Wider sidewalks, more street lighting, trees and benches, and a lane for e-bikes and e-scooters is on the horizon for Coquitlam City Centre.
City hall is looking to make the neighborhood more walkable and safe as it readies the area to become a vibrant downtown with 50 more towers, an entertainment district and business core.
Forming part of the City Centre Area Plan (CCAP) update, which council greenlit in November 2020, the streetscape guidelines would apply, in general, from the Coquitlam Central to Lafarge Lake–Douglas stations along the Millennium Line, and between Johnson and Westwood streets; a downtown promenade would run through the Coquitlam Centre mall campus, south of The High Street.
The guidelines look at the public space between the building and the curb in the high-density residential and commercial zones of City Centre.
Pavers and street trees would go in the boulevard and buffer lanes; however, they would not be installed on sidewalks or micro-mobility lanes; those would be flat and paved with asphalt, Razaghizad said.
Andrew Merrill, Coquitlam’s director of development services, said city staff will also be working with developers of new buildings to provide continuous canopies along City Centre sidewalks to protect pedestrians.
Besides the draft City Centre Streetscape Guidelines, city staff also plan to present an Official Community Plan (OCP) change before council Fall of 2022 to include micromobility in the CCAP.
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