A land sale that was all but cancelled two weeks ago will now go ahead as planned due to a decision by Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley.
Hurley called for council to reconsider a tie vote made Aug. 26 that put a halt to the sale of two properties near Royal Oak SkyTrain station to develop 22 two-bedroom townhouses.
At a meeting Sept. 9, council voted 5-3 to continue with the project and land sale.
The development in question by C.P. Construction at 5168, 5180 and 5192 Sidley St., just west of Burnaby South Secondary, requires the sale of almost 16,000 square feet of two city-owned properties at 5180 and 5192 Sidley St.
Some councillors had opposed the project because they suggested the city could develop affordable housing as part of the new Burnaby Housing Authority.
The Sidley properties are within about 300 metres of a SkyTrain station, meaning they fall within the province’s new transit-oriented area legislation where cities have been told to allow apartments of at least 12 storeys.
Burnaby has not approved the required designations yet, but the province has set an Oct. 31 deadline before it will impose its own bylaws.
Hurley, an independent, said Burnaby needs townhouse development.
“Some people say we could have higher density on that location; that would require at least two further properties to be acquired,” he said, adding the city could be “sitting on these properties for another 20, 30 years.”
But, in 2019, Hurley had said he hoped a 3.6-acre lot on Byrnepark Drive would be the last piece of publicly owned land that Burnaby sells to a developer.
“We just don’t believe in selling city land anymore,” Hurley told the Burnaby NOW in 2019. “We want to keep it as an asset forever.”
However, Hurley said after the Sept. 9 meeting said he had not changed his position on not selling public land – but the Sidley properties aren’t big enough for higher density development like the Byrnepark site was.
“This land is just infill land. Just infill land that townhomes are going to get built (on), which are very much needed in our city.”
But Burnaby Citizens Association Coun. Alison Gu said council had made a deal with the public to not sell city land.
Gu told the NOW the plan is “essentially a public subsidy for a private development,” noting the townhomes will be sold at market rates.
She suggested a six-storey, wood-frame building could be built with a smaller amount of land than what the mayor suggested and compared the situation to Monopoly.
“If you’ve got two orange properties, and one person has the third – are you selling your two to them? Or are you buying that third one back so you can build something?”
Gu, councillors Daniel Tetrault and Maita Santiago opposed the project. Coun. Pietro Calendino, who opposed the project Aug. 26, was absent.
Hurley, councillors Sav Dhaliwal, James Wang, Joe Keithley and Richard Lee supported it.
The development has now received three of the four major council approvals needed for rezoning.
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