I went to the Queensborough Community Association meeting they had on September 13th. It was held at the Community Center on Ewen Ave. There were three things covered in the meeting: the development to the east of us, potential changes to the federal election boundaries, and changes to the Q2Q ferry.
New Development
The main part of the meeting was a presentation from the developer of the site to the east of Stanley Green – the one that’s currently covered in gravel. The developer is Platform Properties, and the name of the development is “the Village”. They’re building a townhouse complex similar to us & Portside.
I wasn’t able to get a copy of the presentation slides, but the area being developed is this:
Basically, what you see inside the green line is what’s getting developed – everything between Stanley, Duncan, Blackley, and Mercer except for a ~1 acre section at the corner of Blackley and Stanley, and the sawmill. There are some commercial venues that will be a part of the development, they’ll be along Mercer where I put the blue squiggle. They won’t be big – think more cafe than grocery store. The design is trying to make the corner of Mercer & Duncan into a bit of a plaza, with outside seating and whatnot.
One thing to note is that Platform Properties are the ones who developed Trapp & Holbrook, and the guy giving the presentation said they tried to ensure they got quality tenants for the retail spaces. That’s why there’s a great donut place, sandwich place, Mexican place, and a pet veterinarian there instead of a cheque cashing place and a Subway. So hopefully some nice places will open up there in this new development as well!
As far as other commercial stuff, the triangular spot between Mercer, Blackley, and Duncan is apparently being developed into a larger commercial site. Unfortunately, the developer giving the presentation didn’t have any information on that, as the presentation was just on this townhouse complex.
Otherwise, the only other things to say is that they’re building pretty much only 3-bedroom units, and vehicle access will be off Duncan & Blackley. The timeline is they’re hoping to have folks moved into the first phase by Spring 2024, with 3-4 years before the commercial spots are ready for tenants.
Federal Election Boundary & Potential Changes
Peter Julian was at the meeting to give a little presentation on changes that were proposed by a federally appointed committee. This committee is looking at all of the federal election ridings and seeing if changes need to be made so that ridings better represent the communities each riding serves. The change they were proposing for us was that New West would get added to Surrey – but Queensborough would get merged with the Richmond-Center riding. There was a public hearing for the Surrey changes, and the committee got told pretty unequivocally that neither Surrey nor New West was happy with the proposed changes. There was another public hearing on Wednesday for the proposed New Westminster changes, but I missed that meeting.
As for why this isn’t a great idea for Queensborough, Peter Julian did have some thoughts. Basically, he pointed out that the part of Richmond that Queensborough borders is typically underserved by their MP due to being out at the edge of the riding. Mr Julian feels that adding Queensborough to that riding probably won’t change much. He said that as an MP who makes sure to spend time in communities throughout his riding, he doesn’t want to see Queensborough become part of that underserved portion of the Richmond-Center riding. For example, he moved his office to 888 Carnarvon, practically right next door compared to the Richmond-Center MP’s office, which is way over in downtown Richmond.
Additionally, moving Queensbourough into the Richmond-Center riding would impact the availability of services such as food banks, shelters, and other community services. To my understanding this has to do with the fact that those services have offices close by in New West or Burnaby, but similar services in Richmond are nowhere near as close.
Basically, things might suck more because we’d be moved from almost the center of a riding to the very very edge.
However! Just because you or I missed the meeting doesn’t mean we can’t still be heard! It’s possible to write in to the committee and let them know you don’t think Queensborough should be moved, just head over to this website and you should be able to find instructions on how to send in a message.
The Q2Q Ferry
The city is looking at reducing the hours of the ferry, cutting service from 11am to 3pm, starting in October. The QRA didn’t have much information on why the city is going to do this, but are looking into ways to let the city know they want the ferry service to continue.
One resident gave a talk that brought up some great points, such as how keeping the ferry running means folks in Queensborough aren’t as reliant on cars. They pointed out that this is only going to get more important as more developments finish; there’s not a lot of roads in our section of Queensborough so more transit options will always be needed.
Wrap-Up
A few points to wrap up:
- the QRA asked if Platform Properties could send them a copy of the presentation to share, they will be getting something, but not right away – the plans aren’t final yet, so Platform doesn’t want to share things that will give the wrong impression
- when any new info gets posted to the Facebook page I’ll update this post
- it looks like these meetings are streamed, I’ll be keeping an eye on the Facebook page for the next one