Metro Vancouver cities moving ever so slowly toward rental-protected zones
Credit to Author: Randy Shore| Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2019 17:49:51 +0000
A powerful new residential rental zoning introduced to address B.C.’s housing crisis is mostly gathering dust more than a year after being introduced by the provincial government.
New Westminster was the first to implement Residential Rental Tenure Zoning (RRTZ) to protect existing rental units and was immediately stung with a lawsuit by the owners of six buildings inside the new zone. The decision in that trial has not been delivered.
Uptake by cities has been slow because where the new zoning has been used, it was used improperly and led to litigation, said Anne McMullin, CEO of the Urban Development Institute.
By designating strata-titled buildings as rental only, that New Westminster neighbourhood was effectively “down-zoned,” which reduces the value of those properties and will interfere with the owners’ ability to finance redevelopment and renovations, she said.
Richmond delayed a similar proposal to rezone up to 60 existing buildings to prevent rental conversions and ordered a period of consultation with a report back due in 2020.
A proposal to protect up to 500 existing rental buildings in Victoria was quickly sent for further consultation with building owners, who protested the move as “unnecessary devaluing of personal property.”
LandlordBC claimed that the incentive for owners to invest in older buildings beyond basic maintenance would “evaporate” if the new zoning were applied.
Anne McMullin, CEO of the Urban Development Institute.
For now, the capital city is applying RRTZ to rezonings for new, purpose-built rental buildings.
RRTZ allows municipalities to require a certain number or proportion of units in a new development be rental, or it can be applied to existing buildings to ensure they are not removed from the rental pool.
While cities and developers watch and wait, competition for existing rental units is pushing tenants into crisis in a region where a two-bedroom apartment currently rents for $2,000 to $3,000 a month.
The City of Vancouver is just now exploring ways to use RRTZ to encourage the development of purpose-built rental housing up to six storeys in the Broadway Corridor, Grandview-Woodland, Cambie Corridor, Marpole and Joyce-Collingwood.
The idea is to streamline the development process and eliminate the need for rezoning to make rental housing projects a more attractive option for developers.
The City of Burnaby held a workshop Tuesday to “refine” its approach to the new zoning tools, said Coun. Pietro Calendino. “I think it definitely has potential to encourage rental housing.”
“We’ve looked at lessons learned from other cities and see this as the most secure way to protect rental properties in perpetuity,” he said in a statement.
City of Burnaby Coun. Pietro Calendino.
Burnaby is pursuing bylaw changes that would allow it to create rental-only zones across the city and require 20 per cent rental housing in all new developments. They will also require one-to-one replacement of any rental units affected by the redevelopment of its four town centres.
Rental-only zoning will need to be paired with incentives such as extra density to make new construction projects more attractive to developers, according to a new report Making Rental a Reality led by the Urban Development Institute.
“Rental-only zoning can work where you are encouraging development in transit-priority areas, revitalizing single-family home areas and allowing rentals in commercial and mixed-use developments,” said McMullin. “You need to ensure that you are up-zoning to increase the number of units that can be built.”
Single-family homeowners would lose leverage when selling to developers in that scenario and probably fetch a lower price, she noted.
“Local governments were looking for new tools to both encourage rental construction and protect the units they already had,” said Coquitlam Coun. Craig Hodge, speaking for the Union of B.C. Municipalities, which sought the new zoning from the province. “Some municipalities are watching to see how it works in places like Burnaby, and it won’t be for every community.”
Coquitlam has been successful getting developers to include rental units in projects near Skytrain without RRTZ, he said. “In other places, they will need more incentive.”
“As rental zoning is still a new tool, we will continue to support local governments as they consider whether and how to use it,” said Housing Minister Selina Robinson. “It will take everyone working together to solve the housing crisis, and I know local governments will continue to make use of this tool to address their own unique circumstances.”
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