Anthem Properties Group Ltd. is proposing two new highrise residential buildings for Metrotown and will tear down three three-storey walk-ups and 177 existing units to build them. But unlike some recent proposals, developers want to include non-market housing in the projects.
Burnaby council gave the go-ahead to Anthem’s preliminary plans Monday, which include one low-rise non-market rental building at 6444 Willingdon Ave. and 4241 Maywood St., and an undetermined non-market component to the development at 6075 Wilson Ave.
Councillors said they were pleased to see a proposal with social housing components in Metrotown.
“Obviously, if this can work, it will hopefully replace or at least would be space for somebody … who’s been displaced,” said Coun. Sav Dhaliwal.
Mayor Derek Corrigan said proposals like these will be good for the city.
“I think it’s going to create the right balance for us in areas like Metrotown. Not only are we getting brand new housing, and some of it’s rental, some of it’s going to be ownership, we’re also getting units to replace the units we’ve lost as a result of both buildings being torn down,” he told the NOW.
“For us, it starts to solve that problem that’s concerned all of council that we’re losing low-cost housing as these developments happen in Metrotown. This can provide a solution for that …It won’t be perfect, it may not give everyone an opportunity, but for those people who qualify, it’s going to produce some opportunities.”
But Zoe Luba with Alliance Against Displacement and Stop Demovictions Burnaby says this is not enough. She said the last non-market project the city approved was still not affordable for most people.
“A couple units of non-market housing in a neighbourhood that is a concrete jungle for the rich is not what we want,” she told the NOW. “We need a neighbourhood of entirely non-market housing. Metrotown should be a neighbourhood that is only non-market housing: downtown for the working class, not the rich.”
Corrigan said the city has always had programs available for developers who want to build social housing – including density bonuses, moving proposals to the front of the queue, and not charging development fees – but there hasn’t been funding available from the provincial government until recently.
“The developers weren’t going to spend their money chasing social housing, but now they’re in the situation where they can get co-operation from the senior levels of government,” he said.
“You probably heard me like a broken record complaining about the lack of support from other orders of government, and this new government has suddenly decided that they wanted to actively participate in developing social housing in our communities and others around the Lower Mainland, and so that door has been kicked open.”
