Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows residents love their neighbourhoods' small-town feel with easy access to the great outdoors. In this article featured in the Maple Ridge Times, mayors Ernie Daykin and Deb Walters offered their thoughts on growth, amenities, and transit services.
What makes the area a great place to live?
While our central location within the Lower Mainland and the cost of housing ($500,000 goes a lot further here than in Vancouver!) are pluses, they are not the first thing our mayors think of when asked what makes the area special.
"The common theme we hear over and over again from residents, whether long-term "lifers" like myself or people who have recently moved here, consistently, folks like best the community feel," said Daykin. "It still has that small-town atmosphere. Forty per cent of our residents volunteer in one form or another and, in a way, are voting that the community is worth their time and effort and expertise."
Walters couldn't agree more. "When speaking with our residents, they tell me that they love the small-town feel," she said. "They love living in a community surrounded by farmland, rivers and mountains that is friendly and safe."
Golden Ears Provincial Park offers Metro Vancouver is growing and, with an extensive network of hiking camping, and boating. Equestrian trails throughout the area are also enjoyed by walking aficionados. And, the dykes are also great for walkers as well as cyclists.
A growing community
Metro Vancouver is growing and, with limited land resources, the pressure is on throughout the region to densify.
"We continue to concentrate our housing development in the urban area, primarily in the vicinity of major transportation routes, like the West Coast Express," said Walters. "This has resulted in the densification of our town centre and South Bonson areas that will continue throughout the next five years."
Pitt Meadows city council is in process of developing a Housing Action Plan to help address the community's needs and to identify where the focus areas need to be. In the meantime, secondary and garden suites have been legalized, offering more rental stock in the city as well as mortgage helpers for homeowners. Mayor Walters is also pleased to welcome The Wesbrooke, a seniors living complex near the new Pitt Meadows Seniors Centre.
In Maple Ridge, Mayor Daykin is anticipating the downtown core will see its population double in the coming years. "I say to people it's not if Maple Ridge grows; it's how it grows. And we're trying to respect the character of what people like about Maple Ridge. We've got to manage our growth in a way that respects that."
In addition to densifying its downtown, the District of Maple Ridge is seeing two other growth areas: Albion; and Silver Valley, both of which are within the district's urban boundary.
"That's where we're going to focus our growth rather than more of a shut-gun approach," said Daykin. "Council has been consistent over the last two or three terms that we won't see land coming out of the Agricultural Land Reserve for residential use. We've got enough within our existing urban boundary to meet the population projections of the Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy out to 2040."
The transportation challenge
Getting around quickly and easily is a common frustration throughout Metro Vancouver. According to a recent report, Vancouver has the worst traffic congestion in Canada something that doesn't come as news to people commuting long distances every day.
Transportation is one of Pitt Meadows council's priorities as it lobbies TransLink for improved, reliable service that will encourage transit use.
"We continue to plan and build a transportation system incorporating alternative options to promote an active lifestyle that will not only benefit Pitt Meadows but the entire region," said Walters. "Moving regional traffic through our community remains a challenge and high on our priority list."
Travel patterns are reflective of recent development in the region with people often choosing transit over single-occupancy vehicles.
"People are opting to leave their vehicles at home," said Walters. "In the past five years, almost all of the multi-family developments built are within a 10-minute walking distance of the West Coast Express station. Since 2005, the number of riders choosing this method of transportation has increased by 65 per cent. We need to continue to lobby TransLink to not only maintain our current level of service but expand upon it to reflect the needs of our growing population for this community and the entire region."
Mayor Daykin would like to see the West Coast Express offering a greater level of service. "We've been advocating, for as long as I've been around, for an enhanced level, maybe more trains at the end of day or reverse trains where you could get back to downtown Maple Ridge at midday instead of waiting for the first train," he said. "We need to get people out of their cars and we need to have an efficient, effective, reliable option. We're also pushing hard for, I'm going to call it an express bus, so a rapid bus from our downtown to Braid Street."
Getting down to business
Mayor Daykin cites business development as one of the district's priorities. "We're looking for opportunities to attract new businesses to the community as well as looking after the ones we've got," he said. "We've tried to sharpen our economic focus as best we can."
Maple Ridge is keen to attract small hi-tech companies as well as advanced manufacturing businesses and is also working on broadening the post-secondary training opportunities in the district. Daykin also sees tourism and agriculture as areas for potential growth. Maple Ridge has an economic development office that acts as a great resource for the business community. One of the district's biggest business challenges has been attracting more retail services. Daykin has been successful in bringing Thrifty Foods and Target to downtown but, he reminds us, you need a critical mass of population before retailers will set up shop.
"Those large-format, big-box retailers are looking for population numbers, they're looking at household incomes, they're looking at a number of things to decide are they going to locate in Maple Ridge," said Daykin. "Home Depot's not going to open a large-format store based on the fact that in 15 or 20 years there's going to be another 30,000 people living here. They want to see those people now."
Economic development is a key area for Pitt Meadows council too with its Economic Development Corporation working with businesses to help retain them and grow in our community.
"Only 18 per cent of our employed residents work within Pitt Meadows, which is why there is a need to continue to create more local job opportunities," said Walters, who sees encouraging business development as a way to help balance the tax base and create local jobs. She added, "I am proud to say, we are the first region to partner on the BC Jobs Plan. Working together with Maple Ridge and Mission on 'The Invest North Fraser Plan' our goal is to create regional projects which will see long-term benefits for our community such as job creation and investment."
"People are opting to leave their vehicles at home," said Walters. "In the past five years, almost all of the multi-family developments built are within a 10-minute walking distance of the West Coast Express station. Since 2005, the number of riders choosing this method of transportation has increased by 65 per cent. We need to continue to lobby TransLink to not only maintain our current level of service but expand upon it to reflect the needs of our growing population for this community and the entire region."
