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OPINION: Saving New Westminster rental housing

How much is a parking spot worth to you? If you trying to find a spot in downtown New Westminster, it’s probably worth a lot to find one that’s empty. But is it worth $40,000? Of course not.
Renoviction
About 40 people, including members of B.C. ACORN and residents of Lori Ann Apartment on Seventh Street, attended a May 15 rally in front of the building. Tenants were evicted so the owner could undertake repairs to the building.

How much is a parking spot worth to you?

If you trying to find a spot in downtown New Westminster, it’s probably worth a lot to find one that’s empty.

But is it worth $40,000? Of course not.

To a developer, however, that’s how much it costs to build one parking spot in a new housing project, according to Mayor Jonathan Cote.

It’s a lot of money, Cote said recently during a Let’s Talk About Affordable Housing event at city hall, but that cost can be used to facilitate more rental housing. If the city reduces the parking requirements for a new building if the developer will make it rental-only then that’s a valuable incentive, he said. Other incentives include allow new rental buildings to add additional floors, Cote said.

Such incentives are needed to deal with a dwindling rental supply that’s been made worse by increasing renovictions, an existing rental stock that’s aging, as well as a general discrimination against rentals by some strata councils that heavily restrict rentals.

“There hasn’t been a lot of supply added across the region,” Cote said during a talk that outlined the various ways the city is dealing with the issue of affordable housing.

The talk ranged from housing for the homeless to retaining the existing rental stock, to adding more affordable laneway houses.

Cote remembers how controversial laneway houses were when the city first discussed it.

“It would be the end of the city,” Cote said of some people’s reaction, but added that these houses have fit in nicely with the city.

New West has also pushed for developers to add more “family friendly” units in new buildings, including being the first city in Canada to require 10 per cent of new units to be three bedrooms or more, and 20 per cent to be two bedrooms or more, Cote said.

The talk was livestreamed, with people watching online and in the audience being allowed to type in questions. The issue of density was a hot topic. Cote admitted there is now significant pushback against too much density, but one questioner asked how density can be increased even more to potentially add to the rental stock.

“The answer around this is to develop a strong Official Community Plan,” he said. “That’s what really guides council.”

The other hot-button topic was housing for the homeless. Cote said the city now has 56 emergency shelter beds, and 141 longer-term transition and supportive housing units. He said the city’s number of street homeless increased 118 per cent between 2002 and 2008, but between 2009 and 2014 had dropped by 46 per cent.

That number could drop further if a proposed 44-unit supportive housing project for homeless women at 838 Ewen Ave. is approved. When Cote opened the floor to questions, several opponents expressed that they didn’t want the project on the proposed site.

“There are other locations,” said Jamie Meades, suggesting the city use its property at 200 Fenton St. instead.

A city social planner addressed the Fenton site, saying that it would require a new road extension, which is not feasible considering the limited timeline the provincial government has funding available.

City council voted on May 28 to forward this issue to a public hearing.

Aside from the Ewen Avenue project, the city is looking at possibly partnering with Metro Vancouver on the Poplar Landing site, a patch of industrial land on the Fraser River that Cote says the city hopes to turn into 100 to 150 non-market units.