On Monday, June 26, 2017, Coquitlam Council adopted the Burquitlam-Lougheed Neighbourhood Plan (BLNP) and associated amendments zoning and CWOCP amendments. The new plan will guide growth in the neighbourhoods near North and Clarke Roads over the next 20 to 25 years. The plan envisions walkable, complete, and transit-oriented neighbourhoods that feature a mix of housing types and access to shopping, jobs, and amenities.
The plan identifies the infrastructure, services, parks, and facilities necessary to support the anticipated growth, while calling for a mix of housing types. Higher-density, high-rise development will be centred around the SkyTrain stations and along North Road, giving way to medium-density homes (such as townhouses, row homes and fourplexes) and detached single family homes further away. Up to 9,000 to 10,000 new homes are anticipated in the area over the next 20 to 25 years.
Robust urban design policy incorporated in the plan will ensure the design of new developments will recognize neighbourhood landmarks and character, provide public open spaces, and promote walking and transit use.
The extensive consultation process included more than 2,000 interactions with the public: Seven open houses, three online surveys, a public advisory group, stakeholder meetings, a website, video, social media, direct mail, comment forms, and other outreach. Throughout the plan development, there were more than 4,700 face-to-face contacts with the area’s approximately 20,000 residents and 370 businesses.
The video below explains the Draft BLNP development process. Please watch this video and tell us what you think.
The draft BLNP builds on key learnings from previous neighbourhood planning processes, and includes new policy directions that recognize the influence of the Evergreen Line on shaping future growth, provide improved land use certainty within Burquitlam-Lougheed neighbourhoods, and include land uses that accommodate a range of development forms and residential types that transition out from the Evergreen Line.
A key Plan enhancement involves more robust urban design policy (Section 4) to ensure new development has a high-degree of architectural excellence that recognizes/capitalizes on ’landmark’ sites, is walkable and transit supportive, and enhances neighbourhood character with active ground-floors, human-scale design and public open spaces and plazas.