November 25th Burnaby City Council Meeting
Time for another update from your Eyes on Council. This is the second update this week, as Burnaby City Council had an open public hearing regarding small scale multi unit housing bylaw amendments, and then the regular city council meeting. Today’s update will cover the regular city council meeting from Tuesday, November 25th.
The first big housing issue brought up at the meeting was to waive the annual general meeting for the Burnaby Housing Authority for 2025. The annual financial statement will be brought forward in February of 2026, and each year at or around the same time. The resolution also would set December 12th as the annual reference date for the Burnaby Housing Authority.
This came up through city council because the Housing Authority is a corporation, and under the corporation act is required to have annual general meetings in order to report to shareholders. As the City of Burnaby is the sole shareholder for the Burnaby Housing Authority, it was able to provide the unanimous written consent required to waive the AGM until next year. The corporation will still file its required financial documents, and by that point we should have an idea as to where the Burnaby Housing Authority is going and what kind of costs were incurred for those first two projects that were reported in October.
The proposed amendment to rental rates at the Bevan Properties is also related to the Burnaby Housing Authority, as the BHA announced this would be one of their first two projects. The amendment to the rental rates here is to change the number of units that will be offered as below-market housing rates, and to change the calculation of what is considered affordable housing for that project. In this case, the BHA has asked that a minimum of 20% of the units be considered below-market housing, and that affordability level be set at 30% of the median total income for families in Vancouver, based on the most recent census data. The Housing Authority has also indicated that while 20% is a minimum, they will attempt to increase the number of affordable units, subject to their financing.
There was a progress report updating the work on the Mayor’s Taskforce on Unsheltered Community Members that was part of the consent agenda, which means it was not debated and discussed in the council meeting. The report goes into detail on the construction of the committee and the recommendations that were made. A separate report put together by city staff provided a guideline on which of the recommendations had been completed, which were underway and which had not been started yet. Many of the action items related to component two; developing a range of housing types to meet a variety of needs have not yet been started, so it will be interesting to see where the city goes with those action items.
A series of rezoning bylaws were given first and second reading. For the most part, these were localized amendments to the overall zoning process specific to those portions of larger developments that are being constructed in Burnaby. The overall zoning remained the same, just with amendments except for bylaw 14780 respecting the application by the Burnaby Housing Authority at 10th and Newcombe. This application is being rezoned from the new R1 small scale multiunit housing to a CD Comprehensive Development District, based on the R3r low-rise apartment zone already passed by council. There was also a bylaw change updating the community benefit rates and capital cost rates that developers must contribute to the city as part of the building permitting and application process. These developer cost charges are the fees cities charge developers for increasing density and are meant to fund the infrastructure necessary to maintain these new developments. The DCC are a replacement to the previous density bonus system, which was an ad-hoc negotiation with each development. The DCC were imposed upon cities by the provincial government through legislation to create more clarity around development charges.
A series of housing agreements with rental providers were discussed and several given final reading and adoption. These agreements required the developer to provide rental housing, and also indicated the types of homes that needed to be provided at each location, along with how those units would be governed and any required dispute mechanisms.
Finally, the results of a closed meeting from earlier in the year was put forward for discussion. More information will be provided in the minutes for this council meeting, but the resolution empowers staff to negotiate with the provincial rental housing corporation for a 60 year ground lease of city owned property at 5389 Imperial Street, and to rezone the property from parking to CD Comprehensive Development in order to develop a complex care and supportive housing facility.
