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When Edgar Developments breaks ground this fall on the first phase of its Portwood master-planned community, it will make a five-year design vision of a truly rare property, informed by a sense of place, become a reality. Located in Port Moody, Portwood is the transformation of a 1960s-era, 10-building, 23-acre rental property to a master-planned community of strata homes, market rentals and BC Housing rentals for a total of 2,300 residences when all phases of the project are completed. Beyond the unique mix of housing options, at the centre of Edgar Development’s conception for the project is retaining 70 per cent of the 23 acres as green space, which includes environmentally sensitive sites, parks, walking trails, and communal courtyards for the residences.

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“It’s not every day that you come across a project with that open space and a developer that’s really committed to preserving it… the character and the ecological integrity of that open space, which is characterized by a lot of mature trees on site, of the water courses, the environmentally sensitive areas,” notes Derek Lee, landscape architect on the project and partner at PWL Partnership.

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The property, Lee emphasizes, is not a gated community but a fully publicly accessible network of trails. Each housing phase has a perimeter trail that connects to the environmentally sensitive areas and to each of the residential sites.

The interior design of homes at Portwood is light, modern and elevated. Photo by Edgar Developments

“All these streets, laneways and trails are public, and they actually lead into these green courtyards, which are also public,” Lee says. “So whether you live in building one or building nine, or whatever, you can …