A Coquitlam company that recently bought land in Port Coquitlam’s Dominion Triangle — and has yet to pay for previous environmental work in the area — was a no-show at a city planning meeting this week.
M2K Construction Ltd. has a bid before the municipality to rezone and subdivide its vacant seven-acre site at 750 Dominion Ave. to change its use from agricultural to light industrial.
But M2K hasn't coughed up the funds for the construction of Conwest’s Pitt River intertidal project, which was key for allowing development in the flood-prone area to begin.
The Conwest environmental compensation project, designed to enclose some of the Triangle’s watercourses and to protect wildlife and fisheries habitat, involved enclosing part of a watercourse on the eastern side of 750 Dominion Ave., located west of Fremont Street.
Six years ago, Conwest alerted the city after the owners of that lot (and another property) failed to pay for their portion of the environmental work.
The Yang/Kim Group later sold its land to M2K Construction and, according to a city report, M2K “was advised of the Yang/Kim Group’s non-participation” and was given the Conwest letter to the municipality from 2012.
On Wednesday, Coun. Brad West, chair of the city’s smart growth committee, told The Tri-City News that council and civic staff were hoping to speak directly with both Conwest and M2K representatives at the committee’s Tuesday meeting but M2K failed to appear.
“The money is owing to Conwest,” West said. “The environmental project is now completed and development is occurring in the area because of it… but, at this point, [M2K] has put in a rezoning application and it’s being held in abeyance.”
He added, “There are a number of assertions on each side around requirements to pay and what their position is, and council wants to hear from both parties…. We have outstanding questions that we want the applicant to answer.”
Requests for comment from Conwest and M2K Construction were not returned before The Tri-City News’ print deadline Thursday.
