B.C.'s housing minister says cities should consider lowering parking requirements as a way to help obtain affordable units in new housing developments being built near transit.
Ravi Kahlon makes the assertion in response to a letter Port Moody Mayor Meghan Lahti sent Oct. 12 to Premier David Eby accusing the city's MLA of trying to run interference on council's consideration of a massive redevelopment of the Coronation Park neighbourhood.
In the rebuttal, sent to Lahti on Thursday, Oct. 19, Kahlon said, "Members of the Legislative Assembly can and should advocate for issues in their communities as part of their role," adding he hopes Port Moody is open to exploring "all avenues" so it can meet its provincially-mandated target of attaining at least 238 new below-market rental unites within the next five years.
Lahti said a last-minute pitch by Port Moody-Coquitlam MLA Rick Glumac that Vancouver-based developer Wesgroup Properties consider reducing the number of parking spots for the project's 2,587 new homes as a way to pay for affordable units had the potential to derail it after several years of negotiation and refinement.
Glumac, in an entreaty sent to councillors and the media Sept. 27, said the developer's plan to include more than 2,800 parking stalls in its Confederation Park project is excessive given its proximity to the Inlet Centre SkyTrain station right across Ioco Road. He said the construction costs for those stalls could be better used to create affordable housing.
Lahti said Glumac's suggestion, made just six days before a public hearing and subsequent council vote to approve Wesgroup's rezoning application for the 14.8-acre site that is currently comprised of 59 aging single-family homes, caused "unnecessary division" in the community and was an overreach in his duties as Port Moody's provincial representative.
"In his letter MLA Glumac appears to be speaking on behalf of the government in this instance, directly involving himself in local matters as a provincial representative," Lahti said, adding Glumac’s correspondence "showed both a lack of understanding and unwillingness to respect the process to date."
In his own letter on the matter, Brad Jones, Wesgroup's senior vice-president of development, said Glumac's suggestion was overly-simplistic and would actually result in additional costs and delays that could hinder efforts to include affordable units in the project.
He said the company is continuing its work to secure funding for affordable units from senior levels of government.
"Many opportunities for government funding are not open for projects that have not achieved completion of zoning," Jones said.
Kahlon said he's looking forward "to working with the City of Port Moody in achieving its housing targets."
Councillor calls for ethics commissioner
Meanwhile, Port Moody Coun. Haven Lurbiecki is calling for the provincial government to establish a municipal government ethics commissioner to investigate issues such as legality, conflicts of interests, bullying and code of conduct complaints at municipal councils after she expressed concerns about a tour taken by four councillors of another Wesgroup project in Vancouver last November.
In a motion to be presented to council at its meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 24, Lurbiecki said councils can't be neutral when investigating their own affairs.
"At times the very people that are facing an accusation or concern could oversee how it's handled," she said.
Lurbiecki said the tour, which was open to all councillors, amounted to an illegal meeting because a quorum of council had attended to privately discuss with the developer matters related to its Coronation Park application. She said while she initially accepted the invite, she had reservations and chose to bypass it once she’d been sworn in.
The allegation was brought to light by a speaker during the Oct. 3 public hearing.
In a letter to the Tri-City News, former council candidate David Stuart, who was briefly elected last October until a recount showed he had the same number of votes as incumbent Amy Lubik then lost in a draw of names, said he had been invited to the tour when he was a councillor-elect. He subsequently filed a Freedom of Information request out of curiosity whether it ultimately transpired.
"According to legal opinions I have received, the ‘tour’ was an illegal meeting of council which puts decisions arising from it at risk of being overturned in the courts," Stuart said.
But when Lahti, who wasn't at the tour, refuted the allegation of impropriety during the council meeting that followed the Oct. 3 public hearing, Lurbiecki said she wanted no further part of council's discussion about the Coronation Park project and left the meeting.
