Onni vice-president Chris Evans says the company is not considering any development other than a business park on its land in Pitt Meadows.
Evans made the statement after Pitt Meadows Coun. Bill Dingwall said June 6 he had met with company representatives, who said they were willing to consider land uses other than light industrial for the property that is slated for the Golden Ears Business Park.
Evans though, said last week the business park project has a lot of momentum, and Onni regards it as “our trophy industrial property for the company.”
“We have been working on the business park for over 10 years, and are committed to seeing Phases 3 and 4 built, which is what the OCP (official community plan) calls for,” said Evans.
“This type of development is an important aspect to our overall business and will be a marquee development for the company for years to come. The opportunity to build and own a 200-acre business park is beyond rare.”
Phases three and four of the light industrial development will be back before council on Tuesday night, as a public meeting is scheduled to review the OCP amendments and rezoning to allow the development. It is scheduled for the Pitt Meadows Recreation Centre gymnasium, to accommodate the large crowd expected, at 6:30 p.m.
The development has been a contentious issue, with South Bonson residents opposed to the building heights going from 12 metres to 13.5 m, and with building setbacks reduced from 20 m, increased traffic, and with an interface between industrial buildings and residential subdivisions.
On the issue of building heights, Evans said it is “a very important issue for the feasibility of the business park.”
Tenants who occupy these types of buildings have a clear height requirement and to achieve this requirement, Onni needs a building height of 13.5 m, he said.
Originally, Onni asked for the buildings to have a maximum height of 15 m, but that request since has been reduced.
“Understanding the sensitivity to building height, we have worked with our consultant team to minimize overall building heights as much as we are able,” he said.
“It is imperative to the success of the business park to have this height limit. We have worked to develop a plan that steps building heights where we have neighbourhood residential, to minimize the impact of the 1.5-m increase to the 12-m height limit.”
Asked about the economic impact of the park, he said the city will collect an estimated $6.4 million in taxes yearly from the completed development. In 2017, total taxes collected by the city was $17.7 million, which would include $1.1 million from phase one.
It will be a total investment of $450 million once completed.
The business park will also be an economic driver.
“Our consultants have estimated that the once completed, Golden Ears will employee over 5,000 people and estimates that over 1,500 will be Pitt Meadows residents,” said Evans.
He said the parcels of land have been designated for this land use for almost 10 years and Onni had received very little public objection to the first two phases of Golden Ears Business Park.
Evans said the amenity contribution of 10.8 acres of land is another benefit to the city. The city will be responsible for the cost of developing playing fields on the site.
However, the city can only use its park reserve funds for buying land – and not for building recreation infrastructure.
Instead, council has discussed buying some of the land from Onni – with the developer then contributing that portion of the funding to the construction of the field. That would allow the city to use reserves allocated for purchase of land toward the field development.
Evans said industrial development does not typically require amenity contributions, but the company is “working hard to find a compromise for the community.”
“We do believe that the area being dedicated for the new sports fields represents a tremendous and rare opportunity for the community, and the long-term benefits of this amenity will positively impact Pitt Meadows residents for years to come,” he said.
Many cities try to attract such investment. Asked about the opposition of neighbours, Evans said it is not unique.
“Every development has its local impact and ours requires us to be very sensitive with the neighbouring uses, but this is not totally unique to Pitt Meadows. Queensborough in New Westminster, Port Kells in Langley, Riverway in Burnaby, Marine and Cambie in Vancouver. Although each is unique, they all have dealt with residential and industrial uses being adjacent to each other,” he said.
“It requires you to be sensitive to it but it is certainly not impossible nor unprecedented.”