Coquitlam plans to spend nearly half a billion dollars in capital projects in the next five years.
The city’s capital plan for 2019 to 2023, approved by council Monday, has a budget of $457 million worth of projects, including $120 million in 2019.
Next year’s funding will come from a combination of development cost charges ($17.3 million), density bonuses ($1.2 million) and community amenity reserves ($5.5 million) along with general ($7.5 million) and utility ($2.46 million) revenues, various city reserve funds (including $8.65 million from the casino municipal reserve) and grants. The city will also add $36.7 million from its land sale reserve fund, and $3.6 million from its vehicle replacement reserve.
The updated plan calls for the first phase of the Austin works yard to get $22.35 million in additional funding and the YMCA $5 million more.
To help deliver the projects the city is adding four employees to its parks construction crews, a facilities maintenance planner and a technical support specialist. The new employee six-pack will come at a total cost of $566,500.
Under questioning from Coun. Craig Hodge, parks manager Raul Allueva said although there’s $950,000 left on a project to convert the third ice sheet at the Poirier Sport and Recreation Complex from a curling facility to a third arena, the city is waiting to determine how to spend it. That will depend, he said, on how the arena is used before deciding whether change rooms, showers or other options would be the best fit.
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