A&W restaurant drive-thru inside 6-storey building proposed for Port Moody

A&W restaurant drive-thru inside six-storey building proposed for Port Moody

Current concept of the mid-block building A&W drive-thru at 2528 St. Johns Street, Port Moody. (Mara & Natha Architecture/CityState Consulting Group)

If a mixed-use, mid-rise building proposal is to advance into the City of Port Moody’s next stages of formal consideration, it will have to eliminate its drive-thru for the fast food restaurant tenant.

This direction from Port Moody City Council to the proponent was clear and universal during a public meeting last month seeking preliminary input on the project.

The proposal is to redevelop the former Rocky Point Taphouse building and the 1987-built standalone A&W restaurant drive-thru building at 2528 St. Johns Street, which is the northwest corner of the intersection of St. Johns Street and Mary Street — about four blocks west or a 12-minute walk from SkyTrain’s Moody Centre Station.

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Designed by Mara & Natha Architecture, this would be a six-storey building with 60 homes within the upper four levels, including 15 units dedicated as below-market rental units, 15 units dedicated as market rental units, and the remaining 30 units as strata condominium units. The unit size mix is 52 one-bedroom units and eight two-bedroom units.

On the second level, there would be nearly 12,000 sq ft of office space, plus a 3,000 sq ft indoor co-working-like office amenity space, along with an internal outdoor amenity courtyard for both residents and office workers.

Site of the existing A&W restaurant at 2528 St. Johns Street, Port Moody. (Google Maps)

Existing condition:

Site of the existing A&W restaurant at 2528 St. Johns Street, Port Moody. (Google Maps)

Proposed condition:

Current concept of the mid-block building A&W drive-thru at 2528 St. Johns Street, Port Moody. (Mara & Natha Architecture/CityState Consulting Group)

But it is the project’s proposed ground-level design that saw the most attention in the form of criticism.

On behalf of the applicant, a representative with CityState Consulting Group told City Council the drive-thru design for the replacement A&W restaurant within the building has gone through an evolution of many revisions over the years.

The drive-thru window and driveway are not on the perimeter of the building, but rather these uses cut through inside the very core of the building.

Previous drive-thru design iterations placed the fast-food restaurant unit within the southeast corner of the building — adjacent to the prominent intersection. Vehicles would enter the drive-thru from Mary Street and exit onto St. Johns Street, with some iterations providing as many as two drive-thru lanes inside the building.

Evolution of the A&W drive-thru concept for 2528 St. Johns Street, Port Moody. (Mara & Natha Architecture/CityState Consulting Group)

Previous concept of the building corner A&W drive-thru at 2528 St. Johns Street, Port Moody. (Mara & Natha Architecture/CityState Consulting Group)

The latest iteration presented to City Council is a drive-thru configuration where the fast food restaurant is relocated to a mid-block island commercial unit fronting only Mary Street, with a horseshoe-shaped drive-thru driveway wrapping around the restaurant. Vehicles would use Mary Street to both enter and exit the drive-thru driveway.

This is an apparent attempt to grandfather the existing A&W restaurant’s drive-thru as a design feature of the new building.

Current concept of the mid-block building A&W drive-thru at 2528 St. Johns Street, Port Moody. (Mara & Natha Architecture/CityState Consulting Group)

However, City staff state drive-thru restaurant uses are no longer permitted under City policies, and existing drive-thru uses are permitted to remain in operation indefinitely as a non-conforming use. In particularly, continue City staff, a drive-thru is not desired, nor permitted, in the core pedestrian-oriented area of Moody Centre.

City staff also expressed concerns that the two drive-thru driveway access points on Mary Street and the underground parking access point on Spring Street will impact the area’s walkability. At the same time, City staff assert the three driveways will reduce the opportunity for on-street parking to support local businesses, and there is a possibility the limited queuing area within the drive-thru could cause the queued cars to spill out onto Mary Street during busy periods.

“I continue to have concerns about the drive-thru. The majority of the comments for and against [from the public] were related to the drive-thru. Nobody has anything good to say about the smell living about a fast food restaurant. It sort of just seeps into everything,” said city councillor Kyla Knowles during the meeting.

“I think we’re just past the point of living in a time where drive-thrus cut through a building for fast food, particularly when there have been pinch points for ingress and egress in this building. There are too many entrances and exits for a lot this size.”

City councillor Diana Dilworth added, “I really like the aesthetic of the building. I really appreciate job creating,” but “my concerns are about the drive-thru… I really like this A&W. I really like their menu. I hope that whatever happens they’ll be able to stay. I have to admit that I love the convenience of the drive-thru, but I also recognize the tradeoff in terms of climate action and having that drive-thru.”

Mayor Meghan Lahti said that while she does not support the drive-thru, she does not have an issue with a fast food restaurant being incorporated into a multi-family residential building, as there would be standardized measures to eliminate odour.

Current concept of the mid-block building A&W drive-thru at 2528 St. Johns Street, Port Moody. (Mara & Natha Architecture/CityState Consulting Group)

The proponent’s representative suggested there are “dozens of examples worldwide” of a fast food restaurant drive-thru going deep inside a multi-level building.

The use of drive-thru fast food services has skyrocketed since the pandemic, growing by as much as 20% between 2020 and 2022 in the United States, with fast food chains now optimizing their operations to speed up the flow of their drive-thru-based businesses.

Two underground levels will provide 63 vehicle parking stalls, which represents a 43% reduction from the 110 vehicle stalls required for the building’s size and uses, based on the City’s parking minimum standards. This is a concern for City staff as “there are existing parking challenges expressed by businesses in the area for both customer and employee parking supply.”

As well, City staff said the housing unit size mix of 87% one-bedroom units and zero three-bedroom units does not meet the City’s policies for a higher ratio of family-friendly units, which is defined as units with two, three or more bedrooms. But some city councillors suggested they were willing to look the other way, as these homes would meet the affordability needs of young professionals.

The latest iteration of the proposal called for a total building floor area of about 74,100 sq ft, establishing a floor area ratio density of a floor area that is 3.95 times larger than the size of the 18,800 sq ft lot. The building’s rooftop is topped off with solar panels.

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