A consultation process is underway about amending the city's official community plan so a proposed housing development at the Victoria Hill development conforms to the plan.
The Onni Group of Companies is proposing to develop a portion of 271 Francis Way for a combination of non-market housing and market rental housing. An amendment to the official community plan is needed in order to change the land-use designation of the site, which is currently designated as major institutional - a designation that doesn't include multifamily residential uses.
Barry Waitt, a senior planner with the city, said the development agreement that was negotiated by Onni and the City of New Westminster in 2002 always called for non-market housing on the site.
"I am not sure why it had an institutional designation," he said of its designation in the official community plan.
Council has directed staff to consult with the school district and the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District board, and to seek input from members of the public who are interested in the application. The deadline for submissions is May 18.
Onni is proposing to build a five-storey building in order to accommodate the 100 non-market units that are required through the Victoria Hill development agreement.
It also wants to include 85 market rental units in the building.
Waitt said the 2002 development agreement contemplated non-market housing but didn't specify what form that would take.
"There's a maximum amount you would make to be able to live there," he said of the non-market housing that's being proposed. "In most cases a non-profit runs it. In this case the developer is going to run it."
Beau Jarvis, Onni's vicepresident of development, said the company has a substantial rental portfolio and is equipped to oversee the rental building.
"It's all rental. Some is non-market rental and the other is market rental," he said. "With the nonmarket rental, the rents are capped based on an annual index."
According to Jarvis, the original design agreement always contemplated some form of non-market housing for this site, but it was ambiguous about what type of housing that would be.
"We have never told people Parcel 0 is going to be anything other than non-market units," he said. "Nobody should be alarmed."
Some members of New Westminster city council have expressed concern about the city's aging rental housing stock.
"This is a very rare opportunity," Waitt said about providing new rental housing units. "We are happy to get this happening."
Jarvis said land values make it financially challenging to create purpose-built rental housing, so more and more cities are offering incentives to encourage that type of development.
"It's a major problem in the Lower Mainland of B.C. It's very difficult to make the economic sense of purpose built residential," he said. "It's a major problem. Affordability is a major problem. We thought this was a really good opportunity to help the situation."
The consultation process that's currently underway by the city relates specifically to the official community plan amendment. Onni has been consulting with the community about the project at Victoria Hill.
Onni had originally proposed a six-storey wood frame building for the site but has since scaled it down a level. Because a rezoning is required for the development, a public hearing would be held at a later date.
