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UPDATE: Maple Ridge council proceeds with Yennadon Lands project

Numerous speakers voiced opposition to industrial area at public hearing
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There has been determined opposition to the Yennadon Lands employment park proposal. (Neil Corbett/The News)

Maple Ridge council unanimously supported a plan to turn the Yennadon Lands into an employment park on May 24, despite hearing public opposition a week earlier.

For more than two hours members of the public generally spoke against the proposal at a May 17 public hearing.

The plan would see 13 properties joined into a 63-acre site, for a development that is part of the city’s commercial and industrial strategy. A staff report noted the properties at 128th Avenue and 232nd Street are flat, easily serviced, and have access to arterial roads. In December of 2020 council endorsed a plan to create an employment area there, and told staff to prepare a bylaw to amend the Official Community Plan. Council voted to give the bylaw amendments third reading on May 24.

READ ALSO: Maple Ridge council advances Yennadon Lands plan

In December of 2020, council looked at concept plans, and chose a neighbourhood innovations village, which aims to create a neighbourhood where residents can “live, work and play,” while protecting green spaces.

READ ALSO: Maple Ridge council chooses a plan for Yennadon Lands

But numerous speakers opposed the plan a week ago, based on its impacts on wildlife, habitat, and a salmon-bearing stream. There were also numerous complaints that roads in the area can’t take more traffic.

Cynthia Mackie said she has lived directly across from the Yennadon Lands site for over five years, and offered a long list the wildlife seen there, including bears and cubs, deer and fawns, bobcats and more.

Robert Dramer has lived in the area since 1977, and has “great concern” for Coho Creek, saying the salmon-bearing stream’s health could not be guaranteed if the area is developed.

Dan Wallace said Abernethy Way should be upgraded before these lands are developed, along with other streets in the area. And, he said, there is a lot of dangerous driving, and the area needs traffic calming.

Wallace agreed with the concept in general, but couldn’t support it “because the mess that we’ve got in roads in north Maple Ridge are already strained.” He said the development would be “strangled from the very start.”

Tim Bonner, who neighbours the proposed development, said the interface between a residential neighbourhood and a light industrial development is unacceptable.

“I’m concerned it’s going to drop my property values,” he said.

Speaking May 24, city GM of planning Chrstine Carter noted the proposed OCP amendment would create a “campus-like employment park with trails, generous landscaping buffers and screening to buffer the neighbouring residential development.”

She clarified the Yennadon Lands project is a city-led planning exercise to create employment, and based on an application from a developer.

Staff also noted there are two projects that will improve Abernethy Way, in five years. One is widening between 230th and 232nd streets, which will start this summer, another is the extension to 240 Street, with construction starting in 2025.

Coun. Judy Dueck said finding more local employment opportunities has been a long-term commitment of council, and the city needs more industrial land.

Coun. Ahmed Yousef said he has heard from potential end users that “they were not too excited with the boutique type of buildings that are going in. They would much rather just have rectangles that they can then work with.”

Coun. Gordy Robson echoed those comments saying “we made this so pretty it’s going to be hard to make it economically viable as an industrial area.”

Robson also said he would support it with reservations, posing the question “if not here, where?”

Coun. Ryan Svendsen said the city is challenged to find suitable land for employment and industry, noting proposals for the Pelton Lands and Albion Flats have failed. Both were stopped by the Agricultural Land Commission.

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Neil Corbett

About the Author: Neil Corbett

I have been a journalist for more than 30 years, the past decade with the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News.
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