Here’s what’s on the agenda at Burnaby’s April 4 council meeting

Another Monday, another council night.

Hello folks, I’ll be your host for this week’s edition of Burnaby Council Night! We’ve got a little bit of a preview here with the agenda items, and this week, the main focus is proposed developments in the Edmonds and Brentwood neighbourhoods. Oh, and chickens. We can’t forget the chickens!

If you want to tune in to tonight’s meeting you view the agenda beforehand here and can watch it live at 5pm here

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the council coverage!

Look at all those chickens

OK, you may NOT get the “look at all those chickens” reference so please see the above video to get you caught up on that very important viral internet moment.

Anyways, if you haven’t guessed already, chickens—specifically the keeping of backyard chickens—are on the agenda tonight.

As you may remember, a few weeks ago nine-year-old Luis Helmus gave an impassioned presentation to the Social Planning Committee about why backyard chickens should be allowed in Burnaby. During the meeting, the committee reviewed a report proposing a framework that would amend the Burnaby zoning bylaw and animal control bylaw to permit the keeping of chickens in backyards. The report, which will now be presented to council, outlines a framework and strategy to accommodate backyard chickens.

Some key framework points include the updating of bylaws to allow for proper definitions pertaining to backyard chickens, zoning districts would have to be specified to ensure the birds are allowed on single-family dwellings in the R1 through R5, R10, and R11 Districts, ensuring proper pen and coop construction, restricting the number of chickens to two per household, only permitting hens, and registering the birds with the Ministry of Agriculture’s BC Premises ID program. The sale of eggs and slaughter of chickens would not be permitted.

Kingsway/ Edmonds Master Plan

Council will review the Kingsway/ Edmonds Master Plan in order to provide “information on the preliminary vision guiding principals and development concept.”

The master plan proposes a development site located on the corner of Edmonds and Kingsway, which is comprised of four parcels of land owned by the City of Burnaby or BC Housing. The first 32,042 sq ft site (owned by the city) was formerly Edmonds Community Centre and is now vacant. Site 2 and 3 (owned by the city) are located at 7255 Edmonds Street and 7252 Kingsway. Site 2 is 43,229 sq ft and is currently a park, with the south westerly half being used as parking for the Hall Towers. Site 3 is 43,311 sq ft and formerly served as the Kingsway Branch Library. Site 4, which is 77,412 sq ft, is owned by BC Housing and is currently home to the Hall Towers. There are currently 331 non-market housing units at the site and the majority of its residents are over 55.

The master plan outlines the development of five new towers on these sites. The towers on the BC Housing site replacing the Hall Towers would provide 1,206 housing units, 875 of which would be below market rental. The towers on the City of Burnaby sites propose 1,609 housing units, with 300 being below market-rental.

“As a part of the study, the project team has proposed a mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood with a varied built form within a setting of attractive and accessible open spaces and high-quality architectural expression. Social continuity is fostered with zero displacement for existing tenants,” states the master plan.

“This ensures that current residents continue to live in their community throughout the phased development process. The inclusion of secured affordable rental housing within the development ensures that the community is accessible to a wide range of future residents.” Read the full master plan here.

Childcare facility in Metrotown

Council will review a rezoning application that proposes a childcare facility that would occupy the entire fifth floor of the Metrotower 2 office building located within the Metrotown shopping/office complex. The rezoning application is requesting to rezone the current property to the amended CD Comprehensive Development District in order to allocate 10,596 sq ft of tenant space into a licensed childcare facility that would have 147 spots for infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children. If approved by council, the rezoning bylaw will be also be reviewed at a public hearing on April 26.

Grosvenor Brentwood

A first reading of a bylaw to amend the Brentwood Town Centre Development Plan is also on the docket for tonight’s meeting.

The proposed rezoning bylaw amendment seeks to rezone the current site to the CD Comprehensive Development District for the Grosvenor Brentwood development site, which is 7.85 acres and is made up of five land parcels. Four of these land parcels (4612 Lougheed Highway and 2040, 2140, 2150 Alpha Avenue) once made up the former Chrysler car dealership and are currently used by Grosvenor for a weekend public market and food festival. The fifth and largest parcel at 4664 Lougheed Hwy is currently occupied by an older office building. The redevelopment of the site would take place in two phases, in order to build a high-density multi-phased strata, rental, commercial retail, office and community centre development.

There are six proposed towers in total, which would comprise of approximately 2,000 market rental units, 400-450 non-market rental units (approximately 20% of CoB’s rental needs for Burnaby) and approximately 1,000 condominium units. The master plan also includes a 100,000 sq ft City of Burnaby community centre. If approved by council, the rezoning bylaw will be also be reviewed at a public hearing on April 26. View the full master plan here.