Port Moody “badly needs” rental housing and the city can’t afford not to allow a plan for a new 142-unit rental building on St. Johns Street to be built, says the CEO of Landlord BC, David Hutniak.
Developer Woodbridge Properties presented its proposal at a meeting on Sept. 5 for the six-storey apartment building it wants to build on a .83-acre site it owns on the south side of St. Johns just west of Moray Street to the city’s community planning advisory committee.
The project would require rezoning and an amendment to the official community plan as the site, which currently houses a one-storey commercial building, is currently zoned for commercial uses and designated for a mixed use of retail, service, office and stand-alone commercial activities in the OCP.
Hutniak, whose association represents the managers and owners of rental housing across British Columbia, said a “near-perfect storm” of low vacancy rates in existing rental housing and a lack of construction of new stock is creating a crisis for people who can’t afford, or choose not to, purchase a home.
“To see we’re going to have 142 units of purpose-built rental housing in this community is fantastic,” said Hutniak, who also lives in Port Moody. “We need to build more purpose-built rental housing and we need more in Port Moody.”
Jamie Howard of Woodbridge Properties told the committee his company’s project would be the first new rental building constructed in Port Moody in 31 years. The building would be comprised of:
• six studio apartments;
• 59 one-bedroom-plus-den apartments up to 742 sq. ft.;
• 72 two-bedroom-plus-den units up to 928.6 sq. ft.;
• and five three-bedroom units.
The building would have 151 parking spots for residents plus another 29 for visitors. Howard said there would be two parking spots designated for car shares and 28 designated for electric cars, although he conceded it is too soon to say whether those spots would include charging stations and who would pay for the electricity that charges the cars.
While the 1.26 parking spaces per unit is less than 1.5 spaces per unit the city requires, Howard said a number of residents likely wouldn’t even own a car. And, he said, his company would look at some sort of subsidy program to encourage residents to use transit — the site is about 600 m west of the Inlet Centre Evergreen Extension.
That caught the attention of Coun. Meghan Lahti, who introduced an amendment to the OCP amendment and rezoning application that city staff investigate the mechanics of transit subsidies further.
But Mayor Mike Clay called that “social engineering” that would only mess with the affordability of the building’s rents.
“Everything you do increases the cost of the end unit to the renter,” said Clay, who cast the only vote against Lahti’s amendment.
Traffic management issues around the site will also be investigated by staff.
While in its proposal Woodbridge has moved the entry and exit points to the underground parking area from St. Johns Street to Moray, a number of speakers at the meeting expressed concern about adding congestion to an already busy area.
Howard also addressed some reservations about the project’s lack of below-market units.
“The whole point of having a market rental is not to be restricted,” Howard said. “If we can’t hold that kind of a line, then we’ll have to go in a different direction.”
He said it is still too early in the process to provide an estimate of the rents that would be charged.
But no matter what the rents are going to be, purpose-built rental housing is the most secure form or rental housing, said Landlord BC’s Hutniak.
“A healthy and robust rental housing market contributes to the health and well-being of the community," he said.
The request for rezoning and the OCP amendment was passed unanimously by the committee and will now be considered by city council.
