The Mont Bleu development at Lougheed Highway and Blue Mountain Street markets itself as the first highrise in historic Maillardville, coming in the summer of 2016.
There is just one problem: The project is still in the proposal phase and has not received any approvals from the city of Coquitlam.
“They have been a little premature in getting some of their marketing out there,” said Jim McIntyre, the city’s general manager of planning and development. “We have had that brought to our attention.”
Generally, the marketing of a housing project tends to follow council’s third reading of a rezoning application after a public hearing has taken place, McIntyre said. Under provincial regulations, that is also the time when developers are allowed to take deposits on units.
Mont Bleu is not the first developer to launch a marketing campaign ahead of receiving city approvals.
McIntyre said there have been instances of sales offices opening before the conclusion of the council approval process, a situation that often creates consternation in the surrounding neighbourhoods. He added that residents see the marketing effort and assume a building has been approved by the city without public consultation.
“It puts us in an awkward situation,” McIntyre said. “Neighbouring residents will say, ‘Hey, what gives here?’”
“We try to press upon developers to respect the system. The optics of that is not great.”
Chang Choy, the project manager with Mont Bleu, which is a subsidiary of Blue Mountain Limited Partnership’s Newgen Group, said he did not believe the city had an issue with the marketing of the project. He told The Tri-City News that the information in the advertising is limited and the company is not currently taking deposits.
“We are going to go much further after we get the [development permit],” he said.
He described the proposed project as a 21-storey tower that would have studios as well as one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The plans call for ground-floor retail and a second-storey commercial office component.
Choy said if the city had issues with the marketing, he would be open to discussing that with them. He also said that he expects council to consider the development in the next few weeks.
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