Maple Ridge council sends 35-storey tower to public hearing

Does a 35-storey tower belong in downtown Maple Ridge?

The community will have a chance to answer that question following council’s decision to advance the 252-unit highrise to a public hearing at the Oct. 14 council meeting.

The Brown Avenue development would be the first of its kind in the city, nearly tripling the height of any current downtown buildings.

“We want to see density in the downtown core,” said Mayor Dan Ruimy in an interview with The Ridge. 

He and other Maple Ridge city councillors are eager to get the project off the ground, which has been submitted by Bissky Architecture and Urban Design Inc.

“It signals a new chapter, possibly, ahead,” said Coun. Sunny Schiller at a Committee of the Whole meeting on October 7.

“Let’s see the first one,” said Mayor Dan Ruimy at the same meeting, “I would love to see this get developed. I know it’s going to be a rocky road. Not everybody’s going to be happy to see something this size, but it’s in the downtown core.”

What would the tower look like?

The 252 unit structure would be built on Brown Avenue, consisting of a five-storey podium with the tower above it. It would have an outdoor amenity area on the podium’s rooftop, and hidden parking within the podium and two levels of underground parking.

To hold up the structure, the applicant plans to drill foundation piles deep enough to reach a firmer foundation beneath the city’s clay base.

“It’s almost like it’s on stilts. Thick, long, piles that go all the way down to a nice solid foundation that will hold the building up,” said the applicant at the Oct. 7 meeting.

More than 12 per cent of the units would be three-bedroom, nearly 33 per cent two-bedroom, 44 per cent one bedroom, and 11 per cent studios.

In an interview with The Ridge, Ruimy said he was happy to see this mix of units. 

The mix is in line with the city’s deferred family-friendly housing policy, which had recommended a minimum of 10 per cent of three or more bedroom units. The city’s housing report predicts 32 per cent of future housing demand will be for three bedroom units. 

Why does council want to densify the downtown? 

Mayor Ruimy said housing should be built where infrastructure already exists, and downtown is where many of the amenities are, including the leisure centre, library, grocery stores, and bus loop.

A Bus Rapid Transit Line is also slated to connect the city to Langley. 

Ruimy said in recent years, Maple Ridge started building low-density housing outwards without building the additional infrastructure, and he said they are now in an “infrastructure deficit.”

A denser downtown will bring more customers to existing businesses and attract new ones, Ruimy said.

“And so when we look at this [35-storey tower], to me, the path is clear,” he said.

A growing city

Maple Ridge is growing rapidly, at nearly 11 per cent each year, and needs to keep up with its housing.

The mayor said he hears “all the time” that the city should stop building homes until it catches up with infrastructure. But he says this isn’t realistic, since building homes gives the city the revenue it needs to build the needed infrastructure.

This is because developers are required to pay development fees, called development cost charges (DCCs), which the city then uses to pay for the population growth those buildings bring in. DCCs pay for roads, sewers, drainage, water works, and park development.

Developers also pay into amenity cost charges, which local governments can then use to pay for community centres, recreation centres, or daycares.

But Maple Ridge is losing out bonus density payments, fees developers used to have to pay for extra height or density. 

While the first reading for this development happened in 2018, this was before the province introduced its housing legislation, which took away this revenue stream.

When asked whether losing bonus density fees would affect the infrastructure funding, Ruimy said that they have doubled their DCC rates, which will help offset the loss.

More and more towers?

Another concern Ruimy heard is that the project will open the door to new towers.

“I see comments and people are saying, ‘Oh, my God, you do the first one and then all we’re going to do is have 30 storey buildings everywhere. Well, no, because we can’t do it everywhere,” he said.

Much of Maple Ridge’s land can’t structurally hold up a 35-tower structure, he said, due to the formation of the city’s ground.

This project is scheduled to go to public hearing on Nov. 18, after which council decides whether to give it final approval.