Specific location of new BW Community Centre discussed

The following Burnaby NewsLeader article  mentions that the City sees the northeast corner of Halifax Steet and Willingdon Avenue as the ideal location for a new community centre.  It would be built within the mixed-use development there during a later phase of the overall redevelopment of Brentwood Mall.

Burnaby NewsLeader article below

A new arena and arts centre?

• by  Wanda Chow - Burnaby NewsLeader
• posted Oct 20, 2014 at 5:00 PM

A new performing arts centre in Metrotown, an arena in Edmonds, and new Brentwood and Cameron community centres.

Such projects are among the new priorities and changes being proposed for Burnaby's community benefit bonus policy, which council was to consider on Monday.

Since the policy's inception in 1997, Burnaby has received more than $154 million in cash and community amenities in exchange for city hall allowing additional density to be built on specific development sites, said a city staff report.

When an amenity, such as non-profit office space, a seniors centre or childcare facility, for example, can't be accommodated within a development project, the developer gives the city a cash contribution instead.

Until now, that money has been deposited in accounts to be used on future amenities within the same town centre as the development it came from. The planning department is now proposing it could be used on amenities located anywhere within that quadrant of the city.

The proposed policy change would also allow the funds to be used on amenities within Burnaby's civic centre area, which includes city hall, Deer Lake Park, and Burnaby Lake Sports Complex, to serve all Burnaby citizens.

And the change would add a priority amenity program, which sets out a wish list of significant amenities that council wants to see built with the developer contributions.

In Metrotown Town Centre, or the southwest quadrant, that priority is a new performance and event centre. "The facility would be capable of hosting installations, performances and significant gatherings, and would be intended to be a local community and civic-oriented centre that is highly accessible to citizens in Metrotown and Burnaby as a whole," said the report.

While the location will be determined by opportunities coming out of new development in the area, ideally it would be in the area of Kingsway and Willingdon Avenue, it said.

In Brentwood Town Centre, or the northwest quadrant, a new Brentwood community centre is at the top of the priority list. As reported in the NewsLeader, the city and mall owner Shape Properties is looking into the feasibility of building such a facility as part of the Brentwood mall redevelopment.

The report said the ideal location would be along Willingdon, near Halifax Street, within the podium of a mixed-use development.

Also a priority for the northwest quadrant is a new linear park along Willingdon that would connect the Heights and Brentwood neighbourhoods, providing access to amenities, services and recreational facilities for residents of both areas.

The land for the park, which would likely include pedestrian and cycling paths, is already available, having been acquired over time by the city, originally for road and utility purposes, the report said.

For Edmonds Town Centre, or the southeast quadrant, a new Edmonds arena has been identified as a priority. It would be the first such facility in South Burnaby.

And in Lougheed Town Centre, or the northeast quadrant, the priority project will be replacement of Cameron Recreation Centre, including a pool and a replacement of Cameron library branch.

With planning work underway for the redevelopment of the Lougheed mall site, several options are being considered for the amenities, including where they should be located and whether they should be together in the same building as they are now. The area currently doesn't have a pool, and the new rec complex and library would likely be larger than they are today.

The plan would continue the existing policy of designating 20 per cent of those cash contributions into a city-wide housing fund for affordable and/or special needs housing projects.

wchow@burnabynewsleader.com

twitter.com/WandaChow

Brentwood Community Centre part of Mall Redevelopment?

The following piece in the Georgia Straight (straight.com) not only mentions what we already know;  that the transformation of the Brentwood area was planned decades ago, but that the City of Burnaby has discussed the possible construction of a new community centre on the Brentwood Mall site.  Such a possibility on the mall site is an exciting prospect, to say the least.  If it were to come to fruition, the community centre would probably best be located at the eastern end of the site closer to Beta Ave.

(Straight article below)

life / best of vancouver

Best of Vancouver 2014: Brentwood makeover planned decades ago

by CHARLIE SMITH on SEP 17, 2014 at 11:00 AM

After Shape Properties redevelops Brentwood Mall, there will

 be 11 towers and one million square feet of retail space.

SITTING IN THE window seat at Starbucks near the corner of Lougheed Highway and Willingdon Avenue, it’s easy to see that change is coming to Brentwood Town Centre. Across the street, a crane can be spotted in the Solo District, where Appia Developments is in the second phase of its mixed-use project. It will include a Whole Foods Market and a retail plaza. When it’s completed, its 55-storey tower will be the second-tallest building in the region, behind the Shangri-La Hotel in downtown Vancouver.

Meanwhile, to the west, Concord Pacific plans a multiphased mixed-use development on its 10.5-hectare site. And to the east, just south [sic] of Brentwood Station, is the largest development of them all. On its master plan for the 11.5-hectare site of the Brentwood Mall, Shape Properties has included 11 towers of between 45 and 70 storeys, as well as a grand public square connecting to shops and restaurants.

As he enjoys his beverage and a sandwich, Burnaby resident and former city staffer David Pereira tells the Georgia Straight the story of how it all unfolded. The tale begins before Burnaby was incorporated, when two real-estate agents approached the provincial government because they wanted to sell property between Vancouver and New Westminster. Pereira says he learned much of this history a few years ago while researching his 2011 master’s thesis on Burnaby’s four town centres: Brentwood, Lougheed, Edmonds, and Metrotown.

“I basically saw the plans; they referred to the other plans, and I went back and just found an awesome breadth of history,” he says. “That’s where I found all these town centres were connected. They were not just something that was created. They’re an evolution as a result of a very purposeful initiative that came from the regional district.”

A major turning point for Brentwood occurred when the shopping mall was approved in 1959 to lure people to buy homes in the area. “There was absolutely no opposition whatsoever to the mall because that was what they advertised to entice them to live there.”

He says the city’s long-term planning director, Tony Parr, played an instrumental role after he was hired in 1964. The same year, the Lower Mainland Regional Planning Board proposed a policy that Burnaby double its population over a seven-year period.

“You look at Coquitlam’s town centre and you look at Richmond’s town centre: they’re three times the size today than they were then,” Pereira says. “They weren’t really interested in the town-centre policy. You go to Burnaby and it mimics very closely what the city started. Those boundaries of the town centres stayed very close to what they were way back in the day. I found that to be phenomenal.”

In 1964, the city approved a long-term planning vision for 150 hectares in the Brentwood area, but the following year council thwarted a follow-up apartment study. Nevertheless, Pereira says the groundwork had been laid for densification, decades before the SkyTrain was built. Another major turning point came when the provincial government approved the Millennium Line in the 1990s. Even after it opened, the owners of the mall were not interested in developing condos near Brentwood Station until Shape Properties bought the site in 2008.

For a while, Pereira worked as an executive assistant to Burnaby’s mayor, Derek Corrigan. Speaking to the Straight at a Labour Day picnic at Swangard Stadium, Corrigan revealed that even he is surprised by the level of development taking place in Brentwood Town Centre.

“We expected that Brentwood would develop very slowly over a couple of decades,” Corrigan said. “The uptake on Brentwood has been absolutely amazing. It has outstripped Metrotown in development applications. For some reason, it hit a sweet spot with consumers who feel they’re very well connected to Vancouver and downtown Vancouver by Brentwood. Also, they’re in a position where they’re able to get easy access to the highway if they want to go anywhere across the Lower Mainland.”

Corrigan laughed as he told how one of his council colleagues, Pietro Calendino, moved into Brentwood with his wife while their North Burnaby home was being renovated. “Now their house is ready but his wife doesn’t want to move out,” the mayor reveals. “She loves it. She gets on SkyTrain and doesn’t have to worry about a car.”

Corrigan and Darren Kwiatkowski, executive vice president of development at Shape Properties, each separately confirmed that the company is in discussions with the city over including a community centre on its site. Corrigan also said the city is using its density-bonus money to invest in sound and light equipment and fountains in the plaza to create a community gathering place.

Meanwhile, Kwiatkowski told the Straight in an interview in his downtown Vancouver office that this plaza will be unlike anything else in the Lower Mainland because it will be level with Brentwood Station. From there, SkyTrain passengers can directly access the plaza and then walk down a grand staircase to the corner of Lougheed Highway and Willingdon Avenue.

In its first phase, the developer is building two 53-storey residential towers. Eventually, it’s expected there will be 500,000 square feet of retail space accessible from outside and possibly two office towers. Kwiatkowski confidently predicts that there will be the type of chef-inspired restaurants one normally only sees in downtown areas. “Everyone is not racing out to suburbia to buy a single-family home,” he said. “The culture has shifted and aligned with the planet. The retailers and the shops have come in as they see where the population growth is going. And SkyTrain has become a major driver of how people get around.”

It’s come a long way since a shopping mall had to be built—before Kwiatkowski and Pereira were born—to persuade people to buy homes in the area. But, as Pereira is quick to point out, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. 

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at @csmithstraight.

More on new area community centre

According to the following article in the Burnaby NewsLeader, the City of Burnaby has been considering timeframes and potential locations for new community centre space to meet projected population growth in North Burnaby.

New Brentwood community centre several years away

• by  Wanda Chow - Burnaby NewsLeader
• posted Mar 6, 2014 at 9:00 AM— updated Mar 6, 2014 at 10:06 AM

Any new community centre to serve Brentwood residents is likely at least five years away.

That's according to Burnaby Coun. Sav Dhaliwal, chair of the city's parks and rec commission.

The challenge isn't money. There should be ample funds coming from developers in return for being awarded bonus density in their projects. In fact, when all four phases of Appia Development's SOLO District are completed, it will have contributed $32 million in community amenities, including $30 million in cash.

That's in addition to the millions expected to come from Shape Properties' redevelopment of Brentwood mall.

When it comes to a Brentwood community centre, the challenge will be finding a place to put it.

Dhaliwal explained that Burnaby's original longterm plan was to build a large community centre similar to Metrotown's Bonsor at the former site of the Burnaby Heights Resource Centre, next to Eileen Dailly pool.

"But lately over the last four to five years, things have changed considerably in terms of where the population is going to be."

That is, the recent development boom at the intersection of Willingdon Avenue and Lougheed Highway now has the city expecting upwards of 40,000 people moving into that area over the next 30 years or so, he said.

Now Confederation Park seems rather far for people to go for their recreation activities. And even the smaller satellite facility—a redevelopment of the existing Willingdon Community Centre—planned for Willingdon Heights park at Gilmore Avenue and Douglas Road seems a too much of a trek.

It would be a quick trip by car, he noted, but likely too far for people to walk as the city is encouraging people to do in an area that's already choked with commuter traffic.

The city is now leaning towards building two smaller facilities, one next to Eileen Dailly pool and the other closer to Brentwood mall.

As for where the latter could go, Dhaliwal said one possibility is on what is currently Dragonwood Industrial Park south of Lougheed.

Concord Pacific Holdings Ltd. has a deal to purchase the 26-acre property on condition it gets rezoning approval. Last year, it proposed a redevelopment for a multi-family project that would include commercial space, a park and a school site.

Other future development sites in the area, such as the Carter GM dealership, could also yield land for a community centre, he said.

The only thing that's sure is a location is up in the air.

"I hope by this fall we'll have a good idea of what's going to be built and where for the next five to 10 years," Dhaliwal said.

But nothing will happen overnight.

The city knew what it was going to build a new Edmonds Community Centre in 2006 but it didn't open until 2013, he noted.

He envisions a facility at 250 Willingdon next to Eileen Dailly pool being built first, perhaps connected to Brentwood via an urban trail up Willingdon. The second centre would come some time after that for reasons of location and budget.

Such community facilities require a lot of staffing, with 50 new staff at Edmonds alone, he said. To avoid massive tax increases to fund their operations, they need to be brought in at least five years apart.

wchow@burnabynewsleader.com

twitter.com/WandaChow

Beta Community Centre?

We have already heard about a future park and elementary school at the foot of Beta Ave where Concord Pacific is seeking rezoning for a massive residential development.  For the first time, there is talk of the possibility of a new community centre also being built there to meet the needs of a growing population in the immediate vicinity.  There will undoubtedly be a need (if not already) for another community facility to improve recreational access to the residents of North Burnaby as Confederation Park and the Eileen Daily Pool and Community Centre are being well-used by the community.  The longer it takes to expand such amenities, the more costly it becomes in the future.

The Burnaby Now article below touches on this possibility and other important issues related to the Brentwood Mall Redevelopment.

The article also contains a rendering of the high-rise planned for the corner of Willingdon Ave and Halifax St on the site of the recently-closed Brentwood Bus Loop.

Burnaby Now article 

Article and accompanying photo are from the Burnaby Now

Brentwood mall skyscraper stirs debate

Stefania Seccia / Burnaby Now

February 27, 2014 02:05 PM

Terry MacDonald and his wife Gloria have been living in the Brentwood area for more than 45 years – they’ve seen the area’s metamorphosis. But nothing has concerned them more than the potential problems that could arise with Brentwood mall’s redevelopment.

MacDonald attended the Feb. 25 public hearing on the first of two major towers proposed for Brentwood mall. He told city council about the already existing problems of rat-runners, parking, and the traffic issues where he lives on Brentlawn Drive and how he suspects they’ll only get worse if council doesn’t do anything about it.

“With all due respect to councillors, I think various city committees have difficulty in effectively dealing with some of these issues,” he said. “I just don’t think they have all the tools they need to do the work. I think we need to work directly with city staff, not traffic and safety committees or a working group.”

Although many of the speakers at the public hearing favoured the massive redevelopment happening at Brentwood Town Centre, issues brought up by MacDonald and others regarded public safety and amenities.

Shape Properties, the owner of Brentwood mall, attended its fourth public hearing in the last year, this time for the proposed 53-storey tower atop a three-storey commercial podium at the corner of Halifax Street and Willingdon Avenue.

Burnaby resident Helen Ward, who has been active in raising her issues with the proposed changes at Brentwood mall, including the removal of its bus loop, also spoke at the hearing.

“I’m concerned about the infrastructure, government schools, parks, the legion, faith-based groups – there’s zero allotment for that,” Ward told the NOW. “I live in North Burnaby and what makes the community stronger is community things … that makes a community livable and provides really good bang for your buck.”

Ward said the 1996 Brentwood community plan called for human-scale development with a village concept, which she says has been ignored.

“Even in the Yaletown area, and False Creek, you walk along there and there’s art galleries, theatres, churches and synagogues and all this kind of stuff,” she said. “There’s nothing like that in Brentwood mall and all it’s got going for it is it’s easy to go out to the SkyTrain. That’s not much of a community.”

She also said the city has not done enough to collect public input and effectively use it.

“I didn’t feel heard,” Ward said about her past experiences in speaking to council.

However, Lou Pelletier, director of planning and building, said there had been at least four public hearings regarding different aspects of the massive Brentwood mall redevelopment over the last year. There were several other open houses and opportunities to address the Brentwood plan since 1996.

“All plans start from a policy perspective,” he said.

Pelletier noted that Brentwood was identified as an area for a high-density, commercial residential development. He said the overall concept was developed in 1996, but they can’t envision exactly what happens in the future, and that’s why each project goes back for public input through rezonings and public hearings.

The majority of speakers were in favour to the tower’s development at the hearing, as well. Many said it will update the area, address housing concerns and some likened it to a future Yaletown.

Burnaby resident Darlene Gering, former CEO and president of the Burnaby Board of Trade, said the city has to do something with its portion of the 40,000 newcomers coming to the province every year.

“We have to make accommodations for the growing population,” she said. “I know we need a variety of different housing stock, and I believe rental stock is very much needed and that is a part of this particular development.”

Gering noted that it’s been a long time since any purpose-built rental units were built in the city, as well.

“We’re very much in need of new affordable or different options for family housing,” she said. “Single-detached housing many of the people own is simply out of reach for young families.”

But when the area’s population spikes, where will they go for entertainment, a picnic or a swim?

Addressing the lack of parks, community centres and other public amenities in the immediate Brentwood area to deal with the expected incoming of 30,000 people over the next 20 years, Mayor Derek Corrigan said it’s first on council’s mind.

“I’ve got to admit, we’re behind on the Willingdon Park project and developing that one, but we’re feeling it’s a little out of the way for people in that community,” he said, about building a new community centre. “We’re struggling with whether Willingdon Park is the place, and whether or not we should look at another alternative.”

Corrigan said he wants to see a bike and pedestrian path, instead, up Willingdon Avenue where the city has been acquiring land.

“We may decide … to instead build a bike and pedestrian path … to connect the Heights with Brentwood people, then utilize Confederation Park and the pool at Confederation Park,” he said. “We think it would make a really attractive walkway because you could build mini-parks along the way.”

Corrigan also said the site the city is saving for a school, on High Street along Dawson, could be where the new community centre goes.

“The province won’t buy anything until the kids are actually there, but we’ve saved a site saying we want to put a school in the location,” he said. “Maybe that’s a place we can put a new community centre too.”

As for MacDonald, he’s not looking forward to dealing with the consequences of a bigger population and not knowing how long the city’s transportation review will take, or how it will deal with the issues.

“The traffic system on residential streets, the streets in the single-family neighbourhoods, need to be isolated from the traffic system servicing high-density developments,” he said. “Rat running through our Graveley Street and Brentlawn Drive neighbourhoods has reached annoyingly alarming levels. This is an issue that many North Burnaby neighbourhoods have been dealing with unsuccessfully for the most part.”

© Burnaby Now