Maclean Homes has submitted an application to rezone an existing apartment property in the Central Lonsdale area of North Vancouver at the corner of Chesterfield and West 18th Street. 1730 Chesterfield is an older 3-storey 43-unit walkup apartment building on a 27,850 SF lot.

The proposal plans to rezone the Property from RM-1 to allow a new, larger 6-storey rental apartment building. The OCP allows a based density of 1.60 FSR and a bonus of 1.0 FSR and up to 6-storeys in height. Details include:

• 87 rental apartment units;
• 6 studios, 53 one-bedrooms, 18 two-bedrooms and 10 three-bedrooms;
• a total density of 2.54 FSR;
• a total building height of 54 ft.;
• 56 parking stalls on one level of underground parking accessed from the lane;
• a bonus density contribution of $2,885,190.

The architect for the project is Garcia Zunino Architects.

Thind Properties has applied to the City of Burnaby to rezone a 57,809 SF site at 6525-6585 Sussex Avenue for a new mixed use development including market residential, non-market rental and retail and office uses. The original rezoning application was made over a year ago, but the details have now been finalized and it is now ready to move forward to public hearing.

As detailed in the Burnaby Now, the project is a partnership between Thind, New Vista Housing Society and BC Housing. 

The existing site is located just a few steps East of Metrotown Skytrain Station on Beresford and is comprised of three lots improved with three older walkup apartment buildings totaling 64 units.

The plan calls for rezoning per the Metrotown Downtown Plan to RM5s, RM4 and C2 zoning districts. Details include:

• a 48-storey tower including 10-storeys of office and 38-storeys of residential on the North portion of the site
• 327 market residential units
• 160 one-bedrooms units, 125 two-bedroom units and 41 three-bedroom units;
• 4,700 SF of retail uses at grade;
• 69,515 SF of office space;
• a 14-storey tower with 125 non-market rental units on the South portion
• A combined total density of 8.0 FAR;
• Building heights of 520 ft. and 155 ft;
• 544 underground parking stalls

Somewhat hidden behind the news of the Housing Vancouver Strategy announcement, is a new policy proposal for CACs for commercial and rental-only residential developments. The overall plan proposed in the policy report entitled “CAC Policy Update: Simplifying CACs on New Rental Housing and Commercial Development” is to cease negotiating CACs on commercial rezonings and some rental rezonings.

The City’s proposal is intended to “simplify the City’s development contribution system which includes DCLs, CACs, density bonusing and other mechanisms. The proposed changes will provide greater clarity and certainty on development contributions for rezoning applicants. The recommended changes will streamline the CAC process for both secured market rental and commercial-only rezoning applications to enable a majority of these project types to be brought to market sooner.”

The recommendations in the proposed policy include the following:

Recommendation A – Exempt routine, lower density secured market rental rezoning applications from CACs

The City would exempt rental applications from CAC negotiations where the density proposed is low, or consistent with area zoning. The table below shows where CACs would be exempt for rental based on height guidelines:

Recommendation B – Remove CAC negotiation on commercial-only rezoning 

The City intends on removing the CAC negotiation process (which can prolong the application timeline significantly) for commercial applications in the Downtown, Metro Core, Grandview Employment Area and South Vancouver Industrial Lands. This would not apply for proposed stratified commercial space.

The City will also introduce commercial linkage targets, which are intended to show the correlation between additional commercial space and workforce related childcare spaces and affordable housing. The commecial linkage targets will be fixed $/SF amounts calculated on the net additional density for commercial rezonings in the Downtown and Metro Core areas. 

The interim Commercial Linkage Targets will be as follows:As industry consultation has already occurred for these items, they could take effect almost immediately after Council adoption.

A full copy of the policy report can be viewed here: http://council.vancouver.ca/20171128/documents/a4.pdf