Over the years, there has been an explosion of development around SkyTrain stations.
Buildings have popped up around Burnaby’s Brentwood station and developers are eying the nearby Gilmore station.
The City of Burnaby is giving the developer of the land around Gilmore station the option of constructing a tower of up to 65 storeys. If they do, it’ll be B.C.’s tallest building.
“The land is at a premium, so we can probably go up and save ourselves some sprawl,” Burnaby Councillor Sav Dhaliwal said.
The builders of the massive development now underway at the nearby Brentwood station had the option of going up to 70 storeys, but chose 62 because towers higher than that can prove to be cost prohibitive.
What sets the Gilmore development apart is the plan to offer very large office space options for large corporations like Google and Microsoft.
“This one development has the potential for up to 5,000 jobs and that’s a lot of jobs,” Dhaliwal said.
The urban sprawl shouldn’t surprise anyone. Just months after the Expo Line opened 30 years ago large buildings started to pop up around SkyTrain stations.
Videographer John Ball illustrated the change to the city’s skyline with a video that shows a ride along the original SkyTrain line back in 1985 and puts it side by side with video of a ride along the same SkyTrain line more than 25 years later.
See the video below:
As cities become more dense, the idea of living near your workplace becomes more appealing, which is why the Gilmore site is as much about jobs as condos.
The city is asking the public to submit their input through an online questionnaire.
Meantime, the huge development planned for the Oakridge Mall area in Vancouver is shrinking.
The developers are scaling back plans for the $1.5-billion commercial and residential centre by as much as 25 per cent.
They found an aquifer underneath the mall that is bigger than expected and they say that would complicate the construction of a parkade.
They’re taking a new, smaller plan back to the City for re-approval.
-With files from Ted Chernecki
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