With Port Coquitlam gearing up to review the official community plan (OCP), the city's planning committee is struggling with what to do along Lougheed Highway.
Last week, the smart growth committee grappled with two rezoning bids on the Oxford Connector: the first for a dental office in the commercial development at 2020 Oxford Connector (Oxford Market); the second for a driving school, insurance agency, dental practice and hair salon.
The committee put the former application on hold pending the OCP policy review while also expressing concern about the “creeping” effect of professional services leaving the city's downtown core.
While the Oxford Market is designated as highway commercial, it’s also just outside the downtown boundary on former CP Rail lands. And while city planners recommended the rezoning, Coun. Forrest said there are better sites, such as the Shaughnessy Station tower, which has vacancies.
Coun. Pollock said he understands the need to protect the downtown services while Coun. West said he wants to wait until the OCP is updated.
“I think this is premature to do this as a one-off,” he said, adding, “I’m really concerned when it comes to our downtown that it’s death by a thousand cuts. It has a cumulative effect.”
Committee member Lih-Ming Tam, a past president of the PoCo Business Improvement Association (BIA), was more blunt.
“Over the years on this committee, I’ve noticed a creep. We are bleeding outside the downtown and to the northside. The argument is that it’s about convenience but Port Coquitlam is very compact. If we want redevelopment of the downtown, what’s the incentive if we have our professional services go to other places?
"We need to take a comprehensive look at what we are doing here. We need to draw the line," Tam said, "and, to do that, we need to say ‘no.’”
Still, on a new building that’s being constructed directly east of the Oxford Market, the committee had different thoughts.
For 1940 Oxford Connector, west of the ICBC office, an official for DB Investments told the committee his company won’t be needing the entire property for Carl’s Jr. and it has applied to the city to rezone.
“I see this group of properties as completely different from 2020 Oxford,” Coun. Forrest said. “It’s highway commercial.”
Tam also said a driving school would be a compatible use to the ICBC facility, as would an insurance agency. (Pollock voiced concern about the departure of longtime downtown tenant JK Cooper last year as the city wouldn’t allow it to relocate to a highway-commercial zone.)
In the end, the committee approved the driving school and insurance uses but no leasing for personal/health services.
That rezoning application will go before city council at an upcoming meeting.
