The Official Community Plan (OCP) – the long-term vision for development in Port Moody – has now been approved. It sets a course for our population to surge past 74,000 residents, largely through luxury condo towers.

Only one councillor voted no: Haven Lurbiecki.

The troubling thing is that this council delayed the OCP (the most important planning document of its entire term) until the final stretch, less than nine months before an election. We were told staff lacked capacity. But council sets priorities. If the OCP had been the priority, resources would have followed. They didn’t, because it wasn’t.

What was the priority?  While the OCP was on pause, council found the time to fast-track a “framework” for 14 towers up to 40 storeys in Moody Centre. It was adopted the same night it was introduced. It underwent zero public engagement. 

Five towers have already been approved. A sixth is under consideration. The 14-tower plan was conveniently embedded into the OCP after it was already being implemented and after public engagement on the OCP had concluded. 

Now, with the OCP adopted, there will be no public hearings for towers that comply in Moody Centre or anywhere else. A provincial rule change eliminated hearings when they match the OCP in place. That may work when an OCP reflects clear community support. When residents were never directly consulted on a council’s centrepiece 14-tower plan, it shuts out public input. Good thing the public was asked about development in Moody Centre prior to all of this happening.

Before this council was elected, an OCP survey was mailed to every household in Port Moody. The results were clear: a majority did not support even 26 storeys in Moody Centre, and 72% of more than 1,200 respondents (amongst the highest response rates ever seen) rejected the 36-storey towers proposed at that time. That message has been repeated across all kinds of resident engagement results for years.

So what has this Mayor and council done in response?

Instead of adjusting course, they have tried to discredit the OCP surveys.

When Councillor Lurbiecki called for a community referendum on the plan for 14 towers up to 40 storeys, council claimed the last election was the referendum. Yet many of the campaigns from the last election clearly promised moderate growth – and explicitly “no wall of towers.” 

Mayor and council have told us the level of growth they have approved in the OCP is mandated. It isn’t. We’ve been told it’s the only way to fund amenities. It’s not. We’ve been told more people automatically means more revenue. It’s way more complicated than that. We’ve been told we must build regardless of infrastructure capacity. That’s not responsible planning.

This OCP was never all-or-nothing. But it seems like this council chose “all.”

What was never seriously explored was the balanced path: housing that meets real local needs, growth aligned with infrastructure, amenities delivered in step with development, meaningful expansion of recreation space – including Rocky Point Park – and protection of the natural beauty that makes Port Moody special.

The OCP has been adopted. But OCPs can be amended. And councils can be replaced.