With upwards of 20 zoning amendments in the Metrotown area currently before council, Coun. Colleen Jordan asks if the city is moving too fast on developing that area. Burnaby NOW file photo
Is the City of Burnaby taking on too much change too fast in Metrotown?
That was the topic of a brief debate that capped Monday night’s council meeting, in which councillors sent four major Metrotown projects to public hearing with little comment.
Council also directed staff that evening to work with developers on four additional zoning matters in the Metrotown area that will be brought before council at a later date.
“Obviously, the rental zoning and the changes that we put forward in our plan is generally really, really working well. I guess the thing that frightens me is – maybe it’s doing too well,” Coun. Colleen Jordan said.
“We have 27, by my count, development applications in progress in Metrotown, with some of those having more than one building...That’s a rate of change that is huge.”
But director of planning and building Ed Kozak said the current flood of developments has accumulated over months while city staff worked to develop the rental zoning framework.
“After that dropped off, there was a rush, and expectedly so, in the number of applications,” Kozak said. “I do believe it will slow down.”
With a laugh, Jordan said she’s “heard (Kozak) say this before.”
The developments presented to council so far constitute about a third of what’s been submitted to the city, representing the applications that are currently seen as the most ready to proceed, Kozak said
“Some of the applications may not even proceed at all.”
Other councillors pushed back on Jordan’s suggestion that Burnaby is moving too fast.
Coun. Sav Dhaliwal said “the last thing we want to do” is to send a message that Burnaby isn’t ready for developments, particularly after the uncertainty of what the new rental zoning policy would do to local development. He added that Burnaby has often been a regional leader on major projects.
Coun. Pietro Calendino said the rate of developments isn’t exactly new.
“We began this process three or four years ago, five years ago. I think we all knew what we were facing at that time,” he said, adding that the city needs to keep up with the rate of new people coming to the region, estimated at 30,000 per year.
