Maple Ridge council is putting the brakes on another development proposal for Lougheed Highway – until it knows how buses, trucks and cars, and maybe one day, SkyTrain, will fit on the road.
A plan to build 86 units on the north side of the highway, at 22057 Lougheed, was deferred at council’s July 24 meeting, until the city finishes a land-use study, involving public consultation, that will plot out the future transportation corridor.
That process starts in the fall.
“We have a corridor that we should be looking at because we’re going to have a lot more density along that transit line and we’re going to try to add density and I don’t know if we have pre-thought that,” said Coun. Gordy Robson.
TransLink is currently plotting a route for the new B-line bus service in September 2019. It will provide express service from Haney bus loop to the SkyTrain in Coquitlam Central station.
Robson said most of the B-line bus stop locations on Lougheed Highway have been identified.
“Now that we know where that’s going to be, we should be planning density around those bus stops and decide what the highway will look like.”
The 22057 Lougheed Hwy. proposal comprises a five-storey apartment building on the north side of the road. The design of the building calls for four storeys at the back of the building and five storeys facing the main road with a mix of studio, one- two- and three-bedroom suites.
The building would take place where old homes are currently being rented out to a registered charity. Part of the application proposes to include about eight rental units as part of the complex and another four built as accessible units.
However, staff note that the city’s draft density bonus framework calls for a project to include 10 per cent of the units at below-market rental rates, and will ask the applicant to adjust the proposal to that.
Council, earlier this year, put on hold a plan to build 150 studio, one- and two-bedroom suites on the south side of Lougheed Highway, just west of 222nd Street, until the city and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure can agree on a design for improving the 222nd Street/Haney Bypass intersection on Lougheed Highway. Robson also wants the ministry to buy the Salvation Army Ridge Meadows Ministry to allow a better design for the intersection.