This is the second part of my July 13 report, the first part covered the Public Hearing topics and this one starts with a presentation from the Royal City Farmers Market.

You know who they are, but you might not know about all of the things they do aside from bringing a Farmers Market to Tipperary Park every week. They provide a bursary to a NWSS student, they work with the Province to fund a Nutrition Coupon” program to get access to affordable, nutritious food for people who might not have access, they run a shuttle for seniors, they contribute to City festival events – they are a real social enterprise in the City. There are a lot of reason you should support them, buy buying a few groceries every week , and by becoming a member by going to their website here.

We then launched into a very long list of Committee of the Whole recommendations from earlier in the day.

Recruitment for Board of Variance
We had a retirement from this Advisory Committee, and advertised in the City Pages and on our website for new applicants. Council made a unanimous recommendation after reviewing the applications

Christmas Events.
The City has held a Christmas event of some sort for several years. A Santa Clause Parade has, in the past been the centre of these events, first in the evening (to facilitate a “Parade of Lights”) then in the mid-day (to encourage people to come downtown when businesses were open so they can, hopefully, spend some money at our local businesses). For the last two years, the weather was not great, although sort of what you expect for December in New Westminster: one year it was bitterly cold; the next it rained, hard. Last year, there were a number of indoor “Santa’s Workshop” activities for Kids at the Anvil Centre as well, which increased turnout. The businesses downtown appear to appreciate the increased traffic around the day, and are interested in partnering with the City again.

The question is whether the Parade is still necessary, or indeed even a draw. With a good set of coordinated family-friendly Christmas events at the Anvil, the Shops at Westminster Station, the River Market and the Fraser River Discovery Centre, and the coordinated efforts of the BIA and Tourism New Westminster, there is some question whether the effort and expense put into the Parade adds to the event, or if those efforts could be put to use making the other events better.

However, I threw the idea out to Twitter after the Monday meeting:

…and I have to say the response was pretty strongly pro-parade, although everyone had a slightly different idea of what they wanted from a Parade ,and people definitely liked the other events. Regardless, the Parade will happen in 2015, as will other Christmas events for the entire family on December 5th. Mark your calendar.

LUPC and new Council Format
We are trying to make Council Meetings operate more efficiently, balancing the need to have open and public discussion of important issues while managing Council and Staff time as best we can. An idea we are launching is something that several other Municipalities already have: a separate “Planning and Land Use Committee” to give a more detailed open discussion of land use and planning topics prior to taking them to the full Council. This will serve both the public and developments by allowing for a more frank discussion of potential issues related to developments coming to Council before they get there. This will hopefully result in less conflict at the Public Hearing stage, by addressing conflict issues earlier in the process, when they are easy to manage.

We’ll see how this goes.

Wait for me Daddy Programming
We will be unveiling a Canadian Heritage plaque at the Wait For Me Daddy sculpture in October, in order to complete the requirements for our Federal Grants. Mark your calendars for October 3, 2015.

Celebration of QEII’s Longest Reign
A few organizations have approached the Royal City to partner for a one-day series of events to commemorate the day that Queen Elizabeth’s reign will surpass (at 63 years, 216 days) that of Queen Victoria, and become the longest-serving English Monarch. Mark your calendars for September 9, 2015.

Sapperton Green
Sapperton Green has the potential to be the single largest development in the history of New Westminster. Taking advantage of its location on a SkyTrain station, this project could see 7,500 residents and more than a million square feet of commercial development across a 38-acre site.

An important step at this point is for the City to amend the OCP to allow a new Development Permit Area to be created. At that point, a Master Plan and Design Guidelines will be developed. The proposed Sapperton Green Transit-Oriented Mixed-use Community (SGTMC) is described in the official plan as:

…a mix of medium to high density residential, office, retail, open space, and public and other community serving facilities in a transit supportive, complete community. The area will support office uses (750,000 sq. ft. floor space minimum to 1,500,000 sq. ft. floor space maximum), residential uses (3,400,000 sq. ft. floor space maximum equating to approximately 3,700 dwelling units and 7,500 residents) and retail commercial uses (approximately 150,000 sq. ft. floor space). Public and/or private community serving facilities will be provided as appropriate. Floor space for non-profit community serving facilities will be excluded from the maximum floor space allowable. A minimum 15 % of the site will be publicly accessible open space, including plazas, squares, parks, playgrounds and other open areas that are accessible to the public. Building heights will range from three storeys to a maximum of 35 storeys.

There has been a lot of preliminary work done as far as conceptual planning and community consultation (you can see some of it here), but this is a decades-long project, and we are still a ways from the first shovels entering the ground. More community consultation will be happening this fall, both with the stakeholders required by Sections 879 and 881 of the Local Government Act, and with New Westminster’s’ larger community.

Development Bylaw – 900 Carnarvon Street.
Also required for the 900 Carnarvon development is a Zoning Amendment Bylaw. The plan is for this Bylaw to be prepared and through two readings before the September 28 Public Hearing. When you can come out and tell us what you think.

Development Agreement Bylaw – 988 Quayside Drive
The Bosa River Sky development was rezoned and is actually selling units as we speak, but they cannot build a building until we give them a building permit. To do that, we need to have a Development Agreement that outlines what off-site engineering works the developer will complete to make their building mesh with the City’s engineering works: water, sewer, sidewalk, gutter, storm water management, etc. This (like pretty much everything else we do in the City) requires a Bylaw.

I think I have read more about Benkelman Beam testing in the last few days than anyone not directly involved in the installation of asphalt should.

Tanaka Court Development
A developer would like to build a commercial building on an undeveloped piece of land in Queensborough, across the street from the Lowes parking lot. The City owns a big chuck of unopened road (40 m wide!) that is in the way of this development. This would meet the City’s land use designation plans for the site, as we generally want employment-oriented land use in this area.
There are multiple steps this proposal would go through – we need to appraise the land, determine if the City might need it, consider whether we want to sell it, then go through the entire rezoning, development process with all of the regular public engagement and Bylaw development. At this point, we are just letting staff know if this is even something that Council would consider. And we passed it, so we will.

Proposed Pump Station and BFG Extension
Metro Vancouver is upgrading its sewer infrastructure through the Brunette area, and need to build a new pump station. Like anyone else, they need a Development Permit to build that pump station in the City. As a bonus, this station sits right adjacent to the proposed Brunette Fraser Greenway extension that is part of both New Westminster’s Master Transportation Plan and Metro Vancouver Parks, and will connect Sapperton Landing Park with greenways east.

There are a lot of site constraints here, and there is going to need to be a comprehensive plan to enhance the Burnette River setbacks to comply with the spirit of the Riparian Areas Regulation (although, as a utility work, the RAR does not strictly apply, it is important from a sustainability point of view that the City and Metro Vancouver respect the principles and apply them as best we can).

Queens Park Heritage Study Update
This working group is doing good work, looking at programs, incentives, and regulations that the City can adopt to better preserve the Heritage qualities of Queens Park. This report is just an update, as the final report is due at the end of 2015. By all indications (and from the Open House that I attended back in May), this process is going really well, and much credit goes to both our staff and the volunteers from the community who are putting so much energy and creativity into their city.

Heritage Revitalization Agreement – 1407 Sixth Ave
This is a plan to subdivide a 66’ lot into two 33’ lots, to restore and preserve the 1890 house on the lot, and to build second similarly-sized house on the second lot. The City would receive a lane dedication behind the house. This is a preliminary report, and the HRA would require a multi-step process with Public Hearing, but it is an unusual approach for the West End, where these smaller houses are usually replaced with much larger single family homes, often to the chagrin of the neighbours.

This is a preliminary report, and staff will proceed with the application process.

Street and Traffic Bylaw
This is an update to the existing Street and Traffic Bylaw, which regulates parking and road and sidewalk use in the City. the Bylaw was overdue for an update, and has been bounced between committees and up to Council once. I think we have made some pretty good changes, especially (and you saw this coming!) in the areas of encouraging active transportation use in the City. There are still a few things in there I have my doubts about (is “jaywalking” really a thing?), but I am happy to see this move forward as is.

Someday, I will blog about what a failure “Schedule D” is, and how hard it is to make it right.

Sale of 323 Fenton Street.
There is a residential piece of City land in Queensborough that no-one in the City can imagine using, so we are looking at selling it off. After marketing the land, we received an offer that is fair relative to its assessed value. We agreed to make the sale happen!

Queensborough Road Closing and Land Sale
This is to amend a Bylaw that was adopted in March of 2012(!), but the land transfer and sale has been delayed, and apparently, we need to change the bylaw because of this delay. There is a bit of a back story here, as the delay by the proponent overlapped a change in standards by the Land Title Office, so the original application is no longer in the format the LTO likes, so we have to go through the entire exercise again. As the delay caused by the delay and the delay are now causing some distress to the landowner, we are going to have a special meeting of Council on August to just move this forward after the legislated Public Notice period is completed. We are here to serve.

City response to Regional Water Shortage.
This report explains a bit about why City Hall’s front lawn still look greener than most lawns. Actually, more than that, it outlines the numerous ways the City conserves water during Stage 2 restrictions, and how our use is much lower than the maximum permitted under the regulations. On a per-capita basis, the City of New Westminster is one of the most frugal users of Metro Vancouver water. We are doing pretty well right now, but without a significant change in the weather, we might need to start planning for Stage 3 restrictions this August. More info here.

Exempt Properties
Some properties don’t pay property tax – some of those exemptions are statutory (i.e. regulated by Provincial legislation) like Churches and schools, others are discretionary for Council (Social Service agencies and sports facilities like the Curling Club or Tennis Club). Staff was looking for some guidance about potential changes in policy here, and Council essentially said “steady as she goes”.

Budget Survey
Every year, the City commissions a public opinion survey from a polling firm as one of the data points for public engagement in the annual budgeting process. We were asked to approve the questions, although major changes are not well advised, as we want to be able to track changes in opinions over time. Council approved the questions that will be asked in 2015. If you get a mysterious phone call asking you about the City’s budget; that would be us. Tell us what you think.

If you don’t get the call, there will be other opportunities for public engagement in the Budget process, but look to the city’s Community Engagement Taskforce to present some better ideas about how we can make these consultations more meaningful for the citizens of the City, although some of those will probably not arrive until the next budgeting cycle starting in 2016.

Front Street Parkade Public Art
After last week’s rejection of the Public Art installation for the Parkade, Staff recommended another approach, with more information about the selection process and constraints up to here. We should be making a decision about this in the August 31, 2015 meeting.

City Grants Program
We give a lot of money out in New Westminster through our grant programs. This allows community groups to do many of the things that make the City better to live in, without the City needing to run everything. $685,000 is about $10 per resident, so it is a relative bargain for all the diverse events and programming we get.

Staff has been working with the Grantees to make the process easier to navigate, and evaluation more objective and fair. Council always gets “final say”, but the review process needs to be as accessible and transparent as possible. At the same time, we do not want to make the application process too difficult, as it may dissuade many otherwise worthy applicants.

Housing Agreement – 900 Carnarvon Street.
The proposed fourth building at Plaza 88 is going to Public Hearing in September. For more info on the project, you should go here. The building is planned as a secured rental development, meaning the City needs to create a housing agreement with the Developer to assure the terms of the rentals meet the City’s Rental Housing Strategy, and the building is not converted to “Strata” after the City provides incentives for rentals.

Staff will be drafting the Agreement in parallel with continued work on the development, in hopes the terms can be agreed upon before Public Hearing.

Street Activity Program Update
The City has a Street Activity Program that was developed in 1997 (!) to bring some activity to the streets in retail areas in the City. Given its heritage, the Program was thinking Buskers and Hot Dog Stands. This was expanded slightly in 2009 to include perishable foods (RCFM anyone?) and in 2012 to areas outside of Downtown and add a lottery system to replace the first-come-first-served process.
It hasn’t been a hugely successful program, with less than half a dozen licences issued per year, and the Lottery system probably was never required. Further, the system is limited to 7 locations, which staff is recommending we reduce to 5.

The lottery system was easy for Council to nix, but the reduced number of locations was not supported. Instead, I suggested we allow the vendors to decide what locations might be appropriate for their type of activity. Perhaps the east entrance to the Anvil Centre, or the entrance to the 4th street overpass, or 6th Ave and 8th street at the entrance to Moody Park is a spot some vendors might find promising. The point is I don’t know as well as the vendors do, so we should  give the people who know best what these businesses need the ability to make location choices. I recognize that there are several factors that might not make any specific location appropriate, so we agreed to let staff develop a policy through which selected locations would be considered.

Food Truck Pilot Project
On a related note, Food Trucks are the Hot Dog Stands of the new generation. There are a few challenges towards making them viable in the City, and I am of the opinion we shouldn’t be making it tough for them. The StrEAT Food Festival shows this is a trend that is still peaking, but outside of this and other special events, we don’t have Food Trucks operating in the City, simply because our business licencing does not permit it except through day-to-day street occupancy permits, which are a hassle for everyone involved.

This proposed pilot project of allowing a Food Truck to set up on City land in front of an accommodating local business (Steel & Oak Brewing) will let staff and the business community iron out any potential problems that may arise. The Food Trucks will need a valid business license in New Westminster, a certificate from Fraser Health, and insurance, and the host business will coordinate their operations. I hope this goes well, and we can expand opportunities for these small businesses in our community.

And that, my friends, was a very long Council Agenda for the last meeting of the Summer. We will be back at it the last Monday in August.

Yeah, I am a little late again with this report, but have two good excuses. First, it was a big Council package with much to say (and consequently write). Second, The Tour de France is on, so I am writing this while sitting in front of the TV as I watch the race on PVR. Yes, I am a little distracted.

So I will break this report in two, talking first about the Public Hearing, and cover the rest of the meeting details in a following post.

As is typical for a Public Hearing meeting, we started at 6:00, and invited people to speak on a couple of Bylaws.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw No 7767, 2015.

This is a “housekeeping” amendment, making several changes to our existing Zoning Bylaw to correct discovered errors, or to modify it to reflect actual practice based on the implied intent of the Bylaw. Those include:

• A change to reduce restrictions on childcare use in multi-family buildings;
• A change to make child care parking requirements similar to commercial;
• A change in the Density Bonus table to correct an error;
• A change to allow live-work use for 11 units at 246 Sixth Ave, as was originally intended, but was left off the permitted uses in the rezoning bylaw; and
• A change to clarify the type of single detached zoning that is permitted in a C-3 zoning.

We had no correspondence on this Bylaw, and no-one came to the Public Hearing to speak on it. Council moved unanimously to refer to the Council Meeting for Third reading and Adoption.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw No 7759, 2015 (210 Durham Street).

This was a pretty standard subdivision of an RS-1 lot to two RS-5 lots in Glenbrooke North, to facilitate the building of two houses where there is currently one non-heritage house.

We received one piece of correspondence opposing the project, and 5 residents come to speak in opposition for a few different reasons. Although one Councillor telegraphed a lack of support, Council did move unanimously to refer the discussion to the main Council Meeting.

The Regular meeting followed the closing of the Public Hearing, and we launched right in to the Bylaws discussed in the Public Hearing. The first was non-controversial and received Third Reading and Adoption – it is now the Law of the Land.

The second item was not as well received. The residents who came to speak on the subdivision and development had a variety of concerns. The parking issue always comes up in infill density, and is not a compelling argument on this property, where a single-car garage is being replaced by two 4-car garages and driveways that cover a large portion of the property. Other than simply refusing any type of infill density at all (something that flies in the face of the existing OCP, and does not reflect most of the public conversation around the OCP consultation currently taking place) I cannot see an approach that would include more parking than this. People are going to park on street, just like they do everywhere else in the city, and will fill their garages with other stuff until there is no parking available on the street.

The development was also modified significantly from the first iteration taken to the Residents Association to improve the street presence, and the resultant 33’ lots would not be anomalous in the neighbourhood, or even on the block. The changes brought the Advisory Planning Commission into support, mostly around how the street presentation fits the “character” of the street (there is that term again!).

I was not strongly opposed to most aspects of this project. I think it fairly represents the type of sensitive infill density we are going to be seeing more of as the City grows and our new OCP finds ways to accommodate our share of the anticipated regional growth. I am a little concerned about the large paved area, and wondered if permeable pavers could be used (an opinion shared with the APC)

The bigger sticking point for me, and one reinforced by residents at the Public Hearing and by a few of my Council colleagues, was the loss of the trees on the back of the property, including one very significant 75’ cedar. The City is working towards an Urban Forest Strategy for this exact reason – neighbourhoods are concerned about the loss of significant trees during infill density. There is no doubt the loss of those trees would have a significant impact on the neighbouring properties, and continued erosion of our urban forest hurts the entire community. I think there were opportunities here to build what the developer wanted while preserving the most significant of those trees, through shifting the position of the garage on one of the new houses and doing a modification of the driveways. however, it became clear that this was not going to be a simple change, and may, in the end, result in some bigger changes in the configuration of buildings on site. Unfortunately, this was more than could be clarified at Public Hearing.

As always, I cannot speak about the reasons that other members of Council opposed this development at this stage, I can only tell you my thinking. I also note the developer did not choose to present at the Public Hearing to address the concerns raised by the neighbours, as would have been their right.

In the end, Council voted unanimously to not support Third Reading for this project, which means the developer will need to go back to the drawing board.

The council meeting of July 6 was held in the smoke-free air conditioned comfort of New Westminster’s Council Chambers! Next week, we have a Public Hearing, so I recommend those looking for a cool place to get a few hours of civic entertainment come and hang out a City Hall!

This week we started with cupcakes (not kidding, you will have to watch the video to see), then a special presentation from Ryan Perks, a young New Westminsterite who made a personal commitment to support Honour House, and has been challenging others to match him. You should head over to his Facebook Page and check him out. The kid is a star.

After a few presentations, (short version: The Port likes what the Port does for us, and the City is slowly but surely working on Train Whistle Cessation), we dropped immediately into Recommendations from the Committee of the Whole from earlier in the day:

2014 FOI Requests

The City commonly receives requests for information from the City through the formal process outlined in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. We received 78 requests in 2014, which is fewer than in previous years. Some are from citizens who want to know more about how the City makes decisions than is typically available through our website; some are from insurance companies or lawyers who are managing potential litigation issues; some are from businesses looking to find a competitive advantage. All are treated equally, and in accordance with the Act.

The result? In 2014, 5,000 pages of documents were released through FOI, and all were completed within 30 days, unless procedural issues prevented this. Of 78 requests, 6 had to be forwarded to the Provincial Commissioner for clarity or mediation. However, in most cases, the FOI request is actually something the City is routinely able to provide to anyone who asks, so the entire process is straight forward and is dealt with in a couple of hours.

The City is also developing an Open Data portal, which should make it easier for people to access this type of information, which will (hopefully) reduce the time and effort required for staff to manage the FOI process. .

Vote Yes Campaign report.

The City spent less than budgeted for the “Vote Yes” campaign in New Westminster. The $20,000 budgeted was to come out of our regular communications and advertising budget. We actually spent a little more than $14,000 of that.

Some question why the City would spend any tax money on this type of activity, and to me it was obvious.

The money was found in existing budgets that would normally be used to promote the City’s strategic initiatives or programs. In hindsight, it is easy to say it was wasted because the plebiscite was unsuccessful. However, if successful, the Mayor’s Plan would have provided a quick fill for the gap in funding for the Q2Q bridge, as would matching funds to make all of our bus stops accessible and to increase the bus shelter program across the City. An entire boatload of the City’s strategic transportation initiatives would have become much easier to complete with the Federal and Provincial Government funds that would have come with the plan. And our residents would have more frequent, more reliable transit service while the traffic load on our local roads would be reduced. The combination of benefits the City would have seen would have by orders of magnitude offset the one-time investment of 0.002% of our annual operating budget to help realize those funds.

The entire referendum was a dumb idea, but not fighting to secure those funds for the people of New Westminster, who use transit and suffer from traffic congestion more than any other community in the region, would have been idiotic. I wish we had fought harder.

I had a little more to say about the Referendum at the Meeting, I will probably write at least one more blog post on this topic, to develop those thoughts. For now, we need to move on.

900 Carnarvon rezoning

This project is taking another kick at rezoning. The fourth tower at Plaza 88 has a bunch of site constraints making development of it difficult. I am mostly concerned about the pedestrian and traffic realm on Carnarvon. You would not believe how many complaints we get about that 400m of road. It is unattractive, uncomfortable, and IMHO unsafe in the way it is currently operating. I don’t think the solution to Carnarvon will be found in this development, but I want to do everything I can to assure the situation does not get worse, and that we, as a City, find ways to make it better.

Council agreed to give this Development Plan First and Second readings next week, and it will be going to Public Hearing on September 28, 2015. C’mon out and tell us what you think.

Housing Agreement Bylaws for 318 and 328 Agnes Street

Wow, we have a lot of rental coming on line. There was a long period where there was no purpose-built rental being built, but even new market housing like Plaza 88 has (according to previous report) at least 278 rental suites.

These agreements codify the rental use of the new buildings that previously received three readings from Council for this site. They provide the legal framework for the  market rental housing proposed, and provide the City security that the property will not be “stratified” after we gave the developer incentives for building rental stock. We agreed to give the Bylaws three readings, and to authorize the completion of agreements.

231 and 237 Philips St Subdivision

The proposal here is to subdivide two lots in Queensborough into 6 lots. One of the rules in subdivision is that the frontage width of a standard lot can’t be less than 10% of the total perimeter of the lot (hence, a 100’ long rectangular lot must be at least 25’ wide). In this case, the lots are exceptionally long (176’) meaning they would need to be 43’ wide, which is a relatively huge 7,600 sqft lot; Huge by the standards of the neighbourhood, anyway. The request here is to subdivide to 29.33’ lots, which are typical of the neighbourhood and appropriate for the type of development around the subject site, and that requires a variance on the proportional frontage.

Council resolved to permit this.

DCC Amendment Bylaw

This is a bylaw to update the Development Cost Charges Bylaw. DCCs probably deserve another blog post at some point, but the short version is these are the charges per lot or per built square foot that are charged the developer to pay for the increased infrastructure capacity required to support the growth that the development represents. More people (or employment) mean more roads, more sewers, more water, etc. and DCCs allow the City to finance that future need.

The formula for determining how much DCC a City can charge is rather restrictive under the Local Government Act, so we don’t have a lot of flexibility in adjusting the rates. We can, however identify how they are applied and what types of infrastructure the charges can be applied. We will be doing a larger, more comprehensive review of our DCC strategy as part of unrolling the new OCP next year.

We moved to give this Bylaw first and second readings, and to send it to stakeholder consultation.

Parkade Public Art Installation

The refurbished east half of the Parkade is going to have a new façade. The current repairs include upgrading the railings and installing a translucent screen to make the outward appearance more attractive from the Pier Park and the Sky Train bridge. The City’s Public Art Advisory Committee went through an exhaustive yet very fast-tracked process to select an artist and piece that will fit the themes preferred by our public outreach efforts.

In a split vote, Council voted to send this proposal back to staff for more information. Some concern about the design was raised by members of council about the look of the piece, and with a bit of a lack of knowledge about the process that staff and our Public Art Advisory Committee went through to get to this point, we asked that staff come back next week with more info.

Correspondence

We received three pieces of correspondence. The one that generated a bit of discussion was the update from the Metro Vancouver about our regional water restrictions.

The region’s reservoirs are at the lowest range of “normal” for this time of year, at a level that they are usually only seen in August (see graph at top of this page). The bigger concern this year is the one-two punch of our using water at a higher rate than in previous years (1.6 Billion litres per day!), and with no remaining snowpack and no appreciable rain for more than a month, the streams that normally feed the reservoirs are currently running dry. See the red line on the graph above.

Stage 2 Water restrictions mean you can only water your lawn one day a week, and that only early in the morning. There are a series of other restrictions you can see here. I also asked the question about whether the City should have a green front lawn at a time like this, or whether we should allow it to go dormant (“go for the gold”) as a symbolic gesture during this time. We will talk more about this next week, as a recommendation was sent to staff.

We had the following Bylaws for Adoption, all discussed I earlier meetings when we gave them their third reading:

Bylaw Notice Enforcement Amendment Bylaw No. 7768, 2015
Five-Year Financial Plan (2014-2018) Amendment Bylaw No. 7757, 2015
Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 7765, 2015 (Commercial Use above Grade in the  Brewery District)
Heritage Revitalization Agreement Bylaw No. 7736, 2015 (420 St. George Street)
Heritage Designation Bylaw No. 7737, 2015 (420 St. George Street)
All were adopted and are now the Law of the Land.

And these Bylaws, which are discussed above, saw readings:

Housing Agreement Bylaw No. 7762, 2015 (318 Agnes Street) received three readings.
Housing Agreement Bylaw No. 7763, 2015 (328 Agnes Street) received three readings.
DCC Amendment Bylaw No 7770, 2015 received two readings.

Finally, we addressed the Notice of Motion that Councillor Trentadue raised two meetings ago. The Councillor wants to know why we don’t have more Community Gardens in New Westminster, and whether there is anything the City can do to help facilitate more. This led to a bit of discussion, including the idea of turning an area at the far eastern end of the front lawn at City Hall into community garden space, and a few of the synergies that may come with that location.

Anyway, Staff is going to report back on this, and it sounds to me like the members of Council are pretty positive on the idea of more Community Gardens in the City, so hopefully we will make some progress here.

And that was the business of the week.

Last council meeting of the Month, which means we had a Public Hearing on some of the pent-up Bylaws from the last month or so.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 7758, 2015 (646 Ewen Ave)

This is a proposal to build a largish single family home on a vacant property that previously had a single family home, but is zoned for commercial use. It is in a neighborhood dominated by largish single family homes, and although the lot coverage is higher than ideal, the proponent is building a green roof on their accessory building, and is maximizing the infiltration of the remaining permeable surfaces. The Residents’ Association and the APC were OK with the development, no-one showed up to oppose it at the Open House, and no-one came to the Public Hearing.

I had no reason to oppose this development.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw No 7760, 2015 (328 Holmes Street)

This is a proposal to split a largish residential lot on the steep part of Holmes Street (ed: Is there any part of Holmes that isn’t steep?) and build two homes where there is currently one. The resultant homes are similar to others in the area and around town being built on RS-5 zones, and with an accessible back alley, it makes the street presence nicer. The Residents’ Association did not oppose the idea, and the only neighbours who provided opinions at the Open House were in favour. We received two pieces of correspondence opposing the subdivision, including one from a property that had previously been similarly subdivided. The primary concern appeared to be laneway traffic increases.

I had no reason to oppose this subdivision, as it is completely in character with what has been happening in the neighbourhood over the last decade. It is a pretty sensitive infill of density in a single family neighbourhood. There will be at least one very large tree lost in this development, which irritates me, but until we get a Tree Bylaw implemented in New Westminster, there is not much I can do about that without being unfairly punitive to particular owners. So no opposition here.

HRA Bylaw No 7736, 2015 and HD Bylaw 7737, 2015 (420 St. George St.)

This proposal is to restore and protect the 1890 Burton Taylor house (no, not that Burton-Taylor). The lot would be subdivided, with a second infill house built on the slightly-non-conforming second lot. The Community Heritage Commission, Advisory Planning Commission, and neighbourhood have all expressed approval for the plan, and the one initially-opposing neighbor was satisfied by a change made by the proponent to protect building separation between the neighbouring lots.

It does make Council life easier when neighbouring property owners write short letters of support for projects like this. It is just human nature that we are quick to write letters of opposition, but slow to write letters of support (an old axiom from election turnout math: people rarely line up to say “good job”), so the support letter carry a lot of weight.

No-one showed up to oppose at Public Hearing, and I have no reason to oppose this application.

HRA Bylaw No. 7712, 2015 and HD Bylaw 7713, 2015 (327 Fourth Street)

This proposal is to restore the 1913 Bell Residence in Queens Park, and to divide the large lot upon which it is located to facilitate the building of a second home on the back. The second home would face Pine Street, making it similar to the majority (6 of 8) of houses on that block of Pine. The restoration itself will be an extensive one, bringing some of the former glory to a house you might look at no and wonder if it is really a “heritage asset”.

The project was generally favoured by the Advisory Planning Commission, the Community Heritage Commission or the Residents’ Association, and plans were adjusted to respond to some of the more specific concerns raised by those groups. I am glad to see the plan for the new building has been voluntarily changed to protect a mature evergreen on the site. Some issues raised on correspondence (“we want no new homes built in our neighbourhood”) cannot meaningfully be addressed, while others (concern that restoration will not be completed in a timely manner) are addressed in the Agreement. There were interesting “design” issues raised that are worthy of discussion in the Queens Park Heritage Study context, but as the Local Government Act reads, we are really limited on being able to dictate “design” of single family houses.

We received one letter in opposition against all subdivision of single family lots, and no presentations at Public Hearing other than the Architect. I have no reason to oppose this application.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw 7765, 2015 (Commercial above grade at Brewery District)

This change would provide Wesgroup more flexibility in how they meet market demands while developing the last three high rise buildings on the Brewery District. Currently, the new buildings could be residential with commercial (retail or office) permitted only on the ground floor. This change would allow them to build more than one floor of commercial within the new buildings, if the market exists.

This does not come with increased building heights or overall density for the development, and the shift to commercial from residential would have to include providing parking and traffic management changes concomitant with commercial development.

There was a concern raised at Public Hearing that this might mean the three buildings will be 18 story office towers. I don’t think that is likely, and I’m not sure it would be a terrible thing, but providing for more flexibility towards employment generating space around a SkyTrain Station is something I’m happy to support.

After the Public Hearing, we dropped immediately into our Regular Meeting, where (after doing the Third Reading of the Bylaws from Public Hearing) which actually continued the public participation theme with Opportunities to be Heard on 4 Development Variance Permits and Development Permits in Queensborough:

DVP 00595 / DPQ 00056 (620 Salter Street);
DVP 00584 / DPQ 00057 (188 Wood Street);
DVP 00592 / DPQ 00049 (240 Jardine Street);
DVP 00594 / DPQ 00054 (843 Ewen Avenue):

Only the last of the four had anyone come to address Council. There were two concerns raised, that the separation between buildings was not sufficient for safety, and that tandem parking did not work. The first was well addressed in the report (the space was not a concern for engineering or fire, and the separations in the order of 30 feet were not a concern). The second was interesting, but I note that the developer was only relying on 13 tandem spots to make the “required number” by the zoning, but were also providing an excess of 25 more tandem spots – about 20% more parking was being planned for than the development required.

As we met in Committee last week, but did not have an evening meeting, we had Committee of the Whole Recommendations to address from June 15.

2015 Community Grant Request

The Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame asked for a grant to help with facility costs for their annual fundraiser.

Generally, I am reluctant to approve these grants outside of the normal grant process – there needs to be a case made that there is an exceptional reason. Something like a narrow matching grant window that must be met, or a change in programming outside of the control of the applicant. There is a reason we have a formal application process and deadlines – so that all organizations looking to partner with the City have equal access and opportunity, and the external grant committee exists to provide arms-length evaluation of the merit of the many applications we receive.

In this case, I think it is an exceptional year for the CLHF, with the move to the anvil representing probably the biggest event to happen to the Hall since its inception. I hope they have a successful fundraiser and continue to contribute to the unique and historic culture of New Westminster.

I also recommended that staff develop a system where a meeting of the Granting Committee could be called on an ad-hoc basis to evaluate these requests that occur outside of the regular grant cycle. I don’t want to encourage this type of application, where organizations come to Council with hat in hand in place of the relatively rigid and accountable process we have developed. It is better that these types of applications go through the same scrutiny as our other grant applications, even if they are out of the regular timing cycle.

Request for Reduction in Property Taxes.

A proponent building a Secured Market Rental Housing project asked the City to add property tax relief to the incentive package for building these types of development. On looking over the incentives provided by the City, I think they are generous, and we are seeing applications for these types of developments, suggesting we are achieving the goals of the incentive program as is. I don’t think one-off property tax reductions are a good policy for the City to start creating.

Statement of Financial Information Report

This is the simplified financial information report provided to the province every year. The City’s finances are in good stead, with solid (but not excessive) reserves, and a very manageable debt load overall in comparison to our assets. The completion of the Anvil Centre and sale of the Office Tower both create interesting shift in numbers this year, just because their value is so high relative to our usual revenue flows, but nothing in this report concerns me in the long term when looking at the 5-year financial plan.

Investment Report

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the City has about $80Million in various reserves. This report tells us where they are an how the investments are doing. This leads me directly to my Motion under New Business below, as I think we need to talk about where we invest, and start putting our money where our policy is.

Gateway to Downtown Public Art

We are getting another piece of Public Art installed on Columbia Street at the east end of Downtown. I’m not an Art Critic, but I like this piece called “Rorshach/Sentinel”, as it is hard to tell what it is supposed to be at first glance, but once you see it, you just can’t miss it. This installation was chosen from several submissions by our Public Art Advisory Committee and paid for out of our Public art Reserve fund.

Correspondence

Then we also received some correspondence.

On to June 22 Committee of the Whole Meeting, where we moved the following Recommendations:

Queensborough Special Study Area

This proposal for the development of the triangle bounded by Ewen, Stanley, and Duncan Streets in Queensborough will be a pretty big change in how the east part of QB operates. Instead of the Animal Shelter, tow yard, and a few dispersed homes, this area will see about 175 new family-friendly residences and (this is the good part) about 50,000 square feet of retail anchored by a neighbourhood grocery store. This will do a lot to make the Port Royal neighbourhood more convenient for a lot of people.

The plan is more than houses and stores, though, with Mercer being re-imagined as a pedestrian-friendly “high Street”, and lots of greenways that will preserve the habitat along some of the valuable watercourses (yes, I know we call them “ditches”, but they are actually important habitat for vertebrates). The retail treatment is not your typical strip mal, but will address the streets around in a very pedestrian-friendly way. I am pretty happy with the preliminary layouts.

My remaining concern is on the transportation realm. The intersection of Furness where it links Ewen to Duncan is going to be really sensitive –a pinch point and the only access to home for a great many Port Royal residents. Also, the ingress/egress around the medium-density residential area also looks limited – the left turn onto Duncan from Stanley being a challenge, and with Ewen and Duncan already seeing a lot of traffic-related complaints with adjacent industrial traffic and Furness and Ewen being a pinch point for a lot of Port Royal Residents.

There is some work to do here, on part of City staff and the main developer, and there will be a lot of public consultation involved in the near future. People of Queensborough, keep your ears to the ground!

Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability

One of 4 task forces set up by the Mayor at the beginning of his new term, this one is addressing what might be the highest-profile urban issue in the Lower Mainland today (sorry transit referendum).

The Task force has already made progress on leading a housing needs assessment for the City, identified an inventory of City-owned lands where an affordable housing project may be piloted, and has laid the groundwork for hiring a Housing Consultant to help with program delivery and created recommendations to council for new forms of affordable housing in the City. Which brings us to…

RFP for the Development of Affordable Housing

The Task Force has identified two City-owned lots in residential areas that might be appropriate for small-scale affordable housing projects, be they rental or ownership. This Request for Proposals will go out to developers (including not-for-profits) to make best use of these two lots so that housing for low-to-moderate income individuals can be developed.

The City is not providing a lot of guidance here towards how these homes will be built, sold or rented, and how the affordability aspect will be preserved for perpetuity. The thought being that the developer or not-for-profit can exercise their experience and judgement to create a solution that meets all of the criteria, and the City can facilitate that through providing land and any administrative/logistical support as is appropriate.

I look forward to seeing what types of approaches are presented when the real experts in this field are given the ability to flex their creative muscles. I’m also happy to live in a City where we attack these issues head-on.

This report is worth reading if only for the amazing table of statistics at the end of the RFP about New Westminster’s current housing situation. I think I’ll need to write another blog post just about that.

Bylaw Notice Enforcement Amendment Bylaw No 7768, 2015 (to amend Bylaw No. 7318, 2009)

We amended this Bylaw back in May, but a clerical error slipped through, and so we need to do it again. I read it this time, I swear (the fine for having a campfire in your back yard is, apparently, $200 for a first offence, which is twice the fine for golfing. Who knew?) We moved consideration of Three Readings.

Zoning Bylaw No. 7767, 2015:

This is a “Housekeeping” Bylaw to fix a few issues with our existing Zoning Bylaw. Nothing too earth-shattering here. We moved consideration for two readings, and recommended it go to Publci Hearing at the next Opportunity, July 13, 2015.

Sale of City Land (327 Fenton Street)

This is a single-family lot in Queensborough that is surplus to City needs and is being sold to the highest bidder, who offered us a fair price. We don’t really have a comprehensive strategy for managing City-owned lands like this, but we have policy that sets out principles that need to be met before we will sell off any City lands. This sale meets those principles. No worries here.

Major Purchases Report

On the other side of the coin, the City bought a bunch of stuff in the first quarter of 2015. All purchases about $100,000 are reported to Council ($50,000 if they are “sole source” contracts). If you’re wondering what kind of things you tax money buys, this is a good report to look at. Amazingly enough, a bunch of it goes right back into the local economy, and not down a black hole.

Bylaw No 7757, 2015: Amendment of the 5-year Financial Plan

Now that we have received audited statements for the end of last year, we need to integrate the accounting adjustments into our 5-year Plan. Of course, we are already adopted the subsequent 5-year financial plan back in May, so…

In defense of the presenter at the earlier Public Hearing on this, without a red-line comparison, it is hard to tell exactly what the changes are here. I was able to compare to earlier financial reporting I had a copies of and which are available on-line (and the changes are not huge), but really, the staff report should include a red-line side-by side comparison, for our benefit, and the for the benefit of the public who might read the report. Hopefully, through our review of Public Engagement, we can make this process clearer in subsequent years.

We recommended the Bylaw that is the 5-year Plan for three readings.

Proposed Budget Process for 2016.

This is an outline of how we prepare the budget over the year, and where the opportunities for Public and stakeholder input is. I like the idea being explored of doing of doing a biennial budget cycle, with only minor adjustments in the off-year. With the new 4-year Council terms, this is completely viable, will free up finance staff and Council to get more involved in longer-term planning, and would open up the timelines as bit to allow for a more open public consultation process.

Stay tuned, as the Public Engagement Taskforce is going to look over this, and there are a couple of citizens on that committee that have a real eye for budgeting process and making it even more transparent.

License Agreement Renewals

There are various not-for-profits that lease City space at non-market value, as is allowed under the Community Charter if they provide unique or valued services to the community. Of course, we need legal agreements and insurance and indemnity and such. This report is just to provide a bit of guidance to the Staff as they work to renew and update the agreements with 6 community organizations.

Heritage Alteration Permit No. 066 (1010B Third Ave)

The heritage homes at 1010 and 1012 Third Ave were part of a Heritage Revitalization Agreement last year, where the two houses were protected in exchange for the creation of a new lot between them, upon which a new house would be built. Part of that HRA was that the new house would reflect the style of the Craftsman 1010 Third Ave.

The owner has now decided to build the new house following Passive House principles, very likely making this the most energy-efficient house ever built in New Westminster. To meet these requirements, a few design changes are proposed, mostly in the shape of the roofline and the windows (which are both rather important to energy efficiency design). As the design of the infill house is part of the HRA, these changes require a change of that agreement.

The Community Heritage Commission was not in favour of these changes, which is a bit of a concern. However, this is an infill house (not one of the two heritage homes), and the changes are subtle enough that the new house will not be radically different than the two adjacent homes. The goals of energy efficiency through leading-edge building techniques meets a lot of the City’s objectives through our CEEP and EnergySave New West.

Interesting to see how our Zoning Bylaw can be shifted to accommodate, or even encourage, the building of supper-efficient homes.

Pattullo Bridge Rehab Work

The Pattullo is going to be undergoing repairs in 2016. People keep asking me why TransLink is spending millions of dollars fixing a bridge that will soon be replaced, and the simple answer is within the definition of the word “soon”. In a best-case scenario (A YES on the referendum, stakeholders quickly agree on design and operation principles, senior governments quickly step in with funding, no unexpected Environmental Assessment delays, etc.), we will not have a new Pattullo Bridge for at least 6 years. More likely, we are looking at 10 years before the new bridge comes on line. In the meantime, the old bridge has to stay standing and safe, and its delaminating desk and failing structural components need to be dealt with.

The City is working with Surrey, TransLink, and the Ministry of Transportation to create a strategy to manage the traffic impacts of reduced lanes and partial closures during this work. We don’t know what those strategies look like yet, but we hope to see a report back in the Fall with ideas about changes we can make in our municipal streets to help keep the impacts from hurting the livability of our neighbourhoods. I am also curious about how TransLink is going to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists during the year-and-a-half closure of the sidewalk.

Stay tuned.

Correspondence

The City of Burnaby sent us a letter informing us of their concerns with the Uber model of “Car Sharing”. We have asked staff to report back to us with comments.

Someone wise (I think it was Umair Haque) once said “If you can pay by Credit Card, it isn’t sharing”. The business model of Uber is to compete with a highly regulated industry by providing an unregulated alternative. That sounds great, except when we realize that regulations often exist for a reason. Would you fly on an unregulated airline or buy dinner at an unregulated restaurant?

There is a fair argument that the Taxi Industry in BC is way over regulated. A market where the license to operate a cab is sold for an order of magnitude more money than the value of the car, and where the business applies to the Province for 16 new licenses to fill a need, and is only awarded two (as happened this year in New Westminster), is clearly a dysfunctional one, but I’m not sure an unregulated market is the best alternative. We live in interesting times.

Appointment to Committee

The representative from Fraser Health to our Community and Social Issues Committee has changed.

We then did a bunch of readings to a bunch of Bylaws, all discussed earlier in public hearing or the Meetings:

Bylaw Notice Enforcement Amendment Bylaw No 7768, 2015 (to amend Bylaw No. 7318, 2009): Received three readings.

Zoning Bylaw No. 7767, 2015: Received two readings and will go to Public Hearing on July 13, 2015. C’mon out and tell us what you think.

Bylaw No 7757, 2015: Amendment of the 5-year Financial Plan: Received three readings.

And, finally, my New Business item:

WHEREAS: The City of New Westminster’s financial assets are invested with the Municipal Finance Authority, which includes pooled funds and direct investment in hydrocarbon extraction and pipeline operation companies;

WHEREAS: The City of New Westminster recognizes the global concern and risks of Anthropogenic Climate Change and has taken efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas impacts of its internal operations and in the community in general, and

WHEREAS: Investments in fossil fuel extraction carry numerous risks, including economic risk to market value of fossil fuel companies based on stranded assets through increased worldwide transition to renewable energy sources, including Canada’s own commitment to moving towards reduced GHG emissions and the G7 commitment to a carbon-free economy by the end of the Century;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That New Westminster support ongoing efforts by communities and public institutions across Canada and North America to divest public investments from fossil-fuel related assets by calling upon the MFA to develop a plan to divest from these assets.

I think the resolution (passed unanimously by Council) speaks for itself, and I will talk more about this in an upcoming Blog Post, but if you are interesting in learning about the case for Divestment and the Divestment Movement, you can start here:

“The argument for divesting from fossil fuels is becoming overwhelming”

This is the beginning of an interesting journey, I’m sure.