Five years after tower construction first jumped to the south side of the Skytrain line at Metrotown, the City of Burnaby continues to enable the destruction of 1950s and ’60s era rental housing in the area.

Rick McGowan, a neighbourhood activist and townhome owner, estimates that 560 rental units have been replaced by owner-occupied condo towers, or are slated for demolition. More worrying, he says, is the fact that there is no end in sight.

Rental units on Willingdon Street. The complex has been recently purchased, but not yet re-zoned for demolition.

McGowan recently gave me a brief tour of the streets of south Metrotown, historically known as Maywood. “If you live in Metrotown as a renter, there’s a good chance your place will be demolished,” he said. “These are long-term renters, and they’re being told they need to leave their community.”

This matters because, as noted elsewhere on this site, rental housing is already in short supply in Metro Vancouver. The amount of purpose-built rental housing construction in Metro Vancouver was almost nil during the 1990s and 200s. The Burnaby city government highlighted this issue in a 2007 statement on housing policy, but minimized the role of local authorities in facilitating rental housing construction.

“The region needs about 3,500 additional market rental housing units to be built each year. Currently virtually no purpose built rental stock of this type is being constructed by the private market. Between 15 to 20 percent of individuals and families in the region are in core need for non-market housing… In Burnaby alone, there are over 13,000 households in core need for affordable housing (and rising). There are no sustainable housing programs available to address the magnitude of this need for low-income individuals and families. The current estimate of homeless people in the region has nearly doubled since 2002 from 1,121 to 2,174….

While these issues have serious impacts and implications for the health, quality of life and economic viability of our community, they are beyond the mandate, resources and tax base of Burnaby and other local governments to address on a direct basis.”

Residential tower construction viewed from the Metrotown shopping centre

In a December 2015 newspaper article, city councillor Colleen Jordan was quoted as saying that Burnaby regrets the loss of the old rental units, but local government can’t force developers to build rental housing.  Strangely enough, in Vancouver, the city next door, the Zoning and Development bylaw “requires redevelopment projects with six or more dwelling units to replace every demolished rental unit.”

Alternatively, as McGowan points out, Burnaby Council could just say “no” to rezoning requests.  As noted in our earlier post on the Burnaby Heights neighbourhood, the City is prepared to protect single-family housing, with strict limits on the densification of streets dominated by detached homes.

One argument for tearing down the three-story walkups is that they have reached the end of their useful life. McGowan denies this, and says the buildings could last another generation if they were properly maintained. He says that in New Westminster, Burnaby’s neighbour to the east, a combination of property standards policies and other pro-rental policies have allowed the city to maintain a healthy stock of affordable rental housing.  New Westminster has pledged that “For properties containing purpose-built rental housing, [there will be] no support for rezoning to higher density developments or variances to increase the building height.”

McGowan also questions the aesthetics of unmixed tower development at a time when that development model is falling out of favour in Vancouver. “We’d like to see more diversity, mid-rise and low-rise, and not just a focus on density.”

Dunblane Avenue, east of the Metrotown mall

Dunblane Avenue, east side; an isolated townhome duplex with towers

As noted in my previous post on Metrotown, the 2010 land use map for the area contemplated extensive residential densification. Burnaby has not yet (to my knowledge) stepped past the boundaries suggested by that map. However, the form of densification is open to question, and much of the benefit appears to be flowing to unknown Asian buyers. One feature of Burnaby’s current housing market, according to an authoritative survey, is that the city ranks last among municipalities in Canada in the availability of affordable and accessible housing.

To give local government its due, Burnaby is now showing some support for social and non-profit housing, although this will not help Metrotown renters in the short term. The City’s “Community Benefits Program,” a fund based on developer contributions, created a total of 19 affordable or special needs units from 1997 through 2014. More recently, the City established a Housing Fund to be financed from development charges.  Mayor Corrigan reported in late 2015 that the Fund has already leveraged the creation of 257 new non-market housing units. With the dedication of City property for further new housing, Burnaby hopes to see new co-op or social housing developments on Hastings Street and on 18th Avenue. McGowan, on his Metrotown Residents’ Association blog, counters that at least some of the new non-market housing will simply replace other social housing that is being demolished.

A developer-funded community social centre in a new Metrotown tower. The low-rise building in the background is slated for demolition.