[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