Smilestones junior kindergarten on Norland Avenue is poised to become the safest child-care centre in Burnaby now that the city has decided to build its new $162.5-million RCMP detachment practically right next door.
The north end of the block between Norland and Ledger avenues – directly adjacent to the child-care facility and a five-storey office building – has been approved as the location of a new, expanded police headquarters, according to a July city council report.
Smilestones, at 4162 Norland Ave., got a letter from the city about the plan last Thursday, according to Samantha Saepan, manager of the Burnaby location.
She said the reaction at the facility has been positive so far.
"It might be nice to kind of feel more safer around the area," she said. "When you work in a child-care you have to be so diligent about who’s coming on our yard. At least with the police around we’re less likely to feel, like, stressed out."
Cancelled open houses
City council approved the Norland Avenue location (4038, 4066, 4086 and 4244 Norland Ave.) after years of closed-door meetings and in-camera reports.
Council greenlit $6.5 million at its July 10 public meeting to pay for "pre-design investigations" and "pre-construction work" at the site.
An excavator was there last week, and some preliminary work looked to have been done already.
The city’s public relations department even sent out a news release last Thursday, announcing two open houses in September where residents would be able to learn more about the project and "share their input."
But the department retracted the release the same day, saying the information was “not up to date” and the open houses were being postponed.
Lots of studies, none public
Burnaby RCMP has outgrown its headquarters at 6355 Deer Lake Ave., according to a 2020 space needs study.
The assessment found the facility was already 2,685 sq. m. (28,903 sq. ft.) too small for the detachment’s needs in 2020 and would be 4,074 sq. m. (43,849 sq. ft.) too small after 20 years.
The study also found other deficiencies with the old building, which was built in 1967 and served as a courthouse before being re-purposed as the Burnaby RCMP headquarters.
The city had originally considered building the new RCMP facility at 6161 Deer Lake Ave., right next to the current headquarters, and hired an architect in 2021 to produce a conceptual design.
In 2022, city council approved "further study" of that idea, according to the July report.
The current location wasn’t approved until one more study in March 2023 of four different siting options, according to the report.
Change of plans
There were a number of reasons the city decided not to rebuild next door to the existing headquarters, according to James Lota, the city’s general manager of lands and facilities.
For one, a large lot at 4244 Norland Ave. will become vacant once the engineering department’s vehicles and officer trailers, which currently take up the lot, are relocated to the new Laurel Street Works Yard, Lota said.
City officials also concluded the Norland Avenue site was more suited to an RCMP headquarters than its current location so close to Deer Lake Park, according to Lota.
"Wouldn’t it be better as part of Deer Lake Park?" he said.
The city’s plans to build a child-care facility right across the street from the detachment’s current location was also a factor, according to Lota.
"Is putting a child-care right beside an RCMP, is that an ideal thing?" he said.
Public consultation?
Nearly all of the planning around the $162.5-million project has happened behind closed doors.
Why the secrecy?
Lota said it has to do with land valuation for the city.
"There's potential negotiations that could be affected by where we put it," he said.
And it’s not clear whether there will be any public consultation around the project since no rezoning is required, according to Lota.
As for the open houses, he wasn't sure about those either.
"I don't think the RCMP quite like publicizing all this stuff just for security reasons," he said.
But city public affairs manager Chris Bryan later emailed the NOW saying the open houses had not been cancelled, only postponed until the completion of a "validation report."
Validation is the process an approved integrated project delivery team goes through to determine the scope and budget of a project, according to Lota.
"Having the validation report will allow us to provide the public with more detail about the project," Bryan said. "Our goal is to provide the public as much information as possible."
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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