Our last Council meeting in May included a Public Hearing – not something we have as often as we used to since the Province banned them for residential developments that are aligned with the Official Community Plan, but Heritage Revitalization Agreements still require them. After the Public Hearing, our regular Council Agenda started with consideration of those Bylaws:
Heritage Revitalization Agreement Bylaw (318 Sixth Avenue) No. 8509, 2025
Heritage Designation Bylaw (318 Sixth Avenue) No. 8510, 2025
The application here is to subdivide a lot on Sixth Avenue, do minor restoration and permanent designation of the heritage house, and build a complementary but slightly smaller second house in the newly formed lot.
Aside from the subdivision, the variances being requested are relatively minor, including shifting a bit of density from the existing house to the new one, minor variances on the garage, and the shape of one lot means the frontage is slightly below the 10% perimeter requirement. As the heritage house was build on the very edge of the exiting lot, the lot can be subdivided without moving the heritage house, and the spacing between houses will still be larger than that between the houses across the back alley that were subdivided decades ago. The result here will be three housing units in two buildings (two main houses and a rental unit in the new house) where three housing units are currently permitted.
This application was delayed by the City’s pausing then de-prioritization of the HRA processes to concentrate on more pressing housing issues, and is the first HRA in the Queens Park HCA in this Council term. Aside from the proponent, we had five people come to delegate on the application, four opposed and one supportive, all of them familiar faces at New Westminster Council on Queens Park heritage issues. There were concerns about whether the HRA is the right tool for this purpose (it is), about spacing between buildings, and appearances of the streetscape. Both immediately impacted neighbours expressed support for the application, one in person and one in writing.
In the end, Council voted to give these Bylaws third readings, effectively approving the applications.
Council then moved the following item On Consent:
Response to Council Motion: School Zone Time Limits
Following up on a request form Councillor Henderson, we will be updating out School Zone Speed Zone hours to align with those in Burnaby, meaning 30km/h is the speed limit between 7:00 AM and 10:00 PM on school days. Not quite 30 everywhere, but moving in the direction of improved safety.
And the following items were Removed from Consent for discussion:
Community Grants Program Update and Updated Terms of Reference for Grants Advisory Committees
The City’s Grant program has been evolving over the last few years from a partisan process where Council picks and chooses who gets grants to become a less political process where Council sets strategic goals for grants (community connection, economic development, etc.), and staff work with volunteer citizen committees to determine how to best meet those goals based on the applications received. The program continues to be refined as staff bring in better controls and accountability, based on recommendations approved by Council in July 2024, and are asking here for updated to the Terms of Reference for the three Grants Advisory Committees who advise Council on grant allocation. These have not been updated since 2020, and staff have done some community consultation to determine these changes.
Unsurprisingly, the non-partisan nature of grant awards rubs some people the wrong way, and there was a motion brought forward to put Council’s fingers on the scale and favour one or two “historic” organizations above others. There were vague suggestions that this would secure them more funding, but it was not clear if this would be an expansion of the grant program or taking from other awardees. In the end, Council voted to not create a new category at this time, as staff are already doing a lot of work to streamline and make more functional the existing process, and we have yet to see the results of the Community Advisory Assembly’s recommendations on Cultural Observances, which will no doubt interact with this process.
Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 330 Columbia Street – Royal Columbian Hospital Redevelopment Project
The cladding work on the hospital project is delayed for a variety of reasons, requiring an extension of their construction noise Bylaw exemption for the rare times that specific cladding work needs to happen outside of regular construction hours on Saturday Mornings. We have received exactly two noise complaints on this project since 2022, and both were resolved, I think the construction company is doing good work to address neighbourhood concerns, and the only message I hear from Sapperton now is they want this project done ASAP, so Council approved the exemption.
Response to Council Motion: School Streets Pilot Program
This program would be a partnership between the City and external organizations to pilot closing roads adjacent to a school during pick up and drop off times to create “safe Streets”. Staff recommended against us doing this pilot due to limited resources and higher cost priorities on road safety, but apparently there is a new grant available to pay some (all?) of those costs, so Council moved to refer this back to staff to review once more those funding opportunities and bring this report back. So we neither agreed to do it nor agreed not to, we will do one or the other in a future meeting once we have the updated info in front of us.
Temporary Use Permit: 40 Begbie Street – Health Contact Centre
The Health Contact Centre downtown is, to everyone’s agreement, not working as intended. As the site was operating under a Temporary Use Permit which now either needs renewal or replacement with a formal rezoning, it is giving us an opportunity to review that operation. The good news is that the centre is providing life-saving services every day, has reversed hundreds of toxic drug events and making more than 1,000 referrals to support, treatment, or detox services. As a provider of life-saving and life altering health care services, it is a positive story.
However the nature of the drug supply has changed in the last few years, and up to 77% of drug use is now by smoking, not injection or insufflation, meaning there are more people standing outside the Centre smoking dangerous drugs than inside injecting them. This is why the City has been advocating to bring inhalation services to the HCC. However, Fraser Health has determined the site is not suitable for engineering/cost reasons. So through negotiations, Fraser Health has agreed to wind down overdose prevention services at 40 Begbie Street and transition to an alternate overdose prevention service delivery model accommodating individuals who consume unregulated substances by inhalation, injection, nasal insufflation and oral ingestion. During this transition, the life-saving services of the HCC are still required, so Fraser Health is recommending a Temporary Use Permit for a further 18 months to allow Fraser Health and partners to transition to an alternate overdose prevention service delivery model.
A TUP will require consideration at an upcoming meeting, and Council agreed to Fraser Health’s recommendation on timing and transition. The TUP will be considered at an upcoming Council meeting.
We then had one Motion form Council:
Remove US Flag from Queen’s Park Arena and Replace it with City of New Westminster Flag
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine
WHEREAS there are few if any formal occasions that require the American flag to be prominently displayed at Queen’s Park Arena;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff be directed to permanently remove and replace the American flag with the City of New Westminster flag at Queen’s Park Arena; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT staff be authorized to temporarily reinstall the American flag if it is required to be displayed for official protocol purposes in relation to an event held at this facility.
I was pretty ambivalent about this motion, except that I found amusing that the mover, after several social media posts and radio interviews about the topic, now emphasizes the “quiet” removal of the flag. Clearly, the Councillor is passionate about this, so I have no problem supporting it.
Finally, we had a single Bylaw for Adoption
Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Storage Amendments Bylaw No. 8518, 2025
This bylaw that removes mini-storage as permitted use within some light industrial and zones was adopted by Council.