Owners of massive homes being built on Port Coquitlam’s floodplain won’t be allowed to turn lower-floor space into bedrooms and rental suites under proposed zoning changes.

And one home currently for sale for nearly $3 million in the city’s northeast is one example of a building that wouldn’t be allowed to have a large living space on its lower floor if it was built after the proposed zoning amendments are approved.

The home, located at 3809 Inverness St., is listed as having nine bedrooms and eight bathrooms.

At the Tuesday, April 5 council meeting, a photo of the Inverness Street home was shown as an example of homes being built with large windows — and the potential for rooms — in space slightly below grade where water could seep in during a flood.

If the new amendment passes, rooms constructed below the flood-construction level — about seven to eight feet above a site’s natural grade — would have to be small — no more kitchens, media rooms or bedrooms.

The space couldn’t be rented out because the rooms would be mostly for storage or a garage.

Areas of the floodplain affected are mostly east of Coast Meridian Road, south of the Coquitlam border and west of Shaughnessy Street near Colony Farm Regional Park.

The changes would affect approximately 2,200 properties or about 18 per cent of those zoned for single-residential or duplex development in PoCo.

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