Local resident Rick McGowan is raising concerns about protecting low-cost rental housing in the face of new developments in Burnaby's Maywood area.
McGowan, who ran with the Greens in the civic and provincial elections, is pointing to a city-approved plan from more than a decade ago that suggested a review for Maywood. Part of the goal was to revitalize the area while protecting housing for seniors, immigrants and low-income families.
"This needs to happen, this area review, before more affordable housing is demolished," McGowan said. "That's my concern. They have this report that they wanted to do something in Maywood, and nothing has seemed to come of it."
Maywood is defined as the area south of Metropolis at Metrotown, bordered by Imperial Street, Central Boulevard, Willingdon and Beresford Street.
In 2000, city council approved the plan to move forward with the review. The documents describe Maywood as having the largest concentration of rental housing in Burnaby, with many seniors, immigrants and single-parent families.
McGowan, who also founded the Maywood Residents' Association, is concerned low-rise rental apartments are being torn down to make way for highrise condos.
Former city councillor Celeste Redman submitted the plan for a review, which council unanimously supported. Redman told the NOW the area was reviewed, but very few changes were made.
"To the best of my memory, we decided to do nothing with it except (rezone) a couple of lots close to the bus lot," Redman said. "I don't remember having public consultations on that because by the time we got through looking at it, we decided to leave it as (it) was."
Coun. Dan Johnston, who's been on council since 1993, said there was a review done, but the results indicated the cost of building rental housing was too high.
"It was totally uneconomic. Nobody would even contemplate building anything but market housing in there. The density that would allow it was so rich that nobody would want to live there," he said.
Nowadays, the city has a density-bonusing program, so developers have an incentive to build rental units or community amenities in exchange for permission to increase density.
According to Johnston, there have been three highrise developments in Maywood, all along Beresford Street. One replaced a warehouse, the second replaced a burned down three-storey apartment building, and the third was also a three-storey apartment.
As for any current measures in place to protect rental stock in Maywood, Johnston said it's tough. The city doesn't have the power to designate areas as rental-only, but it does have the ability to approve or reject rezoning requests, which would only happen if the developer were building outside the scope of existing zoning. The city could always deny the zoning change, but it's a delicate balance.
"We have to walk a fine line, preserving older style homes, but we don't want to be responsible for enshrining a slum area," Johnston said, adding landlords sometimes neglect aging buildings. "Although we want to maintain affordable rental stock, we don't want to enshrine a ghetto."
Note: The earlier version of this online story listed McGowan's group as the Maywood Residents' Association, it's actually the Metrotown Residents' Association.
