A former Petro-Canada site will stay vacant after Burnaby council vetoed plans for a six-lot subdivision at 6755 Canada Way.
While it wasn't on the agenda after being tabled at the previous council meeting, council brought the rezoning bylaw motion for the lot forward Monday night.
Councillors Dan Johnston, Paul McDonell and Pietro Calendino spoke against the motion.
"I think it's pretty clear it isn't suitable for the neighbourhood," Johnston said. "I think it's a recipe for disaster. I think it's going to cause more problems than it's going to solve."
The applicant, Bob Cheema, worked with city staff to come up with a plan for the lot, which is currently zoned for commercial use.
The gas station was demolished in 2001. The lot spans a full city block and is located near Imperial Street.
Cheema initially proposed a three-lot residential subdivision for the site but later went with a plan for six smaller two-family lots, and asked that it be rezoned as R12 residential district.
Though the application was developed with help from city staff, council did not support the plan.
"When you have that many houses on that size of lot, ... it's going to create all kinds of problems," McDonell said.
The councillors said they were not in favour of the proposal after hearing feedback from the community at a public hearing for the rezoning bylaw.
"We had a number of people in the delegations when we had the public hearing that had serious concerns about traffic that would be ensuing with this development," Calendino said, "as well as housing with 12 families in six small lots in that area, which is really not at all concurrent with the type of developments that are in the area."
While that type of housing might work at other sites along Canada Way, he added, the proposal wasn't right for this particular area.
"In the future, council needs to look at the whole Canada Way corridor for multiple family housing, because it is an intensive traffic corridor," Calendino said. "This is premature in this specific lot."
The motion was put to a vote and did not pass.
