Tensions high in Village of Anmore as controversial development heads to public hearing

On Monday, the Village of Anmore will hold a public hearing on a large-scale, multi-family home proposal.

On Monday, mayor and council in the Village of Anmore will hold a public hearing on a large-scale, multi-family development that could more than double the population of the tiny enclave on the shores of Indian Arm over the next 20 years.

The development called Anmore South would add 1,750 units of housing– comprised of condo buildings, townhomes and duplexes – on a large plot of forested land in the centre of the village that is owned by Icona Properties.

“Right now, Anmore is all single-family homes with a couple of duplexes, but basically single-family homes and one corner store, so not really commercial,” said Greg Moore, the former mayor of Port Coquitlam, who is now CEO of Icona Properties.

“This helps to bring jobs and create that complete community for the Village of Anmore.”

There is fierce opposition to the project, evidenced by signs on public spaces all over Anmore calling on mayor and council to scrap the development.

“It’s too dense for a rural area,” said longtime Anmore resident Leslie Hannigan. “The reason we moved here is because it’s quiet. We aren’t part of the urban containment boundary, so we’re not in those rules of having to make everything really, really dense.”

She argues the village’s infrastructure is not meant for a large population, and bristles at the suggestion homeowners in Anmore are NIMBYs opposed to any new development.

“We could have done a really nice thing within our rural designation with townhomes, with cluster homes for seniors, there’s laneway homes. There’s all kinds of things without having to be this thick, dense area that developers seem to be pushing into all these municipalities,” Hannigan said.

Anmore Mayor John McEwen says some in his community are opposed to any kind of change to the largely single-family home village, where the average assessed value is a little over $2,500,000.

“So, (it’s) tough for young families to get in when you have such a high assessment,” said McEwen. “And it’s starting to show in our elementary school. Enrolment is a little over 100, where it used to be well over 200.”

The mayor says the debate over adding condos and townhomes in Anmore has gotten nasty, with many signs targeting mayor and council, and online discourse that he calls disturbing.

“The word that has troubled me the most to my core is when I hear, ‘We don’t want that type of people here.’ And that really, really bothers me,” said McEwen. “I look at a diverse municipality that I want, I want it to be welcome to everybody.”

Hannigan says she has never heard comments like that among Anmore residents.

“We welcome everyone,” she said. “Nobody says we don’t want these people in here. It’s all about preserve the trees, keep us rural, small homes that are connected. I mean, this is again just a frustrating spin when they say that we’re NIMBYs and we don’t want this. That’s wrong.”

If mayor and council vote in favour of Anmore South on Monday, the developer still has to get Metro Vancouver to change the village’s rural zoning designation in order to start construction on the project.

“If everything went yes votes all the way along the path, we probably wouldn’t see a shovel in the ground for at least two years. And then at that point, it’s going to be another 20 years as this community comes together,” said Moore. “So there is lots of opportunity to continue to engage the community.”

Right now, it’s a community divided: remain a small village, or open the door to big-city density.