Port Moody's mayor is welcoming two new craft breweries that will serve tastings of ale as part of their sales and manufacturing process as Murray Street transitions to a waterfront boulevard of cafes, businesses and condos close to the Evergreen Line.
Yellow Dog Brewery and Moody Ales plan to open this summer and Mike Clay said they will add a vibrancy to the street that is currently light industrial.
"It would be neat to have funky cafes, brew pubs, and people could literally skip over to SkyTrain, that would be our full time goal," said Clay, pointing out that the Moody Centre Station is located immediately behind Yellow Dog, although it would need a pedestrian bridge to link Murray Street with the transit system.
He said once the Official Community Plan is adopted and Metro Vancouver agrees to changing the street's designation from industrial to general urban, there will be opportunities for new development including six-storey buildings with businesses below and residential above.
The OCP calls for upper floors to be set back to allow for outdoor spaces and create a buffer from street level activities, north south pedestrian connections between developments and Moody Central station will be pursued and bike lanes, sidewalks, street furniture, public art, traffic calming measures and additional signalized crossings will be promoted as part of new development.
Clay said he expects Metro Vancouver to sign off on re-designating the street because it is close to the Evergreen Line and ripe for transit-oriented development.
He would also like to see commercial art spaces and studios along the street and high tech businesses, such as software labs, to generate employment.
"But until we get the OCP passed, it's hard to explore those ideas," Clay said.
