Coquitlam council passed a bylaw Monday that mandates the inclusion of bike parking in the majority of future developments.

The bylaw follows the lead adopted in seven other municipalities in Metro Vancouver, which require both long-and short-term bicycle parking spaces for all development types: New Westminster, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, North Vancouver, Pitt Meadows and Vancouver.

The move was endorsed unanimously, with the exception of Coun. Terry O'Neill, and will see spaces allocated for bike parking at multi-family residential and commercial buildings.

"If we truly want people to be able to have access to cycling, we can't have the access only available to those people that live in single family or ground-oriented housing, so this is a natural step," Mayor Richard Stewart said in an interview Tuesday.

In voting against the measure, O'Neill said the city was overstepping its legislative boundaries by mandating the change.

Instead, he said he would prefer market forces to fuel any potential policy shifts.

"It's a philosophical issue as much as anything else," O'Neill said Tuesday. "I just believe that governments are attempting to do too much too often. I didn't think that this was an essential thing for our government to get involved in. I'm trying to send a message to the city and to my fellow councillors that we don't need to pass laws to support every good intention that we have."

A city staff report notes that zoning bylaws pertaining to parking in developments mandate the inclusion of vehicular parking spots only, but do not address the need or demand for bikes. The move was also supported by the Urban Development Institute (UDI).

"The cost implications are small, and certainly a good investment that has large environmental and health benefits," read a letter sent to council by UDI deputy executive director Jeff Fisher.

Coun. Lou Sekora offered cautious support to the bylaw change.

"It's not a big thing, and it's not expensive. But are we going to keep on getting after the developers to put more and more things in to please certain people's political stripes?" he asked. "For instance, in Vancouver they have these stupid bike lanes and the businesses are really suffering. Is that going to be next in the City of Coquitlam?"

jkurucz@thenownews.com