A number of rezoning applications head to Burnaby City Council this week. Below is a brief summary of some of the larger projects planned.

4460-4482 Juneau Street

Solterra owns this three-lot assembly of older M1 zoned industrial buildings along Willingdon Avenue at Juneau Street in the Brentwood area. The plan for the site is a 25-storey tower with townhouses under the RM-4s designation. There is a 23-storey tower just across Juneau Street at second reading.

6525-6585 Sussex Avenue

The plan for this 57,116 SF Metrotown site at Sussex and Beresford is for a mixed-use high-rise and low-rise market residential apartment building including retail and office uses. The project will also include a separate non-market housing building developed in conjunction with B.C. Housing. The proposed density is 5.0 FAR per the RM-5s and C2 guidelines. The site was acquired by Thind Properties in May 2016 for $32,680,000.

7422-7470 Buller Avenue

This 132,000 SF site is currently occupied by a multi-tenant warehouse building and is located next to a section of former rail line in the Royal Oak area. The site is designated for medium-density residential development, and the application is for a mix of stacked-townhouses and traditional townhomes with full underground parking to a density of 1.1 FAR.

5180 Lougheed Highway

Another highrise condo tower is being planned for the Brentwood area; this one at the corner of Lougheed Highway and Springer Street. The 51,204 SF site is currently occupied by two older industrial buildings owned by Beedie Living. The plan calls for a 269,000 SF tower with 250 to 300 residential units. The concept includes “breaks” throughout the building to add visual interest to the massing and scale of the tower.

Next week the City of Vancouver will consider recommendations to revise DCL and CAC rates. This comes following a decision earlier this year to allow increases to CAC (Community Amenity Contribution) target rates that did not have an inflation mechanism similar to Development Cost Levies (DCL’s – which allowed inflation starting back in 2009). The intent of the increase rates is to keep revenues in line with inflation in property values and construction costs.

DCL Rate Adjustments

• $0.60 per SF increase for higher density residential (>1.2 FSR) and commercial developments;
• $0.20 per SF increase for industrial development; and,
• $0.14 per SF increase for lower density residential (≤1.2 FSR) development.
• For residential and commercial development over 1.20 FSR, the DCL rate equates to $13.91 per SF

DCL Target Rate Adjustments

The changes come into effect September 30th, 2016.

The City of Vancouver Council will receive a staff report this week providing an update and high-level strategy to deal with the long-term land leases covering much of the False Creek South neighbourhood. What will likely follow is a multi-year planning process that will pave the way for redevelopment of some portions of the land.

False Creek South covers 136 acres extending along the waterfront from the Burrard Street Bridge to the Cambie Street bridge (excluding Granville Island), and it includes 23 acres of parks. About 80% of the land is owned by the City and was developed primarily in the 1970’s as either market strata, rental apartments, or co-ops.

Most of the housing on City-owned land are on ground leases, the majority of which are set to expire between 2036 and 2046 (with one co-op expiring as early as 2022. This includes 669 residential strata units and 48 commercial strata units.

The City is now proposing to work over the balance of 2016 to establish a foundation before a new community plan is developed in the coming years. Overall work includes: