Two new tower proposal go to first reading at the City of Coquitlam next week, one in Burquitlam and one in the City Centre area of Coquitlam. The two projects are detailed below:

545 Sydney Avenue

This proposal is by Ledingham McAlister for a site in the booming Burquitlam neighbourhood along North Road. The site is 0.8 acres and is located at the Northeast corner of Westview Street and Sydney Avenue. 

The site is currently occupied by a 3-storey condo building and the plan calls for rezoning from RM-2 to a Comprehensive Development Zone (CD) based on the RM-6 Multi-Storey High Density Apartment Residential Zone in the Official Community Plan.

The plan is for a new 25-storey residential tower that includes:

• 235 total residential units;
  • 157 condos
  • 78 rental apartments;
• a total density of 5.50 FAR;
• 283 underground parking spaces.

  The site sold in January 2018 for $15,575,000.

The architect for the project is IBI Group.

1108 Westwood Street

Polygon Homes has submitted their application for this site at the southwest corner of Glen Drive and Westwood Street in the City Centre area of Coquitlam. The 1.1 acre site is mostly vacant and comprises an assembly of three lots.

The site sits adjacent a site controlled by Onni (fronting Pinetree Way), which will also be applying for a rezoning for a tower using the same architect, Chris Dikeakos. There is a master plan in place which governs the development of both sites.

The site is located within the City Centre Area Plan (CCAP), is designated City Centre Commercial in the OCP, and is located within the “Core” area of City Centre in the Transit-Oriented Development Strategy (TDS). The proposed rezoning to CD is based on the C-4 Zone which is the applicable zone in the City Centre Commercial designation in the CCAP.

The plan calls for a 40-storey residential tower that includes:

• 273 residential units:
  • 222 condo units;
  • 51 rental apartment units;
• Four retail units;
• 4 floors of office space (24,000 SF total commercial space);
• 19,813 SF of amenity space;
• A total density of 6.40 FAR;
• A total building height of 406 ft.;
• 437 underground parking spaces above and below grade (due to high water table)

The City of Coquitlam, YMCA and Concert Properties have entered into a partnership to exchange lands and rezone two sites in the Burquitlam-Lougheed Neighbourhood Plan area to permit redevelopment on both sites. 

The two sites include:

• Burquitlam Park – a 3.96 acre site on Smith Avenue, adjacent Bosa’s Uptown Development
• Whitgift Gardens – a 5.45 acre site on Cottonwood Avenue, directly North of Bosa’s Lougheed Heights development, and West of Cottonwood Park

The sites are located in the Burquitlam-Lougheed Neighbourhood Plan “Core” and “Shoulder” areas respectively. The proposal involves a property exchange between
the City (at Burquitlam Park) and Concert (Whitgift Gardens – an existing older rental residential complex).The exchange involves 2.15 acres of park land from Burquitlam Park to the Whitgift Gardens site to facilitate the expansion of Cottonwood Park and in return, the same area of developable land, with its associated density, is moved from the Whitgift Gardens site to the Burquitlam Park site.

The two components of the proposal include:

Burquitlam Park Site

• A 50-storey condo tower and 30-storey rental tower;
• 275 rental units;
• 435 condo units;
• a new 60,000 SF 3-storey YMCA recreation facility;
• a new community police station;
• total density of 6.30 FAR;
• 930 parking stalls;
• New 1.5 acre Burquitlam Park.

Whitgift Gardens Site 

• Six highrise residential towers from 24 to 48-storeys in height;
• Two rental towers of 37-storeys;
• Four condo towers of 24, 25, 43 & 48-storeys;
• 654 rental units;
• 1,187 condo units;
• 132 seniors market rental units;
• 20-40 below market rental units;
• standalone amenity building;
• total density of 5.50 FAR;
• 2,350 parking stalls;
• Extension of Emerson Street and new East-West road.

The proposed market rental units represent a roughly 3:1 replacement ratio of the
existing rental units at Whitgift Gardens. The total value of all the public benefits including bonus density funds and CAC’s is $120 Million.

The architects for the project are Raymond Letkeman Architects and Endall Elliott.

Beedie Living is proposing changes to its proposed development on the 89 acre ‘Fraser Mills’ site in Southwest Coquitlam, branded the Village at Fraser Mills.

The project, one of Metro Vancouver’s largest ever master planned communities, was approved nearly a decade ago when the City of Coquitlam approved a master plan including up to 3,700 residential units. In the years that followed, there has been very little development of the site, with only three industrial buildings having gone under construction more recently.

Beedie has now applied to the City to revise the overall plan for the site, citing “changing market conditions over the past nine years”.

Key changes being proposed include:

• Adding 1,000 residential units (up to 4,700)
• Increasing the number of towers from 10 to 15;
• Increasing tower heights up to 41-storeys;
• Increase in total density from 4,062,430 SF to 4,757,000 SF;
• Expanding the plan area to include vacant 4.8 acre Air Care site;
• Addition of a 40,000 SF public community centre with aquatics;
• Reducing the industrial space by 250,000 SF;
• Reducing the proposed retail space by 50,000 SF;
• Replacing the post-secondary use with a 4-storey strata office building;
• Retaining the Kiewit Wharf as a public amenity;
• Removing the elementary school use;
• Reduction in number of project phases from 16 to 9.

Should council endorse staff’s recommendation to move forward to the next phase, the proposed changes would go through further planning and another round of public consultation before the development is fully approved.

Further details regarding the application can be viewed here: http://www.coquitlam.ca/docs/default-source/council-agenda-documents/councilincommittee_2017_10_23_-_item_6.pdf?sfvrsn=2