Richmond city staff is “in the trenches every day” dealing with developers who want to convert rental housing into market condos, according to a senior city staff member.
While a current policy states the City of Richmond wants to protect rental-only sites, a change in a bylaw – to designate 60 current rental properties in Richmond as rental in perpetuity – would give “clarity” and save city staff time and energy dealing with development proposals that don’t comply with this policy, explained Joe Erceg, general manager of planning and development.
Hence, city staff are recommending passing this bylaw to place a rental-only designation on these properties that are currently 100-per-cent rental.
“What we’re recommending reflects your policy… but it’s a more precise, more defensible, clearer tool,” Erceg told city council’s planning committee this week.
When this bylaw was first before city council in 2019, there was an outcry from the developer community, after which the planning committee asked city staff to consult with them.
Erceg said the “theme” of the feedback was condo developers should be part of the solution, but that would mean reversing or eroding the rental-only policy.
“The stakeholders didn’t comment on the merit of what was being proposed, they were actually trying to undo policy that’s been in place for a long time,” Erceg said.
He pointed out city staff have been working for five years with one of the 60 rental property owners who wanted to rebuild 50 current rental units, add a few more “as sweetener” and then develop the rest of the site with market condos, Erceg explained to the planning committee.
But because city staff were “holding the line,” the developer finally came up with a plan to replace the 50 rental units with 270 rental units, of which some are low-end rentals and others market rentals.
This proposal will be coming to council soon, Erceg added.
Dana Westermark with Oris Consulting – a development company – told the planning committee, however, that this bylaw was a “distraction” and another “bureaucratic burden” on developers, and would have a negative impact on current property owners, for example, how much they can get financing.
“A policy which is intended just to make it easier for staff to bat away proposals I don’t think is a particularly good policy,” Westermark said.
Coun. Harold Steves said he knows people who live in cars or poor housing situations because of the lack of affordable rentals.
“This is what we’re faced with – we have one extreme, developers who want wide open doors to do whatever they want, within some limits but not much, and others are on the streets and can’t afford housing at all,” Steves said, adding he thinks this bylaw should have been implemented decades ago.
The planning committee voted unanimously for the bylaw. Next it will go to council and later to a public hearing.
This bylaw was made possible after the province changed the rules on rental zoning. So far, only New Westminster has used the new rule to impose rental-only zoning on certain properties, according to city staff.
