Street Talk, Part Two: No. 1 and Moncton

Monday, 07. 5. 2010  –  Opinion

William Dunn

Street Talk is an ongoing exploration of Metro Vancouver’s most unique and vibrant spaces, which aims to educate and reconnect readers with their built environment.

A tiny stretch of street in Richmond’s Steveston Village seems an unlikely sequel to the notorious and bustling Robson, but the 150 metre strip of No. 1 Road, tucked away south of Moncton, is a New Urbanist’s wet dream. The quiet street is lined by continuous retail with residential units comprising the few stories above. Within walking distance are two parks, cafes, grocery stores, a community centre, library, weekly outdoor market, and the commercial heart of the Steveston Village. Shaped by the interurban railway that connected it to the region over 100 years ago, it’s an emerging strip of livability floating improbably in a sea of suburban sprawl.

The street is bound by a flashing four-way stop at Moncton, and a boardwalk with views of the Fraser River as it spills into the Salish Sea. The flashing red light calms traffic remarkably well - effective to the point that jaywalking is common and comfortable. With parking either on-street or tucked away, the streetscape is uninterrupted and lively. It all sounds so simple, but it’s perhaps the only place in Richmond that offers sun-bathed window-shopping, coffee in hand.

The original railway station, located at what is now No. 1 Road and Moncton, served as the anchor of the village; before the advent of the automobile, shops and homes had to be constructed within walking distance of the station. The resulting community was compact and filled with a mix of commercial and residential properties. This original urban form lends Steveston its walkable charm today.

According to Stephen Rees, local transportation economist and regional planner, “most of Richmond grew rapidly once the decision was made to change the zoning from agricultural to residential. And the rules at the time assumed that everyone would drive everywhere. Single purpose zoning is disastrous for urbanity: we need mixed uses so that more people can walk to where they need to be.”

As the rest of Richmond and most of Metro Vancouver exploded into two-car garages, Steveston clung to its historic roots.

“Steveston was the original interurban village, but it also had an important function” continued Rees, “It had a purpose - the centre of the Fraser’s fishing industry. It was also a place where people lived and worked - and commuted by walking! The ‘bones’ of that are still visible. Sadly the industry is now almost finished - but we have not replaced it with anything else, so it now has become a ‘destination’ and mainly residential.”

Steveston’s harbour still holds Canada’s largest fishing fleet, and the Steveston Area Plan has provisions to maintain it as such, but as fish stocks have declined, so too has local employment in the industry. This decline means that activity in the village is no longer comprised of locally employed residents but of tourists and visitors who arrive by car to enjoy the waterfront, restaurants and shopping. According to Rees, “While there are some small offices in Steveston, apart from retail and services there is not a lot of employment.”

The parking lots scattered throughout the rest of the village are scars from the auto-centric development of the late century and the village’s transformation from a fishing town to a tourist stop. Intended to facilitate and encourage the arrival of outside visitors, ironically, the dead spaces created by the lots have left gaping holes in the original charm of the village. With the collapse of the fishing industry and this catering to car-culture, Stephen Rees sees little hope for the village to do anything other than continue its slow decline.

But prudent new planning policies are taking advantage of Steveston’s past in shaping its future: parking must be on-street or tucked away to prevent any “missing teeth” in the streetscape; mixed business and residential zoning aims to revitalize the village’s commercial centre and rebuild its past identity as a live-work community; and buildings inspired by the original 1900s architecture keeps a human scale and preserves the distinct character of the neighbourhood.

Nowhere are these new policies more evident than our tiny strip of No. 1 Road, where residents of second floor apartments are a mere flight of stairs away from a coffee, meal, or stroll down the boardwalk. It’s a revitalization of the interurban village as new urbanism, and the railway’s historical role in creating this livable form bodes well for the infamous No. 3 Road and the arrival of the Canada Line.