Public outrage over the size of new multiplex homes popping up all over Burnaby, B.C., has convinced city councillors to rein in the rules around what can be built.
Multiplex homes in the city will be smaller — and have more on-site parking — as a result.
Burnaby, a city of about 250,000 residents just east of Vancouver, introduced multiplex housing in July last year, when the province mandated most B.C. municipalities to allow between four and six homes on single-family lots.
In a city known for its suburban sprawl, punctuated by pockets of highrise towers, multiplex homes are now allowed on any of Burnaby’s 31,000 previously single-family residential lots.
Under Burnaby’s multiplex bylaw, which allows laneway homes, triplexes, quadplexes and cottage courts, builders could have constructed homes up to four storeys.
But after a council vote on Tuesday, future multiplexes will be reduced to three storeys, and floor areas will be reduced by 33 to 60 per cent.
The minimum amount of on-site parking developers are required to build has also been increased.
Tim O’Meara, a Burnaby resident and retired professional engineer, said he only found out multiplexes had been allowed when construction on one started across the street from his home.
“Everybody is still stopping and staring at this construction. It’s just extraordinary,” O’Meara said.
“There used to be a small bungalow there, and obviously that’s not probably appropriate in today’s age, but what’s being built there today is just gigantic.”
O’Meara said he’s worried for people’s property values due to the visual impact on the neighbouring properties.
Former B.C. MLA and Burnaby resident Kathy Corrigan said it’s true that she’s a “NIMBY” — “not in my backyard.”
“I definitely don’t want it in my backyard towering over … four storeys high. No, I don’t want it in my neighbourhood,” she said.
Corrigan said the province and the city have “completely abdicated their responsibility to the neighbourhoods.” She pointed to other cities, like West Vancouver and New Westminster, that pushed back on the provincial multiplex legislation.
“No other municipality has done what Burnaby has done,” she said.
“Burnaby just basically handed the keys to the city over to developers and said, ‘You go to it, you build anything you want.’… The results are these ugly monstrosities.”
Mayor Mike Hurley says the city is listening to residents and not just caving to NIMBYism.
He said he’s been hearing complaints for months, including from people who don’t usually voice concerns.
“They’re not opposed to change, but they are opposed to the extreme, and some people felt that this had gone too far,” Hurley said.
He said the city has been struggling with the provincial mandates, which he described as a one-size-fits-all approach.
“When you see some of these buildings beside a 1950s bungalow, they look pretty stark,” he said.
Hurley said he prefers multiplex homes to be built between the 1,400 and 1,900 square foot mark, instead of the 2,600 square foot multiplexes he said builders had previously been constructing.
And he warned while other cities may have pushed back on the provincial legislation, the B.C. government is preparing to crack down on municipalities that have made it difficult to build.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Housing introduced legislation to ensure local governments are not creating bylaws that effectively restrict multiplex housing from being built.
It would allow the province to put its recommended minimum standards into city regulations, if a city had overly restrictive rules and “excessive off-street parking requirements.”
The ministry said the province needs more housing.
“For too long, neighbourhoods almost exclusively allowed single-detached homes, which are often expensive and increasingly out of reach for many households,” said a ministry spokesperson in an emailed statement.
Multiplexes allow more livable homes in existing neighbourhoods, said the statement.
“We have been encouraged to see Burnaby as a leader when it comes to adopting and implementing [multiplex housing],” it said.
Bryn Davidson, co-owner and lead designer at Lanefab, which designs and builds custom homes, laneways and multiplexes, noted Burnaby had only recently set up a program for building laneway homes before introducing multiplexes.
“All of a sudden they adopted multiplexes. And not only did they go as far as Vancouver, they actually went farther,” Davidson said.
He said Burnaby’s program was innovative, but public pushback is to be expected, as the same angst has happened when basement suites, laneway homes and duplexes were introduced.
“There is this kind of shock of transition, and people have a hard time coping with that sense of loss of some of what they’ve come to know. But that’s a normal part of evolving.”
Davidson noted that earlier this summer, before Burnaby council decided to change the multiplex bylaw, Vancouver council voted to consider copying Burnaby’s more “permissive” multiplex regulations.
“It’s fair to do some course correction, as long as it’s not wholesale rewinding of it,” Davidson said.
