A 26-page package sent to large-scale developers in B.C. is inviting them to bid on the Ioco lands, a "one-of-a-kind opportunity to create a master-planned community near a well-established area of Metro Vancouver."
Imperial Oil has hired Cushman and Wakefield to handle the sale of Ioco's 232 acres; 150 acres are in Anmore and the remaining 82, including the historic Ioco Townsite, are in Port Moody.
The invite states Ioco is one of the "largest remaining prime residential development sites in Metro Vancouver" and "combines the best of urban and rural living." The vision calls for a master-planned community with a mix of single-family and low-density multi-family housing, neighbourhood services and amenities, waterfront views and the potential for access to Burrard Inlet.
It goes on to detail zoning and official community plan issues in both Anmore and Port Moody in the context of Metro Vancouver's Regional Growth Strategy (RGS), road and transit access and heritage conservation of the Ioco Townsite.
As well, the package describes housing trends and property values in PoMo and Anmore, average income levels, water and sanitary services to the site, and environmental considerations.
The sale has been a long time coming - Imperial Oil ceased operations on the site in 1995 - but before any redevelopment can be considered, Port Moody must first have that property reclassified as a Special Study Area (SSA) in Metro Vancouver's growth strategy.
The Metro board will be considering the request at its meeting today (Friday), a move PoMo Mayor Mike Clay says will simply "correct a mistake Metro Vancouver made when they adopted the Regional Growth Strategy."
Port Moody has refused to accept the RGS as it is; in its current draft official community plan, the Ioco lands, the old Petro-Canada site in Glenayre and the Mill and Timber site - large properties that will likely be up for comprehensive redevelopment at some point in the future - are listed as SSAs.
Changing the properties to SSAs in Metro's RGS will mean future rezoning requests will require a simple majority vote by the Metro board instead of a nearly unanimous vote.
"We want to be perfectly clear," Clay said. "Those areas are under transition. What that looks like, I don't know, but when the time comes, we don't want everyone else in the region putting up roadblocks."
But how the Ioco lands could potentially be redeveloped has many people concerned.
At Tuesday's meeting, several people representing the Mossom Creek Hatchery urged council to protect the creek and surrounding watershed with a stronger tree-retention bylaw.
Janis Boivin spoke on behalf of the education centre and hatchery, saying the group's major areas of concern are tree removal, protecting riparian zones around watersheds, establishing a wildlife inventory and protecting existing wildlife corridors.
Port Moody's existing tree-retention bylaw is "very, very weak," said Clay.
"We share their concern and we'll respond when we have the appropriate advice on what we can do to protect them on the Port Moody side of the land," Clay said, noting most of the Ioco land that could cause issues with silt run-off into Mossom Creek during redevelopment is in Anmore.
Imperial Oil spokesperson Leanne Dohy said the company is marketing the property and will ultimately select the developer.
"Once the developer purchases the property, that developer will determine further use and will be responsible for the development process," she said.
Cushman and Wakefield is now considering introductory letters of interest from developers and will determine a short list of qualified buyers; those will get access to additional data on the property and must submit formal letters of intent by June 12.
Dohy said it's too early to speculate on a time frame for a decision on the sale of the property.
