Tower talk: Edmonds and Metrotown developments hot council topics

New tower developments are always a contentious issue in Burnaby, and it was no different during this week’s city council meeting on Monday.

The first item on the agenda that garnered a fair bit of discussion among councillors was the second reading of a rezoning bylaw for a proposed 21-storey strata tower that will sit on a six-storey podium and a lowrise rental building located at 7465 Griffiths Dr.

The market strata tower would include 108 units and the rental building would have 61 units: 16 of those would be 20% below market median rates (as calculated by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation), 23 would be slated for rent on par with the CMHC market median rate, and the remain 22 units would be market rentals.

The lot is currently zoned for light industrial uses, and is occupied by a light industrial building on city-owned land. If the project were to be approved, its total density would almost match the permitted density with a total floor area of 13, 563.5 square metres and a floor area ratio of 3.15.

Mayor Mike Hurley opened discussions expressing concerns with the density and height of the building.

“I just think that this is too much density for this site,” said Hurley, adding that improvements can be made to the six-storey wood frame construction and alternatively suggested a 10 to 12-storey mass timber structure that would be “much more environmentally friendly.”

Coun. Sav Dhaliwal said he supported the development overall but shared concerns about how the project would be rezoned for additional density.

“The reason I don’t like it … is the practice of the city to try to now take land out of what was previously a right of way, I believe, with Griffiths and adding that density to that site, which was not ever intended to be used… for residential or for any other type of density, giving to a nearby property. That area has added almost one-third of the density to that building,” he said.

“I think we ought to be very careful when we do think of having an assembly of land that was already intended for residential or mix-use area, that’s one thing. But something like this doesn’t hopefully become a regular thing to do…”

Hurley added that the area surrounding the property is made up of townhomes and single-family residents, and the development itself would impact the character of the neighbourhood. He also noted that the traffic on Griffiths would continue to be a safety concern if the development moves forward.

The second reading was approved with six councillors in favour, and Hurley and Coun. Joe Keithley voting against.

The second development up for discussion was Phase 2 of the Concord development at Metrotown, which consists of four towers.

In all, Phase 2 would add 1,145 market strata units, 853 market rentals, and 188 non-market rentals. Fifty-eight of these non-market studio rentals are very small in size, ranging from 323 to 346 sq. ft., which is only slightly larger than Burnaby’s minimum size of 322.93 sq. ft. for studio rentals.

Hurley said that while he was not opposed to the development, he did have many concerns with the mix of affordable units and their size.

“I look 323. sq. ft., I don’t think that’s a very good livable situation for our studios there,” he said.

Hurley and a number of councillors urged staff to act quickly on a review of minimum unit sizes, which is currently underway.

Coun. Alison Gu shared her issues with parking spaces for the development, which total 2,889 spots. Gu said that in an area with multiple transit lines, and walking and cycling infrastructures in place, a large number of parking stalls would encourage more driving.

“If we keep building for cars what is going to happen is people are going to this it’s easier to drive and continue to drive…,” she said.

Gu said that if the development reached its third reading, she would hope to see staff renegotiate the number of parking stalls with the developer but also ensure that would come with more affordability, suggesting a transition for some of the strata units to non-market including more CMHC median units, and moving some of the market rentals to non-market units.

But Ed Kozak, the City of Burnaby’s manager of planning and development, noted that if the second reading passed, the size and shape of the building—including the underground parking garage—would be set, meaning any massive changes to the number of stalls specifically would require a new public hearing.

He also noted that the non-profit partners managing the affordable non-market units provided feedback about the smaller unit sizes and they preferred keeping the unit sizes to a more “modest size in order to facilitate affordability” because larger units cost more to maintain.

“They want to keep them,.. not as small as possible, but as small as workable, and as I said they hadn’t raised a concern with that unit size with us directly, in fact, some of them are building to that unit size with their own projects,” said Kozak.

Coun. Pietro Calendino shared the mayor’s concerns about the size of some of the studio units but highlighted the project will provide nearly 1,200 units of housing in the city.

“If we stop this, you lose 1,200 units,” he said. “Again, I agree that the size of the studio will have to be revisited, but again when we talk about affordability, the larger unit the size, the higher the cost, so it’s a catch-22 and we really need to think carefully about that. At this time, I think we need to move ahead with the project and [in] the next phase of the project we can maybe ask the developer to be more equitable with the size of the units.”

Dhaliwal also agreed with Hurley’s point about the small studio units but supported the project to moving forward.

“The concerns are legitimate, I share the concerns but I think on this one we have to go forward and try to really catch up quickly…,” he said.

Before the discussion concluded, Gu requested a negotiation with the developer for reduced parking with community benefits to take place before the third reading.

The second reading passed with Keithley and Hurley opposing.

With files from Dustin Godfrey.