A group of residents are swinging for the fences with a demand for the City of Burnaby in relation to a proposed residential housing tower.
A city staff report details complaints made at a March 30 public hearing about a proposal for an Edmonds-area property.
Proposed is a six-storey mixed-use commercial and rental building, plus a 40-storey residential tower with townhouses at a property listed around Kingsway, Greenford Avenue and Beresford Street.
At the public hearing, council received eight verbal submissions and eight written submissions, including a petition with 118 signatures representing 118 of 154 residential units at 7077 Beresford St.
“All of which expressed concerns,” reads the report.
These concerns related to: public notification of the rezoning proposal; impact of excavation and development; traffic and pedestrian safety; trespass; noise and air pollution; building height, massing and spatial separation; employment opportunities, development site size; crime and safety; greenspace and environmental impact; property values; capacity of area amenities and infrastructure; housing affordability; litter and dumping; and the adjacent heritage property.
Many residents regularly write into the NOW with complaints about construction taking place near their homes, but these residents have made an interesting demand of the city.
“Concerns were raised regarding noise and air pollution generated by construction activities,” says the report. “Residents on the adjacent property to the east of the subject site have requested that the City establish as a condition of development of the subject site that the developer provide monetary compensation to the owners for the hardship experienced during construction.”
Another resident also demanded the “developer provide alternative, offsite accommodation during the construction period,” which would last for multiple months.
“It is recognized that during the construction phase of any development, there will be some impact to the surrounding area, including noise and dust,” says the report. “To minimize noise impacts to the surrounding neighbourhood, the applicant will be required to ensure that construction and vehicle noise originating from the proposed development site abides by the permitted hours of construction and the Burnaby Noise or Sound Abatement Bylaw.”
As for the big demands about compensation, well, the city isn’t going for it.
“Regarding the specific request for the City to impose a rezoning condition requiring the developer to provide monetary compensation for hardship experienced during construction and the request for developer-provided, temporary offsite housing during the construction period, staff would note that the requests are a civil matter between the two property owners and that the City would not typically establish such conditions as part of this rezoning,” says the report.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
