Category Archives: Transit, Skytrain, LRT

The Evergreen Line and tower development

October 31, 2016 By in Planning and Development, Transit, Skytrain, LRT, Tricities Tags: , , , 2 Comments
Skytrain-oriented development at Suter Brook, Port Moody, October 2016

SkyTrain-oriented development at Suter Brook, Port Moody, October 2016

A developer's rendering of the

Burnaby’s “City of Lougheed” project, captured from a real estate site. The Evergreen Line enters from the right to join the existing Millennium Line.

Metro Vancouver’s Evergreen rapid transit line is set to open before the end of 2016. Planning for this SkyTrain link to deep Coquitlam started almost 20 years ago, and residential towers sprang up almost immediately near the proposed route, beginning with Newport and Suter Brook in Port Moody. The Coquitlam Centre precinct was rapidly densified and complexified through the 2000s. We recently saw the astonishing announcement of a 23-tower project at Lougheed Town Centre site in Burnaby, rising to heights of 65 storeys, with a potential for 11,000 apartment units. And it ain’t over yet. Continue reading →

Phasing in a transit spending plan

September 25, 2016 By in Metro Vancouver, Transit, Skytrain, LRT Tags: , , Leave a comment
Detail from the September 2016 TransLink mayors' Phase One announcement. This shows promised bus service improvements in Surrey including immediate rapid bus service on Fraser Highway.

Detail from the September 2016 TransLink mayors’ Phase One announcement.  This shows promised bus service improvements in Surrey including immediate rapid bus service on Fraser Highway.

The latest announcement on transit from Metro Vancouver mayors is their first major effort to regroup since voters shot down the idea of a transit sales tax in 2015.

This matters because the mayors and British Columbia’s provincial governments have been deadlocked for years on how to fund transit, and demand for service has outrun supply on key routes. Affordable public transit supports labour mobility, educational opportunity, independence and self-reliance for seniors and teens, and growth for pedestrian-focused urban villages, and it also reduces the number of cars on the road. Continue reading →

Skytrain-oriented development at Joyce/Collingwood

March 7, 2016 By in Planning and Development, Transit, Skytrain, LRT, Urban Villages Project, Vancouver, City of Tags: 1 Comment
Aberdeen Park, Vancouver

Aberdeen Park, Vancouver

Metro Vancouver’s elevated rapid transit system, Skytrain, is now 30 years old. Over time, Skytrain development — real or promised — has supported construction of at least 150 residential towers, some of them located in isolated, pedestrian-unfriendly clusters away from services.

Public space, low-rise high-rise development, near Vanness Avenue

Public space, with low-rise and high-rise development, near Vanness Avenue

Joyce/Collingwood, at the eastern edge of the city of Vancouver, may be the most liveable of the post-Skytrain tower developments. The tower landscape has been softened by continued construction of four- and six-storey buildings, parks and pathways, and a neighbourhood house (social services and recreation centre) paid for from development charges. Retail and commercial services are available along historic Kingsway up the hill. But there’s also a plan to build more towers, and this is creating tensions in the community. Continue reading →