Skip to content

Council briefs: Uber not welcome in Burnaby

Burnaby council won’t welcome Uber to Burnaby. At last week’s council meeting, council agreed to inform the ride-sharing service that it is ineligible for a Burnaby business licence.

Burnaby council won’t welcome Uber to Burnaby.

At last week’s council meeting, council agreed to inform the ride-sharing service that it is ineligible for a Burnaby business licence.

Uber’s ride-sharing service does not comply with Burnaby’s bylaws, according to a city staff report.

Burnaby council requested the report after Chris Schafer, public policy manager for the company, spoke to the committee in March.

“We took the initiative to actually call them, to see if there was any way to accommodate them – any business that wishes to come to Burnaby generally is courted,” Coun. Sav Dhaliwal, chair of the city’s executive committee, told the NOW. “We try to go out of our way to make sure that there isn’t anything in their way in terms of setting up shop but we do have standards, we do have bylaws, we do have rules that we expect businesses to generally follow.”

City staff determined the company’s business model did not comply with the city’s Cab Regulations Bylaw.

Burnaby councillors voiced concerns about the service, including passenger safety and how it would affect the city’s taxi industry, at previous council meetings.

 

Three properties to become part of parks

Three city-owned homes are being removed so that the properties can be absorbed into city parks.

Burnaby council approved plans to rid the properties of the homes at last week’s council meeting.

A city staff report recommended the sale or demolition of houses at 5361 Rumble St. and 1576 Gilmore Ave. A second report recommended the demolition of a home at 4504 Napier St.

The Rumble Street property, acquired by the city in 1990 for McPherson District Park, recently became vacant, according to the report, and the Gilmore Avenue property was acquired in 2000 for Willingdon Heights Park.

The Napier Street property is vacant and will become part of a linear park area planned for the Willingdon Avenue corridor for next year, the second report stated.

“Once the structures are removed, the land will be eventually integrated into the parks. The park boundaries are established through the community planning process and approved by council,” Dave Ellenwood, director of parks, recreation and cultural service, told the NOW in an email.

 

Building permits outpace 2013 numbers

Burnaby is experiencing a wave of new construction, with the city’s building permits surpassing 2013’s numbers and nearing those of 2012, according to a city staff report.

As of April 30, the city had issued 594 building permits for 2015. That number easily passes last year’s entire permit total – 127 – and has even gone beyond the 524 permits issued in 2013. And it is only 34 permits away from tying with the 628 permits issued in all of 2012.

Of the nearly 600 permits issued, 157 were for commercial buildings (149 of those were for alterations or repairs), 141 were for single-family homes (108 of those were for new builds), and 156 were for demolitions.

There were also 46 permits for multi-family buildings, with 34 of those for alterations or repairs.

As of April 30, there were 108 new single-family dwelling units built in the city, 42 duplexes, 42 strata units in buildings up to four storeys) and 158 strata units in buildings higher than four storeys.