B.C. government gives Burnaby, Langley Township transit hub density ultimatum
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As first reported by Global News, Infrastructure Minister Rob Fleming wrote to Langley Township Mayor Eric Woodward in late July, after township council missed the June 30 deadline to recognize the site of the future Willowbrook SkyTrain station as a transit-oriented development zone.
Similar to threats levelled against West Vancouver over that council’s refusal to allow between four and six units on a single-family lot, the minister said the province has the legal right to force the changes through if necessary.
In a statement, the Ministry of Transportation said the letters are designed to give municipalities that haven’t complied with the requirements additional time and that the ministry will continue to work with these communities to implement those changes.
Woodward says his council will consider Fleming’s letter in September or October, but believes the new mandatory minimum zoning will increase land values and compromise the ability of municipalities to create healthy, vibrant communities.
Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley has similar reservations and said he has also received a letter from Fleming that gives his council until Oct. 31 to fall in line with the province’s density requirements.
At a council meeting on June 24, Burnaby council unanimously voted to put off the changes for three months in order to allow staff to further study the legislation and the impacts it will have on neighbourhoods like Brentwood, where residents have signed a petition seeking an exemption from the requirements.
“If you’ve driven through Brentwood, you’ll see the amount of density that is there and is going to be there,” said Hurley. “So we’re still not sure if there needs to be more density in that neighbourhood, but we’ll see where it finishes up as we go through our deliberations.”
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart said that, unlike Burnaby and Langley Township, his council did vote in favour of transit-oriented-development bylaw changes but still has concerns that the policy will actually reduce housing starts because developers are unclear about what the rule changes mean for projects in the works.
“We’ve actually had developers pull projects off the table because they can no longer get financing under the somewhat unpredictable regime that we’re in now, or else they believe the project is no longer viable,” he said, adding council also had to pull staff off development approvals to make sure Coquitlam meets provincial deadlines for rule changes.
“We have an affordable housing reserve fund that is funded entirely out of bonus density, and that allows us to just incentivize but also to subsidize affordable housing projects, including projects that aren’t being subsidized by the province, even though it’s within their mandate,” he said.
UBC housing sociologist Nathanael Lauster, who helped the province model the potential impacts of its legislation, said he understands concerns from mayors and community members when it comes to the loss of control over the approval process but believes it is necessary to get more housing built quicker.
He said it is time municipalities stop relying on fees imposed on developers through the bonus density process to be able to afford community amenities.
At the same time, he said municipalities and the province need to be careful to keep housing in these areas affordable so that renters and marginalized communities are not pushed further away from the transit they rely on.
“I think definitely there is a real place for municipalities to take a look and consider how their marginalized renters might be impacted by this set of policies and to try to assist them,” said Jones.
