A 10-acre site below the Port Mann Bridge that used to have a Coca-Cola bottling plant will soon change.
This week, Coquitlam city council unanimously approved a development permit for Beedie (United Blvd) Holdings to build a one-storey industrial warehouse and a two-storey office space for a regional parcel distribution and logistics facility at 2450 United Blvd., close to the Mary Hill Bypass exit.
The land bid did not need a change to the city’s Official Community Plan nor a rezoning; however, construction on the site is limited because of an air space parcel and a statutory right-of-way owned by B.C.’s transportation ministry to access the bridge.
Chris Jarvie, Coquitlam’s director of development, said the new structure is being built to suit the business, which will generate up to 200 jobs and bring in $523,599 in development cost charges for the city.
Still, while Mayor Richard Stewart and councillors were supportive of the plan at their March 31 meeting, they also voiced concern that the building could have gone higher — thereby creating more employment in the industrial zone. According to city documents, the address can a six-storey building.
Industrial sites make up only 10 per cent of Coquitlam’s developable lands.
“When we see industrial land come up […] we need to be very strongly encouraging the applicant — whoever the applicant is — to max out, more or less,” Coun. Robert Mazzarolo told city staff. “We want the jobs in Coquitlam. We want people to live, work, recreate here, learn here. That comes with providing them the opportunities to make a good living here.”
Coun. Dennis Marsden cited a six-storey industrial building in southern Vancouver while Stewart pointed tall industrial buildings that he saw during a trip to Coquitlam’s sister city of Paju, South Korea; those buildings were used more intensively because of the area’s shortage of land.
Stewart also noted Metro Vancouver’s Invest Vancouver team that’s studying the region’s industrial land challenges, as well as ways to spur growth and employment.
Meanwhile, Beedie is also constructing a waterfront village about a kilometre west on United Boulevard called Fraser Mills.
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