It’s an issue pretty much top of mind for anyone keeping a close eye on the City of Burnaby, and growth and development was the main theme around this year’s state of the city address by Mayor Derek Corrigan.
A good portion of the roughly 30 minute speech by the mayor, delivered at a gathering hosted by the Burnaby Board of Trade (BBOT) Tuesday, focused on the development plans for the various areas of the city.
“Our town centres are continuing to grow and prosper; and our exemplary practice of protecting green space, while developing walkable, transit-focused, high-density focal points – Metrotown, Edmonds, Lougheed and Brentwood – continues to strike a critical balance between development and preservation,” Corrigan told the crowd.
He also noted it was a record year for building permit values in 2015, and the city’s role in meeting the region’s growth projections of another 125,000 people coming to Burnaby in the next 25 years.
But the city has come under fire from critics for the pace of development and a concern over the loss of the affordable housing stock in the municipality.
Corrigan touched on the issue, pointing out 20 per cent of all contributions made from Burnaby’s Community Benefit Bonus Policy go into a housing fund to support housing-related projects.
He said to date, more than $2 million from the fund has gone to support 257 units of non-profit housing, while in the fall, council approved a new program that will make city lands available for non-market or co-op housing projects.
“We’re also working to address the housing challenges some citizens face by closely monitoring our housing stock to ensure we are providing a full range of housing opportunities,” he said. “To guide us, we completed a profile in 2015 that provides baseline housing stock data.”
Following the address, Corrigan said his speech was about giving the entire picture of what’s happening in the city to the business community.
“The response I get more often is, I didn’t know there was that much going on,” he told the NOW.
Corrigan added he wants residents to know the city is making an effort to deal with housing affordability and keeping the city affordable for people who want to stay in the community.
“That struggle is one we continually are working on and trying to find creative ways to deal with, but it’s difficult,” he said.
BBOT’s president and CEO Paul Holden said the mayor’s speech paints a very optimistic and positive picture for the short, medium and long-term future of the city.
“I think the planning looks great,” he said. “We’re seeing in the business community that there’s a lot of opportunity created by this development and growth, so we’re very excited about how things are going.”
The mayor also spent some time detailing developments in each of the city’s four quadrants:
· the Gilmore Station Master Plan in Brentwood will see the Gilmore SkyTrain station shift from being a low density commercial/office building area into one with many new residential and commercial buildings, fully integrated with the transit station.
· The Lougheed Core Area Conceptual Master Plan has received final adoption and the community plan has been amended to reflect this new direction.
· The Southgate Neighbourhood first phase of development is moving forward, describing it as 48-acres that will include 180 new, non-market housing units to be developed through a partnership between the City, B.C. Housing and the developer Ledingham McAllister.
He said the city is also committed tocreating a new performance and events centre in the Metrotown Town Centre area.
