Pitt Meadows is again concentrating on the North Lougheed Study Area, with almost $600,000 worth of studies and analysis to be completed before the end of the year.
By December 2019, Pitt Meadows council plans to apply to remove 51 hectares of farmland near the corner of Harris Road and the Lougheed Highway from the Agricultural Land Reserve.
Besides the Agricultural Land Commission, the application will need the approval of Metro Vancouver.
City staff plans to share the cost of many reports with landowners and developers.
“The financial numbers don’t scare me,” Mayor Bill Dingwall said at the May 28 council meeting.
“Doing this kind of big work on 125 acres (51 hectares) comes with a cost. But what we can get out of this, if we get it right, I think is important.”
SmartCentres applied to develop 17 hectares at the site for shopping and another 7.7 for a business park. The ALC had decided the development could go on farmland in 2013, on the condition it was combined with construction of North Lougheed Connector road.
That road would take commuter traffic off the Old Dewdney Trunk Road, which is often used by farm vehicles.
Of the 51 hectares, 33 are in the ALR.
However, the last council voted to defer the rezoning of the project indefinitely The city received a petition of 600 names opposing the last development.
Council wants a new land use plan for the area, and staff noted the last one was drafted in 2011.
Staff plans to re-engage the public and stakeholders in June and July. Some of the ideas from council have included less retail at the site, replaced by high-density residential construction, to take advantage of the near proximity of TransLink’s planned B-Line rapid transit.
In September, staff will return to council with technical studies, including traffic and market analysis, and public engagement findings.
There will also be geotechnical reports, flood hazard and soil assessments, archaeological findings and an environmental assessment.
The cost is $270,000 this year, and $312,000 in 2020.
Staff said changing conditions will strengthen the application, as traffic is likely worse now on Old Dewdney Trunk Road and the connecting road is more critical.
Staff is pursuing the most aggressive timeline possible, given challenges getting consultants.
Dingwall said the business case for the development is more compelling now. With tolls off the Golden Ears Bridge and increased population growth in the region, there is more traffic congestion.
Also, transit routes like TransLink’s B-Line generally attract residential development.
Dingwall said the ALC is the “big risk,” and the city must prepare a strong business case.
“I’m less worried about Metro Vancouver. That’s the colleagues and the world I deal with, and again having the right business case will make that flow. I see Metro not as a big hurdle.”
He said the project would likely be a decade-long buildout.
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