[0:04] the purpose of the session this evening is to provide you with information on

[0:07] the city's approach to implementing the mandatory provincial housing changes

[0:12] this session will focus on provincial legislation related to Transit oriented

[0:16] areas and smallscale multi-unit housing we will also provide you with

[0:20] information on the shoulder and Corridor land use study areas which we are

[0:25] reviewing as part of the transit oriented areas update

[0:32] so first a land acknowledgement we acknowledge with gratitude and respect

[0:36] that the name Coquitlam was derived from the hamam word quum meaning red fish up

[0:42] the river the city is honored to be located on the quum traditional and

[0:46] ancestral lands including those parts that were historically shared with the

[0:50] caty and other co- Salish

[0:55] peoples so we'll begin with some introductions my name is Natasha I with

[1:00] the community planning division we also have Renee Des qua the director of

[1:05] community

[1:08] planning hello everyone we've also got Chris McBeth

[1:14] with Community planning hi

[1:18] everyone James Taylor with Community planning hi everyone

[1:24] welcome Paris later with Community planning hi everyone

[1:31] Ryan Clemens with Community planning good evening

[1:37] everyone Tyler Cooney with Transportation

[1:41] hello and Stephanie Holland with parks and facility

[1:45] planning hi thanks good to be here and then we also have Sarah Rossi who's with

[1:50] our Communications uh corporate Communications and engagement hello

[1:57] everyone all right so we're we going to KCK things off with a presentation which

[2:03] James Taylor will run through after which we will open it up for question

[2:07] and answers or a Q&A and we have a great turnout tonight we've got approximately

[2:12] 380 people registered so given the number of people to facilitate the Q&A

[2:18] all questions are to be submitted through the Q&A function in your Zoom

[2:21] window and I'll go over how the Q&A will work after the presentation so over to

[2:27] James

[2:31] thank you

[2:35] Natasha uh to begin um I'd like to First highlight uh the city's uh position with

[2:41] respect to uh the provincial housing legislation so the uh cilum is committed

[2:49] to addressing housing affordability and Supply challenges within the framework

[2:54] of provincial legislation the city is actively

[2:58] implementing the changes imposed by the provincial government including enabling

[3:04] smallscale multi-unit housing uh increasing uh density and

[3:09] Transit oriented areas and updating our official community

[3:13] plan these steps build on coquitlam's strong housing record with more than

[3:19] 5100 homes uh created since 2021 uh including non-market and Below

[3:25] Market

[3:28] units these uh kum's award-winning housing affordability strategy remains a

[3:34] key driver in delivering diverse and inclusive housing options while these

[3:40] eort efforts align with uh provincial objectives we emphasize the importance

[3:46] of local expertise in community planning and continue to advocate for approaches

[3:52] that respect the city's unique

[3:58] neighborhoods so as had indicated uh this presentation focuses mainly on the

[4:04] city's approach to Transit oriented areas and smallscale multi-unit housing

[4:09] to a lesser extent uh the information is generally

[4:13] the same as was shared in the October in-person public information sessions

[4:19] however I will be providing clarification on a number of elements

[4:23] relating to the legislation and the city's

[4:27] approach the the provincial housing legis legislation um adopted in 2023

[4:32] introduced two new planning Frameworks intended to increase housing Supply

[4:38] across the province these are known as Transit oriented areas and smallscale

[4:42] multi-unit housing uh the legislation imposes certain limitations on the

[4:48] city's uh normal authority to regulate development uh and also imposes

[4:54] requirements on the city uh to implement certain Planning and Zoning changes

[5:00] importantly a portion of the city's Transit oriented areas update project uh

[5:06] which is our implementation uh project uh is not required by The Province uh

[5:11] these are uh called shoulders and corridors uh I will describe them in

[5:16] Greater detail later in the presentation uh for now uh I would just like to

[5:20] highlight uh that completion of the shoulders and corridors requires

[5:24] Community input and is subject to council feedback and approval

[5:34] at the same time uh the city's initiated a number of other projects which also

[5:39] relate to the provincial housing legislation many of these concern uh the

[5:44] mechanisms to fund uh the growth supporting infrastructure and

[5:49] amenities um that we need to to uh support this growth uh and to provide

[5:54] rental and affordable housing uh Cam's current system relies heavily on a

[5:59] density bonus program to fund these amenities and to incentivize rental and

[6:04] the new legislation imp um imposes rules uh that restrict uh this use however uh

[6:11] it also provides some new tools such as the amenity cost charge program uh

[6:16] rental tenure zoning and inclusionary Zoning uh the city's objective uh is in

[6:21] implementing these components um is to ensure that development continues to

[6:26] fund and support growth

[6:31] so regarding the transit oriented areas legislation uh we were required to

[6:37] designate uh our Transit oriented areas by bylaw and to remove a minimum uh

[6:44] residential parking requirements uh except for a required uh rate of access

[6:49] accessible parking spaces uh these items were completed in July of this

[6:55] year uh the majority of our work uh remains to be completed however uh which

[6:59] involves updating our official community plan uh and Zoning bylaw to comply uh

[7:04] with the uh several components of the

[7:09] legislation so what is a Transit oriented area uh a Transit oriented area

[7:16] uh is uh strictly defined by provincial regulations uh in Coquitlam this

[7:22] includes the land within 800 M of uh any Sky Train

[7:27] Station and the legislation set minimum allowances for building density which is

[7:32] expressed as a floor area ratio and Building height which is expressed in

[7:36] stories uh and this is organized in a tiered system uh with the highest

[7:41] densities and Heights allowed closest to the Sky Train Station importantly uh the

[7:46] term minimum in this context uh means a minimum that is imposed on the City by

[7:52] The Province uh in our capacity to regulate density and Heights uh what

[7:58] that means is that um a land owner would still be permitted to build below these

[8:03] standards uh but the city simply can't restrict that landowner uh from building

[8:09] um density or height below those

[8:15] standards so for floor area ratio um while Building height uh is relatively

[8:20] straightforward uh it's worth uh taking a moment to explain this

[8:25] concept floor area ratio is a measure of a building's density

[8:29] comparing the building's floor area relative to the area of the property on

[8:35] which it sits in this example uh if a property uh measures 10,000 square F

[8:40] feet in area uh then a building with a 2.0 F floor area ratio would have a

[8:46] total of 20,000 Square ft further as the example shows that the same floor area

[8:52] ratio can result in different heights depending uh depending on how much of

[8:59] the the property is covered uh this means that floor area ratio can provide

[9:04] a good sense of how much activity uh and servicing needs uh that are generated by

[9:09] a building irrespective of its

[9:14] height so for klum's Transit oriented areas the legislation applies to all

[9:20] eight Sky train stations that are either within coquitlam's Borders or near

[9:25] enough to be included uh to have um include properties that within

[9:30] these locations are precisely defined and cannot be changed by the

[9:35] city any property that is wh or partly within these Rings or The Rings of a

[9:40] Transit oriented area are included uh including um the individual tiers uh

[9:46] regardless of local context uh including uh the layout of lots and blocks

[9:51] topography or any other local

[9:58] characteristic since the transit oriented areas uh cover quite a

[10:02] substantial amount of land and a diversity of neighborhoods across the

[10:05] city we've staged our approach to implementing uh the legislation stage

[10:11] one uh uh simply was the adoption of the transit oriented areas bylaw and removal

[10:17] of minimum uh residential parking which was completed in the

[10:20] summer and in the current stage stage two uh we are focused on parts of our

[10:26] Transit oriented areas that are already covered by plans that allow for this

[10:32] type of development in particular this includes the pum and lwh heed Transit

[10:37] oriented areas in Southwest coitum uh and the core areas of City

[10:43] Center at the same time we are reviewing land uses in the areas immediately

[10:49] surrounding the burlam and led Transit oriented areas which we have labeled

[10:54] shoulders the purpose of the shoulder area planning uh process is to address

[10:59] the uh irregular boundaries uh that are created by uh the transit oriented areas

[11:05] legislation and to ensure that the official community plan continues to

[11:09] provide for a diversity of housing

[11:14] types so the next three slides here uh show uh how the existing official

[11:20] community plan relates to Transit oriented areas using the pitum

[11:25] neighborhood uh a planned Transit oriented area as an example so the

[11:29] berquam lwh heed neighborhood plan provides for a mix of uses and densities

[11:36] with high densities focused on the land's closest to Sky train stations

[11:41] transitioning outward uh into medium density Apartments town housing and then

[11:45] finally lower density uh residential uses on the

[11:49] periphery uh the plan also provides for uh plans for the services and

[11:55] infrastructure that's needed to support this growth uh including new and

[11:59] expanded Parks uh Transportation connections and utility

[12:03] upgrades now the current uh flurry of development applications and

[12:07] construction activity that we see in the Bram neighborhood uh and in the lwh heed

[12:12] neighborhood to the South is a direct result of this

[12:17] plan now the provincial Transit oriented areas uh implements a tiered pattern uh

[12:24] that is conceptually similar to the existing neighborhood plan without the

[12:29] without the variation uh to account for local context uh in a number of

[12:35] locations our land use designations already allow for development at or

[12:39] above the legislated minimums uh in other locations we will need to change

[12:45] land use designations to align with the legislation in burquitlam uh most of the

[12:51] impacted land uh is in fact in in tier three where in many locations uh the

[12:57] current plan only allows for town housing development or or something

[13:01] lower uh as a reminder uh land in tier three um is permitted uh up to eight

[13:08] stories according to the legislation up to eight stories and a floor area ratio

[13:12] of 3.0 and this form of uh development roughly equates to what coitum uh

[13:18] currently allows in our medium density apartment land use designation which on

[13:23] this map uh is of the the brown color with the the single uh diagonal hatching

[13:33] so this next map shows the properties that fall within each of the provincial

[13:38] uh uh tiers um the burquitlam transit oriented

[13:44] area results in a number of those irregular boundaries that I uh mentioned

[13:48] a moment ago uh these are cases where the boundaries uh cut oddly across a

[13:53] block or leave individual properties uh orphaned that is to say uh in the event

[13:59] of a land assembly it would be cut off from their neighbor or from neighboring

[14:03] properties either inside the TOA or or just outside the

[14:07] TOA uh this map also shows uh some of the shoulder study areas particularly in

[14:13] around burquitlam uh the objective of the shoulder review

[14:18] is to address these irregular boundaries and to consider replacing the land

[14:23] within tier three that would have been built as town housing uh but is now

[14:27] eligible uh to build as as Apartments uh you may notice uh that the

[14:33] shoulder study areas do not completely encircle the transit oriented

[14:37] areas uh locations left out of our study areas tend to have land use designation

[14:42] that already allows for apartment development so an example this would be

[14:47] uh at the top of the map along Clark Road uh the review shoulders and

[14:52] corridors is not intended to consider higher densities than this

[15:00] so the next map here shows uh the extents of those stage two shoulders and

[15:05] corridors uh as a reminder the review of shoulders and corridors is not required

[15:11] by The Province and the minimum height and density standards uh of the transit

[15:16] oriented areas do not apply land use changes in these areas

[15:21] will be shaped by Community input alongside technical considerations and

[15:26] are subject to council approval for stage two only shoulder areas um

[15:32] adjacent to burquitlam and lwh heat have been

[15:36] identified the review of corridors is an outstanding piece of work from a

[15:40] previous city project the Southwest housing review given prior commitments

[15:46] to complete this review and given the corridor's proximity and connection to

[15:51] the transit oriented areas uh Council supported a combined review allowing us

[15:57] to um uh view these areas or consider all of these areas in context

[16:05] together so to sum up the deliverables for stage two it includes updating the

[16:11] official community plan land use designations and policies updating our

[16:16] medium and high density zones uh to align with the minimum requirements and

[16:21] to accommodate to continue to accommodate affordable housing uh and

[16:25] funding of community assets uh updating our Associated plans

[16:31] for the infrastructure and amenities to support the growth uh as well as the the

[16:36] plans for shoulders and corridors uh as supported by

[16:45] Council so I will briefly touch on uh implementation of the other major

[16:50] housing legislation that being small scale multiunit housing before we move

[16:55] on to the Q&A portion of the meeting so this legislation applies throughout

[17:01] the city and requires the city to allow up to four units on most single family

[17:06] properties originally uh this was intended uh to be implemented by June

[17:11] 30th 2024 however the city was successful in receiving an extension to

[17:17] implement uh this legislation by June 30th 2025 next

[17:22] year implementing the legislation will involve consolidating ex our existing

[17:28] sing single family and infill zones into fewer small scale

[17:33] zones simplifying the regulations to ensure uh we have clear and

[17:38] straightforward expectations for both residents and developers and ensuring

[17:44] that our parking requirements balance the demand for parking with development

[17:51] feasibility importantly uh the legislation uh does not require the city

[17:56] to allow smallscale multiunit housing within Transit oriented

[18:04] areas so in terms of design the small scale multi-unit housing legislation uh

[18:10] would allow for a variety of unit and building types now while the count the

[18:15] concept is relatively du new in most areas of BC here in Coquitlam we have we

[18:21] have had a similar housing program for a number of years named the housing

[18:25] choices program uh housing choices currently

[18:29] only applies to a limited area within Southwest cilum uh but provides a a good

[18:35] metric of of the building the types of buildings that we would expect or

[18:40] anticipate to see under small scale multi-unit housing uh including uh types

[18:45] of of Plex housing duplex Triplex fourplex uh as well as laneway

[18:54] housing so that concludes uh the presentation

Recording of Virtual Information Session December 3, 2024

Transcript