Attention:
Mayor and Council
Village of Anmore

Cc:
Karen Elrick, CAO, Village of Anmore
Chris Boit, Manager of Development Services, Village of Anmore
Greg Moore, icona Properties Ltd.
Mayor and Council, City of Port Moody

January 5, 2024

Re: OCP Amendment for Anmore South area

Dear Mayor and Council,

As an environmental organization that has been working in the Anmore area for 48 years, we would like to provide you with formal comments on the recent icona Properties presentation and the proposed OCP amendment that would change the land use designation for Anmore South from Rural to Urban.

The mandate of the Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society (BIMES) is to educate the public on the importance of protecting the environment and to work to restore and conserve local stream to sea habitat in the Anmore and Port Moody region. Its focus, the Mossom Creek watershed and the land to the west that includes Schoolhouse Creek North, is one of the last remaining intact watershed areas of significant size in this region. This is in part due to over 4 decades of active stewardship by volunteers to maintain and restore the biodiversity of the area. BIMES is very concerned by the extent of development taking place in Metro Vancouver without due consideration for the preservation of contiguous high-quality wildlife habitat, the value of which is evident in the Mossom Creek and Schoolhouse Creek North watershed area.

The Anmore South development proposal presents many challenges and raises many issues, several of which are beyond the specific scope of BIMES as an environmental organization. We are focusing our attention on immediate ecological concerns but wish to acknowledge that there are additional aspects with indirect environmental consequences including vehicular traffic with its associated air and water pollution and the loss of ecological services such as temperature modulation and water retention in the soil when tree cover is reduced.

Does BIMES support the size and scope of this development proposal and the proposed land use designation for Anmore South from Rural to Urban? The simple answer is no.
We have a longstanding record of environmental advocacy for the undeveloped land adjacent to Mossom Creek which includes the Anmore South area. If approved, this development will negatively impact the abundant wildlife, healthy riparian area and overall natural integrity of the area. These Anmore lands are currently not included in Metro’s Urban Containment Boundary. Residents of the area didn’t want the Anmore Valley developed into a dense urban community in 1987 and it appears that the majority of residents do not want this type and degree of urbanization today.

What this OCP amendment is proposing could result in bookending the TriCities with another Burke Mountain. This amendment seems out of place in a village that hasn’t seen any densification elsewhere in the community. The incorporation of Anmore in 1987 was intended to preserve the rural character including providing a gentle buffer between an urban Port Moody and one of the wildest parts of Metro Vancouver. We did not approve urbanization of the Anmore Valley in 1987 when Port Moody planned to add 15,000 residents to the area and similarly do not agree that the proposed urbanization will retain the rural nature of Anmore now.

The presentation by icona Properties and the proposed OCP amendment has generated many questions and comments from our organization. We’ve included these below and would like to meet with Village of Anmore representatives to discuss our concerns about the proposed OCP amendment.

We have cc’ed the City of Port Moody and icona Properties on this correspondence. We have also included a document about the Anmore South area that we developed after we met with icona Properties in 2021 and our recent Bioblitz plant and wildlife inventory that took place in June 2023.

Sincerely,
Kevin Ryan
President
on behalf of the board of directors
Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society

PDF DOWNLOADS

Letter to Anmore Mayor and Council (including questions and comments)

icona Properties consideration document produced by BIMES (October, 2021)

Mossom Creek 2023 Bioblitz report