Coquitlam sets stage for six-tower Burquitlam development A transformative development consisting of six towers ranging from 29 to 53 storeys at Burquitlam is moving forward following a unanimous vote from Coquitlam council on Monday. While council was uniformly supportive of the approximately 2,212 rental units, the complete lack of office space was a sticking point. Given the importance of building a complete community, the city needs to “draw a line in the sand here,” according to Coun. Matt Djonlic. Local news that matters to you No one covers the Tri-Cities like we do. But we need your help to keep our community journalism sustainable. “It’s not an ideal situation to be handling it this way, but this is such an important piece of land to building out the Burquitlam community. We need more of the job employment space,” he said. Owned by Morguard real estate company, the anvil-shaped, 7.7-acre site at Clarke Road and Emerson Street is surrounded by towers, the SkyTrain, and the Safeway. Djonlic put forward a motion that would add office space to the second phase of the project. In opposing Djonlic’s motion, Coun. Dennis Marsden emphasized Coquitlam’s reputation for clear rules and no surprises around development. “Tonight’s a surprise, and that goes against so much of what we’ve talked about doing right in our city,” Marsden said. “To arbitrarily, with the stroke of a pen on decision night say, ‘Yeah, no, you know what? We want to double that number but we’ll figure it out later.’ That’s not the way to do business.” While he was sympathetic to Djonlic’s intent, Marsden maintained the city’s top priority should be rejuvenating what is now a “tired old mall” by supplying what the market needs. Noting the density involved, Coun. Trish Mandewo backed Djonlic’s motion. “It behooves us to