- 3,260,000 SF of residential density (including 55,000 SF of rental)
- 99,000 SF of office space
- 103,000 SF of light industrial space
- 72,000 SF of retail
- total density of 2.82 FSR
- 11 towers ranging from 16 to 38-storeys in height
- a mix of light industrial, commercial, office, private indoor amenity space, and possibly a congregate care facility and a hotel.
- Approximately 7.53 acres publicly dedicated as parks and open space
- Upon full build out – resident population 7,000 people and over 1,000 jobs
If the OCP amendment is approved by the City of Port Moody, and subsequent approval is obtained from Metro Vancouver, a more detailed rezoning application would then be submitted to the City.
Several developers have approached Flavelle to sell the site in the past. It remains to be seen whether Flavelle will proceed to develop the full site on their own, in partnership with a developer, or whether they will ultimately dispose of the site, which will be worth a considerable amount once the OCP amendment and Metro Vancouver approvals are obtained.
The project has a website with further information: http://www.flavelleoceanfront.ca/
It’s one thing to take industrial land that’s not being used and convert it to another use. It’s different when a working site with all the infrastructure and jobs is being considered for redevelopment to residential uses when their is already a shortage of large industrial sites in the region. I’m all for dense development near skytrain stations that promote ridership of transit but I’m not sure this is a fair trade.