Burnaby 2050: A sneak peek at what people said about Burnaby’s future

In the spring of this year, the city launched its third phase of public engagement for Burnaby’s Official Community Plan (OCP), also known as Burnaby 2050, which continued until June 9. 

This phase, which started on April 16, comprised 16 online surveys covering everything from infrastructure to art. It also included in-person and online open houses for Indigenous communities, Burnaby youth, and the general public. 

On July 10, Burnaby city planners Deirdre Bostock and Hay Go presented high-level, preliminary results of these public engagement efforts at the city’s Planning and Development Committee (PDC) meeting. Bostock said that the OCP team will analyze the findings and submit a detailed report to the PDC in September of this year. 

According to Bostock, phase three of the OCP engagement involved drafting a strategy for the city’s future and policies to go with it. Through public consultation, the city obtained feedback from Burnaby residents about these policies and the overall vision for the city’s future. 

This phase also involved consulting with a newly created Youth Advisory Council that brought together several Burnaby high-school students, Grades 9-12, to envision the city’s future. 

“The goals of our engagement were to raise awareness to inspire dialogue and participation from as many community members as we can and also to demonstrate that we had been listening through phases one and two,” Bostock said. “We also wanted to obtain feedback on some growth scenarios and some draft policy directions.” 

Bostock said that the Burnaby 2050 webpage had almost 10,000 visitors during this engagement phase and 22 social media posts. She added that the Burnaby 2050 video posted on the city’s webpage for the project received 7,755 views during phase three. 

The city shared news releases, posted ads in newspapers, placed posters in public venues, and mailed flyers to all households in Burnaby to inform them about the engagement process. 

The city held two in-person open houses in Metrotown and Brentwood in May and one virtual open house. In addition, the city hosted community partner sessions, which drew 100 attendees from neighbouring municipalities and other government organizations, such as TransLink and Metro Vancouver. It also held two special workshops for Indigenous people living in Burnaby to provide perspectives on seven key topic areas of interest: 

• Archaeological and Indigenous cultural sites

• Heritage and neighbourhood character

• Community wellbeing

• Parks and open spaces 

• Housing

• Environment 

• Climate change 

According to the preliminary results, respondents’ most popular vision statement was, “Burnaby is a safe, thriving, green city with a vibrant economy and connected neighbourhoods that people want to live in and be in for generations to come.”

One of the surveys presented two growth scenarios. The first showed a baseline involving continued growth in the town centres and so-called “urban villages.” This scenario included the province-mandated transit-oriented areas with small-scale multi-unit housing. The second was a “growth corridor” scenario, which builds on the baseline and provides for growth on transit corridors. 

Bostock said there were several key features that respondents said they liked about the growth scenarios:

• Neighbourhood commercial centres 

• Increased mix of housing, including townhouses, row houses, and low-rise apartments 

• Expansion of parks, open spaces, and natural areas

• More gradual height transitions from the Skytrain onward

• Proposed urban villages and frequent transit development areas on Willingdon Avenue

• Expansion and addition of school sites

Some of the themes that emerged from open houses included: 

• Housing and affordability

• Transport: upgrades to transit infrastructure to make traveling by sustainable modes more comfortable and convenient with washrooms and covered bus stops

• More cultural spaces and opportunities 

Burnaby’s youth representatives had their visions of the future, and here were some of the highlights Bostock mentioned from the Youth Advisory Council’s sessions: 

• Youth said they want more entertainment spaces, fun community spaces, and places where people can express their different cultures

• They were concerned about housing costs and the cost of renting

• The youth expressed a desire for increased safety through better street lighting and general improvements to public transit services

• Participants were very engaged and appreciated the opportunity to learn, be involved in city planning, and hope for future opportunities

The OCP team’s next steps include completing a detailed analysis and report in September, which will incorporate recommendations from the SFU Community Assembly process. 

“It’s nice to see that, in general, we’re going in the right direction, and obviously, there were things put in there that we need to consider,” Mayor Mike Hurley said in response to the preliminary results. “I can see the variety of homes being one of them. I hear every day from the public out there that we need different types of homes than we have focused on in the past.” 

Coun. Pietro Calendino commented on the Youth Advisory Council engagement and asked if the participating high schoolers had any good ideas for solving the housing crisis. 

“They had a lot of good ideas, and those are logged in our engagement findings, but it was a recurring theme in our discussions about housing affordability. It was quite an insightful discussion with Burnaby youth,” Go replied. 

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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