Suburban Updates - All Other Metro Vancouver Municipalities

[BodomReaper]

Some updates from Coquitlam and Poco:

M1


Grand Central 2 finally taking shape


The Shaughnessy in Poco

[SFUVancouver]

Jewel II

Taken by SFUVancouver, May 24th 2011.

[SpongeG]

Coffee With: Design plan

By Philip Raphael - South Delta Leader
Published: May 27, 2011 9:00 AM

You have to forgive Linda Nielsen if you find yourself driving behind her and she suddenly stops and gets out, camera in hand.

It’s the same if you see her intently examining and taking notes on your lushly planted yard.

It’s all about gaining inspiration from what she sees.

And judging by the string of impressive public spaces in North and South Delta the landscape architect who serves as Delta’s Park Planner has been responsible for designing, the stops to admire and log the work of others are paying off.

“It’s funny where you get inspiration from,” says Nielsen as she sits at the Forest for our Future park—one of her creations—on the grounds of Delta Hospital on a sunny afternoon. “Inspiration for the North Delta Social Heart Plaza really came from a residential design image I saw and I thought maybe I could adapt that to mine. So, I tweaked it and pulled it and made it work in that space.”

The North Delta park, which is the site of Remembrance Days services plus public art displays and other gatherings, was her first project after joining the Corporation of Delta in 2003.

Since then she’s put her stamp on Recognition Square at Delta Municipal Hall, the forthcoming Rotary water park at Diefenbaker Park in Tsawwassen, the Forest for our Future garden, and the relocated Ladner Skate Park which is being officially opened Saturday (May 28).

Nielsen says she’s always liked design and graphics.

That urged the native of Creston, B.C. to begin studying interior design at the University of Manitoba.

Market downturns following her completing school limited job opportunities in that field. But it gave Nielsen the chance to work for a landscape architecture firm in Vancouver where she interned.

Historical research can also play in designing a park, a factor which weighed heavily in the theme of the new water park in Tsawwassen.

Nielsen says she dug around and discovered Diefenbaker Park was previously a gravel pit. A trip to the Delta Archives resulted in gaining images of old machinery used at the pit which became the foundation for some of the water features.

“I took some of that as inspiration for that park. But sometimes it’s just constraints on a space and you have to get so much into it, and people through the space that there’s not many options for what you can do,” she says.

Case in point was Recognition Square.

“It was very difficult to put a water feature in because we didn’t have a lot of fall to make the water move through there. And Ladner has a high water table so we had to raise the trees.”

...

http://www.bclocalnews.com/richmond_southdelta/southdeltaleader/community/122665294.html

[SpongeG]

Metro builds farmland inventory

Delta councillor says regional project should provide clearer picture of what's happening to valuable lands

By Sandor Gyarmati, The Delta Optimist May 27, 2011

Metro Vancouver is trying to get to the bottom of who owns farmland in the region and what they're doing with it.

The district in the past few months began to compile a farmland inventory, which Ian Paton, a Delta councillor and member of Metro's agriculture committee, says should provide a clearer picture of what's happening to lands valuable for growing crops but also seen for their development potential.

"Hopefully they'll come up with some kind of statistical booklet in six months or a year from now that's going to outline what is privately owned by farmers, what land is owned by developers and investors, or foreign ownership," he said.

"There's land in Delta that's owned by people in Central America that farmers are farming, so everybody looks at it and thinks the farmers own that property when they're only leasing it from a land management company that's managing these properties for foreign owners," Paton said.

The longtime farmer, noting the regional district will also look at irrigation issues, said the inventory will likely note certain addresses where properties are not being actively farmed or even abused.

Paton said south of Delta municipal hall on Highway 17, for example, there's a piece of farmland that's been sitting unused for decades, going fallow and overgrown with vegetation.

"I don't know who owns it but I know it's not a local farmer. I guess they'll let it sit there until some day somebody says we should put houses there," said Paton.

He also pointed out a large farm property along Highway 10 near 72nd Street that is only partially rented out for farming. The property has become an overgrown eyesore with old farm buildings crumbling.

"When I was a kid growing up, people used to take a Sunday drive from Chilliwack and Abbotford down to Ladner to look at a couple of show places and that was one of them...it's just an absolute travesty because these are the guys who end up winning in the long-run. The South Fraser Perimeter Roads had to buy about eight or nine acres of land off them and I guarantee you they're paying him huge money for it."

Paton said the region or municipalities have to look at either more effective incentive program or punitive tax measures to ensure farmland is at least farmed.

Longtime Richmond Coun. Harold Steves, who chairs the committee, noted the inventory should also give a clearer picture of what parcels of farmland have things like roads or churches on them. He said the exercise is necessary as the population will soon have to make some long-term plans on how it will feed itself.

...

Read more: http://www.delta-optimist.com/Metro+builds+farmland+inventory/4849521/story.html#ixzz1NcJKRuju

[jlousa]

From this weeks BIV

•Bentall Kennedy LP’s plan to develop two 200,000-square-foot office buildings on part of its 38-acre site surrounding the Braid station;

Bentall Kennedy’s even more ambitious development plans involve partnering with Anthem Properties Group Ltd. to build
five towers at Station Square near Metrotown Station.

[logan5]

Residential i presume?

[SpikePhanta]

If I'm not mistaken the city of Burnaby would prefer nonresidential towers, but I don't see the market for office space in Burnaby (the vacancy rate is pretty high already)

[jlousa]

With Bentall involved I would imagine there will be office and commercial space involved as well but it would be safe to assume that Anthem is eyeing sizable residential density.

[logan5]

Now that i think about, 5 towers is a lot for that space. The plan must be to completely level station square and start from scratch. It would be cool to see some drawings. In time i guess.

[jlousa]

I imagine that Station Square will see some demoing but their is certainly enough space to build 5 towers w/o razing it. Just the parking lots/parkade could accommodate those towers. I imagine that a revitalization/modernization will be part of any proposal though.

[SpongeG]

i bet save on foods would love to redo their store there - it seems too big so much wasted space in there

[SpikePhanta]

Yeah the southern part of the store is mostly dead and empty, they even downsized their wholesale are to the max.

I would guess that the existing condos there be accommodated somehow during construction, if they chose to redevelop the southern part aswell.

(I'm somewhat hoping that they keep the parkade above Save on Foods, always a fun place to play in the snow during the night.

[Millennium2002]

Just to chime in, the second level at the south end of Station Square is basically deserted. So yes, hopefully they really do rebuild almost everything from scratch. =S

[hollywoodnorth]

the 2 Condo towers there now will be the only thing 'original' when they are done the phased build out. I can assure you of that

[Metro-One]

sounds interesting, but I hope there is a strong office and commercial component/s to this project.

It would be wise to put the parking underground connected to the mall's underground parking.

I hope they make the project very urban in feel (layers) and not condos in the park (or condos on little crappy podiums). I would like to see the new shopping centre directly connected to Metropolis and Metrotown Station.

[SpongeG]

i don't know if they would want to connect the parking but it would be good

they never did connect the eaton centre and metrotown centre underground parking even after they were merged

should be exciting to see the transformation - when the two theatres were there it was quite bustling back in the day

[huenthar]

I just hope they develop a much stronger pedestrian connection between the station and Kingsway

[SpikePhanta]

Yeah the Station Square Famous players up to the early 2000's was pretty decent and quite popular.

[cornholio]

The two buildings at Braid street, if they are 200,000square feet each then those will be some pretty massive office buidlings. Also it would seem that they are only talking about the larger vacant lot, not the one between Rousseau st and Wilson st, atleast thats what I get. They also want to build residential buildings on parts of the 38acre site(which includes the massive two story warehouse facility), I would guess the smaller site between Wilson st and Rousseau st will be one of the ones where they will want to rezone the land for residential uses. Atleast thats what would make sense to me, get some office buildings up now to comfort city hall, then try to squeeze as much residential space out of the site as possible, with the northern edge fronting existing residential uses and a park being the easiest to rezone.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

they never did connect the eaton centre and metrotown centre underground parking even after they were merged

I think the area between the two malls is technically a City street, so building below it wold require an easement.