Riverbend Business Park project in Burnaby was certified with Green Shores
Stewardship Centre for BC verifies the Riverbend Business Park Project by Oxford Properties Group with Green Shores® for Shoreline (Coastal) Development GOLD.
Background
Oxford Properties acquired lands within the municipality of Burnaby, adjacent to the Big Bend section of the North Arm of the Fraser River in 2011. The intent was to develop a high-quality business park in accordance with the Big Bend Community Plan. At that time, the lands contained a non-operational landfill and had been the site of former heavy industrial uses that extended along most of this section of the Fraser River shoreline, and into a smaller connected waterway, the Sturgeon Slough.
The development program for the business park included removal of the contaminated landfill material and site remediation. This was followed by the application of innovative flood protection and stormwater management methods, along with shoreline and native plant restoration leading to a Green Shores® Gold rating. This complemented the onsite creation of green LEED™ standard buildings.
Opportunities for Green Shores®
This site on the North Arm of the Fraser River is unique in that it has tidal influence from the Pacific Ocean to the west. This Green Shores® for Shoreline (Coastal) Development project retained and improved the local intertidal habitat while avoiding impact to local shoreline processes.
The following four principles of Green Shores were all followed:
- Preserve or restore physical processes—the natural actions of water and sediment movement that maintain healthy shorelines.
- Maintain or enhance habitat function and diversity along the shoreline.
- Prevent or reduce pollutants entering the aquatic environment.
- Avoid or reduce cumulative impacts—small individual effects that add up to large impacts on shoreline environments.
Physical movement of water and sediments was restored along more than 1,000 metres of shoreline adjacent to the Fraser River and the intersecting Sturgeon Slough. This was done through extraction and remediation of contaminated soils and fill, and replacement of old asphalt and debris from former industrial uses along the river, with native plants, natural cobble and small boulders. It also included removal of the dilapidated tide gate from the mouth of Sturgeon Slough to allow for free exchange of intertidal water and fish within the slough. All of these improvements promote the natural process of sediment exchange between the river and shoreline banks.
Improving habitat for birds, amphibians and fish and the related increased site biodiversity was achieved through the establishment and retention of native shrub and tree vegetation along the banks of the river (riparian area). Prevention of pollutants entering the Fraser River was managed through the application of effective wastewater treatment systems that treat parking lot runoff before it is discharged to the Fraser River.
The business park development did require construction of a flood protection dike which often is incompatible with the requirements of riparian protection and restoration. Using an innovative approach to this challenge, Oxford Property consultants worked with staff from the City of Burnaby and the Province of BC to develop an alternative dike design that set the flood protection works back from the Fraser River and Sturgeon Slough. This supported natural riparian function and demonstrated how cumulative impacts of developments can be minimized or avoided.
There is a newly established community trail that proceeds along the Fraser River and Sturgeon Slough to the Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park utilizing the Wiggins Street right‑of‑way. This provides visual access to the river, and the signage along the trail promotes opportunities for public education about climate change and intertidal ecological processes.
Other recognition of this project
The City of Burnaby recognized Oxford Properties with the 2019 Environmental Award for Business and Development.
For more information about this project, visit the Riverbend Business Park Case Study page or email the contacts below:
Green Shores
Kelly Loch, RPF Green Shores Projects Coordinator
Riverbend Business Park
Dale Muir, PEng Principal Northwest Hydraulic Consultants Ltd.
