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Government Relations Update #334
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Mark Sakai, Director of Government Relations and
Jay Chadha, Government Relations Research Associate
Twitter: @Mark_HAVAN
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METRO WEST
For Your Information
- At Burnaby's City Council meeting of 02 December, a report on the 'Revised Tenant Assistance Policy' is on the agenda.
- Gordon Price has posted a 4-part series on the redevelopment/re-invention of Brentwood titled: "Burnaby Builds a City". Part 1, Part 2 Part 3, Part 4.
- Apparently Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart already has his sights set on a second term, according to Frances Bula in this G&M story.
- The City of Vancouver continues to work on its VBBL 2021 proposal, which includes three paths for Part 9 Residential: an Updated Prescriptive Path, a new Performance Path, and a new Passive House Path. There will also be specific targets for small houses (<110m2) and larger houses (>280m2). Thanks to those HAVAN members who responded to my calls/emails and have provided feedback to the city, and have volunteered to provide costing data for the three paths. City staff have taken your comments to heart, and are making changes to several elements of the original proposal. We will have an opportunity to view the revised path metrics prior to their inclusion in a Report to Council, which may occur as early as February, or as late as April, depending on the legislative calendar. Watch GRU for further news on this topic.
- On the agenda for Vancouver's Special Council meeting of 03 December is the city's 2020 Draft Budget. Notably, the budget proposes an 8.3% property tax increase, making it the largest increase in the past decade if approved. Here is a piece from BIV on this topic.
- Good to see that not all of the established Vancouver neighbourhoods are going to take a NIMBY approach to densification.
- At their meeting this week, Vancouver Council approved a new rental housing with hopes to encourage more rental developments. Here is a piece in the G&M on this topic and another one from the Vancouver Sun.
- The City of Vancouver has increased their empty homes tax by 25% for 2020.
NORTHEAST SECTOR
For Your Information
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On the
agenda for
Maple Ridge's Council Workshop of 03 December is a report on the 'Lougheed Transit Corridor Concept Plan' (pg.8). In addition, there is a report discussing 'Water Service to Large Lot Suburban Developments' (pg.33).
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At
Maple Ridge's Committee of the Whole meeting of 03 December, a report on 'Proposed Revisions to the Development Permits Process' is on the
agenda (pg. 25). The intention of these revisions is to improve the development applications process and expedite the issuance of Development Permits.
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While many other parts of Metro Vancouver seem to be gradually making a modal shift away from auto,
Coquiltlam is going the other way, according to this article from the
Tri City News.
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As part of their
Council Priorities for 2020-2022,
Port Coquitlam will undertake a feasibility report regarding the extension of the Evergreen Line from Coquitlam.
Additional priorities for the city include: looking at higher-density development near transit hubs; improving turnaround times for development applications; building infrastructure to support downtown revitalization; creating a plan to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change on city services and the community.
SOUTH OF FRASER
For Your Information
- Langley Township is putting on a free Energy Efficient Home Tour and Presentation on Dec 10 at a brand-new Step 3 home. See this flyer for event details.
- A report on 'Langley SkyTrain Transit Corridor Land Value Increases Partnerships' is on the agenda for Langley Township's Regular Evening Council Meeting of 02 December. The township aims to capture up to a 75% share of the land value increases triggered by transit infrastructure that is being planned for the Willowbrook area.
- Here is Langley City Councillor Nathan Pachal's blog post about his city's recent workshop on housing form and density.
- News from the Surrey Development Advisory Committee meeting of 28 November: DCCs are going up in 2020, primarily due to the Parkland Acquisition Program's Biodiversity Conservation Strategy - Green Infrastructure Network. There is a 50 year plan to acquire 3,075 acres, of which some 2,200 acres can be done so via existing tools. That leaves approximately 843 acres to be acquired via an estimated budget of $20m/yr for 50 years. The required increase in DCC rates will be phased in over 5 years, and will average 5 .1 - 5.6% for SF lots, 3.5 - 5.0% for townhouses, and 4.4 - 5.0% for high-rises. The detailed information will be posted on the city's DCC webpage before the Christmas break, and there will be a Public Open House on 08 January (watch GRU for more details). As with all non-inflationary DCC increases, these must be approved by Council as a new by-law, and signed off by the Provincial Inspector of Municipalities.
NORTH SHORE
For Your Information
- At North Vancouver District's Regular Council Meeting of 02 December, a report from the Public Hearing for the Updated Coach House Program is on the agenda (pg.25). Also, there is the final draft of the 'IMPACT2050: Community Energy and Emissions Plan' report (pg. 239)
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REGIONAL, PROVINCIAL, NATIONAL
For Your Information
- This report by Roomvu shows the average price increase per floor in Metro Vancouver buildings.
- Here are Re/Max's 2020 Housing Market Outlook reports for Vancouver East, Vancouver West and Fraser Valley.
- At the CHBA BC Day at the Leg session last week, I learned that one of the factors preventing the government taking action on the Spec Tax's "Vacant New Inventory" exemption, the one that only applies to developments of five or more units, thus penalizing small home builders with 1-4 completed units awaiting purchase, is the paucity of evidence that home builders in this situation actually being subject to the tax. So, if you are required to pay the Spec Tax because you have 4 units or less of completed, standing inventory, please let me know (via email) about your specific circumstances, so that we can build our case with the Finance Ministry.
- Here is an op-ed by UDI CEO Anne McMullin on 'Rent-to-own housing solution catching on with developers'.
- This petition on the House of Commons website is asking the federal govt. to enact a permanent public transit fund to help cover the cost of key regional transit projects.
- Here is Central 1's 'B.C Resale Market Housing Outlook 2019-2021' report. Also, here is their report forecasting interest rates up to Q3 of 2021.
- Following the trend set by B.C, a National foreign vacancy tax on residential properties is expected in the near future.
- ULI recently hosted an event for the launch of their '2020 Emerging Trends in Real Estate' report. According to the report and a panel of industry experts, "real estate as a service" is one of the emerging trends of North American real estate.
RENOVATIONS
For Your Information
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HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
For Your Information
- Here's an interesting read from the Financial Post on 'What Canadian cities can learn from L.A.'s affordable housing crisis'. Unsurprisingly, inadequate housing supply seems to be the problem.
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EVERYTHING ELSE
For Your Information
- At the FortisBC Energy Efficiency and Conservation Advisory Committee meeting which I attended last week, I learned that Metro Vancouver builders have been very slow to participate in this rebate program which offers from $1,000 - $8,000 for new Step 2 to Step 5 homes, using NG space heating and DHW. If you're going to build a Step 2-5 house using NG anyways, why wouldn't you sign up for the rebate? If there are reasons why you are not participating in this program, please let me know, because the people who run the program at FortisBC would like to find out.
- This piece in the Financial Post looks at 'How e-commerce is fueling a real estate revolution'.
- From an op-ed in the G&M by former Toronto Director of Planning Jennifer Keesmaat: the counter-intuitive solution to traffic congestion: If you build new roads or widen existing ones (things that drivers want), traffic gets worse. If you impose tolling or congestion pricing (things that drivers hate), traffic improves.
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The content of GRU is determined primarily by HAVAN's geographic territory, which are the municipalities of Metro Vancouver (the regional district). Other considerations are provincial and federal issues, policies, announcements or opportunities to engage that would interest our members, housing-related articles and information from other jurisdictions and, of course, the odd tidbit or video clip that interest me.
Please feel free to distribute this email to others in your office, if you think that they would benefit from the information. If you are reading this as a forwarded message from a colleague, you can get your own version, delivered directly to your mailbox. Just let me know, and I will be more than happy to add you to my list. And don't forget, the most recent issue of GRU is always posted on the Government Relations Page of havan.ca.
As always, comments are welcome. If there is an issue or a website that you would like me to follow, please contact me at 778-373-9784, or via [email protected]
Mark Sakai
Director of Government Relations
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