It's been nearly 100 years since the Ioco townsite was built for refinery workers and their families and now the owners who will one day redevelop the property are working to protect the remaining heritage buildings as much as possible.
Since shortly after Christmas, crews have been busy on the site, removing vegetation from around the buildings, putting up fencing and replacing worn and haphazard tarps with a sturdy roll-over roofing material. Gutters have been replaced and power has been restored to the buildings so indoor heating and ventilation can help reduce the amount of dampness indoors.
The work is costing a significant amount of money — about half a million dollars so far, said James Cheng, the architect representing the Brilliant Circle Group — with more work in store.
Crews have discovered asbestos in some of the buildings, which will require a detailed hazmat process to get them cleaned up, and at least two of the buildings are in such poor shape that workers will not even enter them until a structural engineer and WorkSafe BC have inspected them.
"It's cost us a lot of money," Cheng said, "but it's OK. We believe in the long-term and building the community in a way that preserves the history and character of the area."
The 13 townsite buildings — the grocery store, Ioco Hall and 11 homes — had fallen into noticeable disrepair in recent years, with Imperial Oil doing little to adhere to maintenance responsibilities outlined in a 2002 Heritage Conservation Area bylaw.
Concerns raised by the Port Moody Heritage Society prompted the city of Port Moody to commission a report by Donald Luxton and Associates; Cheng said Brilliant Circle will be implementing all of the recommendations in that report, both immediate preservation requirements and long-term rehabilitation.
"The next phase of that report suggested a long-term strategy, which we agree with because we want to redevelop the town centre into a vibrant community," Cheng said. His team is preparing a master plan on how that can be accomplished, including the buildings that are on the Imperial Oil side of the property line.
The property purchase agreement requires Brilliant Circle to maintain all the Ioco buildings, even though the grocery store and Ioco Hall remain on Imperial Oil land, as well as four or five homes, Cheng said. The heritage master plan may call for moving some of those structures on to the Brilliant Circle side to create a cluster of buildings and a "heritage boulevard."
"The other things we're planning to do is return the bowling green to its original glory," Cheng said, even adding a clubhouse like there used to be. "We want to use that as sort of the heart of the new Ioco townsite. We want to preserve that and enhance that."
That conceptual master plan is expected to be presented to the heritage society and city staff in about a month.
Robert Simons, president of the Port Moody Heritage Society, said he has visited the Ioco townsite a few times this year and is relieved to see the preservation work underway.
"We're very pleased," he said, particularly since all of the buildings are being protected.
Simons said the society has been concerned that Imperial Oil would move or demolish the buildings on its side of the property so the fact that Brilliant Circle is living up to the agreement and looking after all the structures, including those not even on their property, is also a relief.
"I think we're all a little bit distressed it's taken this amount of time for the work to begin," Simons added. "We would have hoped that Imperial Oil would have done some of this work a few years ago but now that there's a specific document outlining how to preserve them, it bodes very well for what the future is of the townsite."
On Thursday night, Luxton's preservation and preventative maintenance plan for the Ioco townsite was to receive the Heritage BC Award of Honour in the Heritage Planning & Management category. The Heritage BC awards recognize best practices and high standards in conservation, based on the national standards and guidelines for the conservation of historic places in Canada.
“The Ioco Townsite Preservation and Preventative Maintenance Plan provides a comprehensive staged approach to stabilizing and maintaining the protected heritage buildings on the Ioco townsite, the last remaining company townsite in the Lower Mainland," said Mary De Paoli, PoMo's manager of planning in a release. "The recommended actions and preventative maintenance plan essentially provide a detailed work plan that will ensure the buildings can be appropriately conserved in the future."
Cheng said a high-level concept plan for the entire townsite could be ready by April or May, at which point more open houses will be scheduled.
