This story is part of a joint Vancouver Sun-Langara College project looking at the urban future of the rapidly growing Metro Vancouver region.

Richmond is the Lower Mainland’s transportation gateway, but its densification strategy threatens the industrial businesses that keep those transportation networks flowing.

With about 20 per cent of Metro Vancouver’s industrial land, Richmond has an economy centred around industry. More than half of Richmond’s 135,000 workers make their living in transportation, warehousing, logistics, manufacturing and wholesale. And many of the estimated 45,000 jobs created in Richmond between now and 2040 will also be rooted in those sectors.

But industry is competing for land with a looming population influx in a city defined by its inability to build high and dig deep, and so far, industry is losing.

Over the next 25 years, Richmond’s population will mushroom from 190,000 to 275,000.

Richmond’s unique predicament? No buildings in the city centre can be taller than 46 metres because of proximity to the airport, and a high water table makes underground construction either impossible or prohibitively expensive. Additionally, about 40 per cent of the city’s land mass is protected under the Agricultural Land Reserve.

“When population grows, it needs to go somewhere,” said city economic manager Neonila Lilova. “It’s no secret that some industrial lands have been compromised to accommodate more population.” Nearly two thirds of the projected population growth will be funnelled into the Brighouse area (city centre). In 25 years, that area will be transformed into a downtown hub with 100,000 residents — twice the population of 2009 levels.

One solution on the table is to raise the 46-metre height restriction. One 20-storey tower can house the same number of people as two 10-storey towers, but with half the ground-level area. This could reduce the encroachment of industrial lands without compromising density targets. However, changing those limits requires a federal process that takes at least three years, and no one knows if or when Transport Canada will start that process.