Resident raises concerns about lack of bike infrastructure in proposed Brown Avenue tower

Correction: This article previously stated that the revised version of Maple Ridge’s off street and parking loading bylaw suggested a minimum of 1.25 bike parking spaces per unit. However, it has been updated since then to suggest a minimum of one bike parking space per unit.

As the public hearing date for a 35-storey tower in Maple Ridge approaches, one local resident is flagging her concerns about its lack of bike parking.

While the Brown Avenue development has allotted more than one vehicle parking space for each of its 252 units, there’s one bike parking space for every four units.

“Brown Avenue is planned to have the highest density in all of Maple Ridge. So I would hope that a lot of the people that are going to be living there choose alternative transportation —like active transportation, walking, biking, e-bikes,” said Jackie Chow, a member of the HUB cycling Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows chapter.

Without it, she said that “then people are going to drive. And that’s problematic if you have this high density.”

The development is in a transit oriented area — meaning it doesn’t have any minimum vehicle parking requirements.

“Developers don’t like providing anything that people don’t want to pay for. I think, unfortunately, in this case, they’ve determined that people want parking, at least one for every unit,” a representative of Bissky Architecture, the applicant, explained to council at a Committee of the Whole on Oct. 7.

The Brown Street development’s bike parking is based off Maple Ridge’s existing off street parking and loading bylaw, which only requires one long-term bike parking space for four units. But this bylaw is currently under comprehensive review, and its revised version suggests a minimum of one spaces per unit.

Maple Ridge is currently taking community feedback on its proposed new parking bylaw.

Multi-use path

Maple Ridge requires developer to build a four-metre-wide multi-use pathway along the Brown Avenue frontage of the proposed development.

But Chow said she’d prefer to see wide sidewalks and bike lanes on each side of the street, as she’s concerned about mixing bikes, e-scooters and pedestrians in a high density area.

“It’s a recipe for lots of conflict as usage increases,” she told The Ridge.

She added the path starts “from nowhere and it ends nowhere. It’s not all connected, so you get bits and pieces all along Brown [Avenue]. And you can’t really use it until it’s all connected.”

At an Oct. 14 council meeting, Coun. Sunny Schiller said that Maple Ridge doesn’t have an active transportation plan “that meets the ambition of this proposal,” adding that she doesn’t think that a multi-use path makes sense in this location.

“When I consider hundreds of residents in this neighborhood — pedestrians, cyclists and E scooter users — I’m concerned we are not planning for the future in the way that we should be, my focus is on what plans and actions the city is taking, which is why I do support this in moving forward, while I will continue to advocate for more investments in this area,” she said.

The Ridge reached out to Coun. Schiller for further comment but did not hear back by deadline.