The City of Coquitlam Council will receive a report next week for information and feedback regarding residential density and land use transition approach for the City Centre Area Plan (CCAP) Update. The planning update got underway last year, and it is anticipated that a draft plan will be presented to Council in Summer 2019.

The original CCAP was developed in 2008, and updated with a Transit Oriented Development Strategy in 2012. This update was initiated to capitalize on the Evergreen Line, with an intent to prioritize high density development around the new station areas. The City Centre update projects 24,000 new residents by 2046.

The focus for proposed new residential density will be broadly defined in two separate areas:

Core Area 

The majority of land use changes to the existing 2008 CCAP are proposed around
the Coquitlam Centre and Lincoln Skytrain stations. Currently, the maximum permitted density for all residential and commercial uses under the City Centre Commercial land use designation (C-4 zone) is 6.5 FAR inclusive of density available for affordable housing, with a 0.5 FAR commercial floor space requirement. It is proposed that a maximum FAR of 6.5, inclusive of density available for affordable housing, and a 1.0 commercial FAR requirement be applied in the Commercial Downtown Core until a comprehensive review of the City’s density bonus program is completed. 

The City separately reviewed commercial densities in a discussion paper released last month in which an increase in minimum commercial densities in the City Centre was recommended.

For areas designated as City Centre Commercial outside of the Commercial Downtown Core, the existing 6.5 FAR maximum, inclusive of density available for affordable housing, and 0.5 FAR commercial floor would be maintained.

Shoulder Area

Outside of the Commercial Downtown Core and City Centre Commercial designation, a combination of high and medium density residential rounds out the residential density and land use transition.

High density residential allows up to a 5.5 FAR, inclusive of density available for
affordable housing, under the RM-6 zone without any height limit and the medium density land use allows up to a 2.64 FAR, inclusive of density available for affordable housing, under the RM-3 zone with a height limit up to 8-storeys.

To provide a transition to the adjacent lower density neighbourhoods, site
specific height limits are proposed for high density (20-25 storey) and medium
density (4-6 storey) residential areas. Although proposed residential land use changes are primarily within the CCAP Focus Area, staff recommends a land use change for the area east of Inlet Street and south of Tahsis Avenue from low density apartment residential and townhousing to medium density with a 4-6 storey height limit.

A medium density land use form with a 4-6 storey height limit in this area will serve as a transitional land use between the Commercial Downtown Core and peripheral areas in City Centre and blend into adjacent established, lower density neighbourhoods.

A draft plan will be developed with a final round of public consultation and council consideration later this year.

Further detail on the City Center Area Plan update can be viewed on the City of Coquitlam’s website, here: https://www.coquitlam.ca/planning-and-development/resources/special-plans-projects/city-centre-area-plan-update

2018 has been another record year for land sales in Metro Vancouver approaching $5 Billion in total sales value, surpassing both 2016 & 2017, with $4.5 and $4.4 Billion respectively. This record year is really the culmination of several large deals which were marketed and negotiated prior to the market cooling down earlier this year.

Here’s a look at each of the 10 largest land deals of 2018:

1. 9850 Austin Road, Burnaby

• Price:                   Approx. $220 Million*
• Site Area:            4.1 acres
• Vendor:               Greystone
• Purchaser:          Pinnacle International

The goods:        The largest land deal of 2018 is one you might not even have heard of. The sale comprised a large site adjacent the Lougheed Skytrain Station on the Burnaby side of Burquitlam that the City of Burnaby designated as High Density Mixed Use within the Lougheed Town Centre Master Plan. Density may range from 2.2 FAR to 5.0 FAR for RM5s zoning districts and 6.0 FAR for C-3 zoning districts. The site was listed and sold by Cushman & Wakefield. (* – the exact purchase price could not be verified due to share sale. The deal also included an unspecified VTB).

2. Burnaby Saputo Site, 6800 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby

• Price:                  $209 Million
• Site Area:           19 acres
• Vendor:               Saputo
• Purchaser:          Peterson Group

The goods:          The second largest land deal of 2018 was the sale of Saputo’s 19-acre Burnaby plant to Peterson Group was completed in October for $209,000,000. The site had been listed by Cushman & Wakefield in early 2017 and the transaction involves the relocation of Saputo’s dairy plant operations to a new processing plant on a 20 acre site on Kingsway Avenue in Port Coquitlam, which is expected to be completed within the next three years. In the interim, their sale deal with Peterson envisions a lease back until their new plant is ready in 2021. Rezoning and development plans have not been released but a large-scale mixed use development is anticipated.

3. 1045 Haro Street & 830-850 Thurlow Street, Vancouver

• Price:                  $165 Million
• Site Area:           43,266 SF
• Vendor:               Strata
• Purchaser:          Private Investor

The goods:          This sale involved the wind-up and sale of a 160 unit strata building, along with commercial units at the corner of Haro Street and Thurlow Street in the West End. The site sits in a newly formed tower zone as part of the West End Community Plan.  A rezoning application will be required before development can occur.

4. 8671-8831 Cambie Road and 3480-3540 Sexsmith Road, Richmond

• Price:                  $147 Million
• Site Area:           12.4 acres
• Vendor:               RCG Group
• Purchaser:          Polygon

The goods:          This land assembly by Polygon creates a great development site on the Eastern edge of Richmond’s City Centre Area. The assembly was the precursor to a rezoning application which envisions over 1,200 residential units and retails space in six buildings.

5. 1640-1650 Alberni Street, Vancouver

• Price:                  $130 Million
• Site Area:            17,292 SF
• Vendor:               Hollyburn Properties
• Purchaser:          Landa Global

The goods:         This tower site was owned by well-established family-owned Hollyburn Properties who had planned to rezone the site for a 42-storey rental building. With valuations for condos at an all-time high, Hollyburn wisely decided to sell the site through Simon Lim and James Lang of Colliers. While a new rezoning application has yet to be filed, the site will almost certainly now become a mix of condos and rentals.

6. 1063-1075 Barclay Street, Vancouver

• Price:                  $113 Million
• Site Area:           17,292 SF
• Vendor:              Westbank & Bosa Properties
• Purchaser:         Grand World Holdings

The goods:         Another tower site in the coveted West End Community Plan, this assembly of separate strata buildings reached a stalemate between developers who decided to sell together, rather than to each other. Simon Lim of Colliers sold the site in May 2018 to a Hong Kong based investor/developer. The Globe and Mail detailed the sale in March 2018.

7. “Park West”, Capilano and Marine, North Vancouver

• Price:                 $98 Million
• Site Area:          1.9 acres
• Vendor:              Pacific Gate Investments
• Purchaser:         Keltic Canada Development

The goods:         This 1.9 acre site at the corner of Capilano Road and Marine Drive in North Vancouver was rezoned by a group of local private investors over a period of years to allow a 258-unit, two-tower development that was ultimately named “Park West”. After rezoning enactment, the site was sold to emerging developer Keltic Canada. Park West is now in the advanced stages of marketing with over half the units sold.

8. 101 East 69th Avenue & 86 SE Marine Drive, Vancouver

• Price:                  $90 Million
• Site Area:           12.5 acres
• Vendor:              Walmart Canada
• Purchaser:         Hungerford Properties

The goods:        This site was sold by the Colliers team of David Taylor, Roy Pat and Darren Cannon in February 2018. The vacant site was owned for several years by Walmart Canada who ultimately sold via off-market transaction to Hungerford Properties who has quickly become one of Vancouver’s pre-eminent industrial and commercial property developers.

9. 5720-5800 Minoru Boulevard, Richmond

• Price:                  $60 Million
• Site Area:           3.899 acres
• Vendor:              Private Investors
• Purchaser:         Thind Properties

The goods:        This sale represents an assembly of various industrial and commercial buildings in the Lansdowne Village subearea of the City of Richmond’s City Centre area. A subsequent rezoning application envisions a new development with 384 residential units and a total density of 3.0 FAR.

10. 6645 Dow Avenue, Burnaby

• Price:                 $59 Million
• Site Area:           40,946 SF
• Vendor:              Private Local Investors
• Purchaser:         Westorchard Properties

The goods:       Also sold by Simon Lim of Colliers, this is Metrotown’s last RM5s/C2 Development site on Beresford Street – 40,946-SF Metrotown development site. The property is currently improved with a 40-unit apartment building, providing stable holding income through the rezoning and entitlement process.

*Note: The adjacent 34,650 SF site at 6675-6691 Dow Avenue also closed recently to the same buyer through Mark Goodman. The sale price was $43,275,000. The $102 Million combined price tag would create one of the largest deals of the year.

Honorable Mentions

These ones just fell off the list (via later edit) or are technically longer term land plays:

1140 Pendrell Street, Vancouver

• Price:                 $57 Million
• Site Area:          30,261 SF
• Vendor:              Strata
• Purchaser:         Skyllen Pacific

The goods:        This West End development site was sold by Hart Buck and Jennifer Darling of Colliers in September 2018 after a listing process. The Property, improved with an older lowrise strata building, is zoned RM-5B which allows for immediate redevelopment for up to 2.75 FSR density. Under the current zoning, the land price equates to $687 per buildable SF.

443 Seymour Street & 605-621 Seymour Street, Vancouver

• Price:                 $100 Million
• Site Area:          18,720 SF
• Vendor:              Private Investor
• Purchaser:         Reliance Properties

The goods:       This parkade (known by many locals as the Goldie’s pizza building) was sold via off-market transaction to well known commercial owner/developer Reliance Properties in July 2018. The site is anticipated for redevelopment with a new office building approximately 30 storeys in height.

Some notes from the above list:

• Only 4 of the 10 largest land deals in Metro Vancouver took place in the City of Vancouver (down from 9 of 10 last year)
• 7 of 10 were sold by market bid process (the other 2 were ‘off-market’)
• 5 of 10 were bought by well-established ‘local’ development groups, the other buyers were offshore or ‘new-entrant’ development companies
• 7 of 10 will require a rezoning process before development can occur

Next week, City of Vancouver Council will consider a report from the Engineering and Planning Departments seeking to approve a new City-wide utilities development cost levy (DCL) and a long term capital projects program for upgrades. The report also confirms the Utilities Servicing Plan for the Cambie Corridor Phase 3 area and the CAC target rates for the Cambie Corridor and Marpole areas.

Here is a summary of these new recommendations.

New Utilities DCL

The need for infrastructure upgrades was highlighted during the latter stages of the Cambie Phase 3 planning in which significant new density was introduced in the Oakridge Transit Centre area in plans laid out in 2017. A reassessment of the future demand on sewer, drainage and water service capacity has led to this city-wide strategy. The City is now looking at increasing DCL rates to help finance the servicing requirements across multiple developments rather than piggybacking off of the initial developments in certain areas.

The recommended new DCL framework for financing water, sewer and drainage utilities
upgrades includes a long-term capital program of approximately $1 Billion and the introduction of a dedicated City-wide Utilities DCL to cover approximately $547 Million of that cost (benefit to new development) through DCL’s by 2026.

Currently, utilities are embedded in the overall City-wide DCL rates, but the utilities component will now be separated in order to “improve transparency and certainty for developers.” 

The report highlights the utilities portion of current DCL and the proposed Utilities DCL to demonstrate the increased rates:

Interestingly, a background study by Coriolis Consulting noted the following (from report):

• New residential development downtown and on the west side of the city could
  accommodate the proposed rate increases.
• New residential development on the east side of the city has less ability to absorb
  the new DCL costs without impacting economic feasibility.
• For new non-residential development, Coriolis found in last year’s DCL report to the City that an increased DCL rate would have a negative impact on sites that are currently viable for redevelopment. For new industrial development, it would be challenging for most projects to support any increase in DCL rates given the
  inherent challenging economics. Similarly, it would also be challenging for most new office development to support an increased DCL rate.
• In all cases where there is a DCL rate increase, it is preferable to phase-in the rate increase so new development can adjust to the increased costs.

The report also recommends that the Utilities DCL be waived for market rental housing (Most rental rezonings are eligible for DCL waiver) on an interim basis until 2020 with a review by staff coming next year.

The new DCL rates will come into effect on September 30, 2018 (rates are protected for in-stream applications for one year from the effective date).

Utilities Servicing Plan for Cambie Corridor & CAC Rates

The City approved the Cambie Corridor Phase 3 Plan at council in May, though the land use plan has remained subject to a pending Utilities Servicing Plan, which intends to lay out the development sequence of sites based upon utilities upgrades.

Highlights of the plan include:

• City-initiated rezoning (“prezoning”) of townhouse areas in Stage 1 in the
  short-term (anticipated for referral and public hearing in summer/fall of 2018)
• Requirement for basic onsite rainwater and groundwater management

Here is a guideline for development in the Cambie Phase 3 area:

Lastly, here are the proposed new CAC target rates for the Cambie Corridor and Marpole Areas:

Cambie Corridor

Marpole

The full report can be viewed here: https://council.vancouver.ca/20180711/documents/cfsc1.pdf