Burnaby Updates

[BaddieB]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Also, all projects along Willingdon should leave space for widening this arterial road to 6 lanes. It is incredibly congested today.

I agree that room should be left, but it should be for a Skytrain, or really to add actual sidewalks to Willingdon. It's not going to get any less congested by adding lanes. We can't really be surprised that Burnaby has traffic when it has subpar bus service due to a lack of bus lanes, and virtually no good cycling infrastructure (what exists is very limited and misses key destinations and routes)

[ecbin]

Originally Posted by Klazu

To the person saying that Grange could be cut to 2 lanes, that is just crazy talk. It's a very busy road that is needed to bypass Metrotown (just like Imperial) and it is only getting busier.

Not between Patterson and Willingdon it isn't - it's bottlenecked at the Patterson side because of the connection to Kingsway (and there's really nothing that can be done about it short of destroying all walkability there) and from Patterson to Willingdon it behaves like a local road rather than an arterial. Making that stretch a 2 lane road wouldn't affect travel times in any meaningful way while dramatically improving the liveability of that area - an area which will see significantly more pedestrian traffic as the towers get built out.

It's only busy between the Willingdon and Nelson stretch but it otherwise (all the way down to Canada Way) is lightly trafficked - even that stretch between Willingdon and Nelson is only busy b/c people leaving Metrotown are directed there (you can't exit to Kingsway from the Metropolis parkade, you have to go to Grange).

[osirisboy]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Fat chance of any road in Burnaby getting wider. They'll have to manage the extra residents the same way Vancouver does.

I’m fine with that! But Burnaby doesn’t have a street grid like van

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by ecbin

- snip -

Lines up with what I've seen of it. Wonder if you could get away with shutting down the Wilson-Willingdon section altogether?

[ecbin]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Lines up with what I've seen of it. Wonder if you could get away with shutting down the Wilson-Willingdon section altogether?

Probably? It'd make me getting to and from Metrotown a wee bit harder but if the trade is that Grange becomes more pedestrian and cyclist friendly then I'm for it. Heaven forbid the City of Burnaby prioritises pedestrians and cyclists over cars for once in a century and a few drivers get 30 seconds added to their commute.

It's been pretty consistently shown that reducing road capacity for roads like this results in little to no change in commute time - heck, they've taken entire highways away in cities and seen no impact (Seoul comes to mind). I'm sure we can manage if we reduce Grange's car capacity a bit and make that area dramatically more liveable.

If Grange was more walkable/bike friendly I'd reduce my car trips to Metrotown by a lot - right now it's a terrible walk over. I'm sure other local residents would do the same.

[BaddieB]

My fantasy is having a Metrotown streetcar loop from Grange to Royal Oak (connecting with the station) to Imperial to Patterson. This would allow for good transit neighborhood connections (which do not exist today, no bus services go from one side of Metrotown to the other) and would take traffic off of Metrotown Station which is already too busy. Having its own lanes in the European style would work really well on a street like Grange. I usually think street cars are silly because they try to replicate a Metro service, but it could work well in a smaller but denser area like Metrotown

[SpongeG]

I can't wait for the Brentwood skytrain to get done and restore all the lanes there, having it reduced to one lane east and two west is awful, it added 30 minutes to my commute one morning, it took me 30 minutes to get from Douglas to the BTC entrance where I eventually turned off and went through the mall roads to get past the non moving traffic and work my way back to Lougheed, Heading east along Lougheed is also awful as people squeeze past in one lane and the only alternative is Dawson which is backed up as everyone used it to avoid Lougheed right now. Also that other detour further east makes Lougheed really bad I used to like turning off at Winston and coming out at Lougheed Mall.

[ecbin]

Originally Posted by BaddieB

My fantasy is having a Metrotown streetcar loop from Grange to Royal Oak (connecting with the station) to Imperial to Patterson. This would allow for good transit neighborhood connections (which do not exist today, no bus services go from one side of Metrotown to the other) and would take traffic off of Metrotown Station which is already too busy. Having its own lanes in the European style would work really well on a street like Grange. I usually think street cars are silly because they try to replicate a Metro service, but it could work well in a smaller but denser area like Metrotown

Oooo...my initial reaction was "No way! Won't work!" but after a few hours of thinking about it this is the kind of idea that would be really interesting in terms of expanding the density around the Metrotown (and surrounding) areas.

Most of the roads you're suggesting could support a street car but I would suggest one extra bold step and make the southern part run through Victory street so that connecting to Royal Oak is easier AND, more importantly, you pull the northern part of the South Slope area into the Metrotown area - you'd provide that whole area an easy way to get to a Skytrain station.

It would take a very, very bold community plan to make this viable - there'd have to be retail scattered around the whole area that doesn't exist and there'd have to be a considerable increase in allowable density in the South Slope area as well. The former (scattered retail) is not part of how Burnaby planning thinks about the city.

[Redtruck]

Found this interesting.

1901-2311 Beta Avenue, Burnaby•Brentwood Park

BC assessment 2022 $ 864,000
2023 $ 815,000

Currently listed for $ 668,000

From 2022 to 2023, most property assessments increased, but this address decreased? To be listed for $147k, a 18% drop from the 2023 BC assessment, is crazy. It appears to be a combination of factors: the building is blacklisted, and there is oversupply in this area. Also Eclipse the final tower in this project appears to be making no progress. Anyone have insight?

[BaddieB]

Bosa Properties Says Burnaby Policies Make Purpose-Built Rental Projects "Unbuildable"

In a letter to Burnaby City Council dated July 2, Senior Director of Development Kyle Wright told Council that Bosa Properties had spent the past six months contemplating two 100% purpose-built rental projects — one in the Metrotown neighbourhood and one in the adjacent Royal Oak neighbourhood.

Regarding the Royal Oak project, Wright said Bosa had contemplated a "multi-phased complete community of 1,200+ rental homes anchored by walkable retail, in line with the vision and goals of the draft Royal Oak Community Plan."

Wright said Bosa had made the decision to not proceed with acquiring the Royal Oak site, "as Burnaby's current policy context means purpose built-rental (and even condo) is not economically viable for investment."

Anyone know what Royal Oak site this may have been? I'm imagining it must be the Wholesale site.

https://storeys.com/bosa-properties-...ionary-zoning/

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by BaddieB

Bosa Properties Says Burnaby Policies Make Purpose-Built Rental Projects "Unbuildable"



Anyone know what Royal Oak site this may have been? I'm imagining it must be the Wholesale site.

https://storeys.com/bosa-properties-...ionary-zoning/

B-b-but CACs and DCCs just capture the excess profit!!!

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by BaddieB

[B][SIZE="4"]
Anyone know what Royal Oak site this may have been? I'm imagining it must be the Wholesale site.

https://storeys.com/bosa-properties-...ionary-zoning/

Probably - that's a node on the plan:


https://storeys.com/city-of-burnaby-...ment-projects/

[GenWhy?]

I have not calculated fees in Burnaby recently but according to the City's cheat sheet, Bosa's proposed 1,200-unit development would have needed to pay $46.6m for the residential alone. Add maybe $2.6m for commercial. Then any additional off-sites... you're over $50m? (I think this is not including the additional TransLink and Metro's own DCCs)

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by BaddieB

Bosa Properties Says Burnaby Policies Make Purpose-Built Rental Projects "Unbuildable"



Anyone know what Royal Oak site this may have been? I'm imagining it must be the Wholesale site.

https://storeys.com/bosa-properties-...ionary-zoning/

Originally Posted by officedweller

Probably - that's a node on the plan:

......

I believe it would more likely be the old Safeway site rather than the Wholesale Club next door.

I don't believe there are any plans for redevelopment on the Wholesale Club (which is still in operation) that I know of - I could be wrong and I'm happy to be corrected - but the Safeway site has been vacant and cleared for several years now since the store closed down a while ago.

Plus, it sits right on the node itself that's planned to have zoning allowing up to 20-30 storey height high density residential in the recently revised and resubmitted new Burnaby OCP for the Royal Oak area - breaking away from the previous limit of 4-6 storey "urban village" model that the city has steadfastly stood by for the Royal Oak neighbourhood, until the recent mandated Provincial TOD legislation requirement forced them to change course.
(with the exception of the also recently approved Palm ave. BCGEU towers next door to the Royal Oak station that the city were adamant was a one-time exception).

I was under the impression that someone other than Bosa were looking to redevelop that Safeway site, which is why I am hesitant to claim outright it's the one. But it's certainly a good candidate that fits all the points they're raising.
I know there was a proposal submitted sometime back for a site just across the road south of Kingsway on the car wash site next door to the retirement homes, but that was for a much smaller development (6 storey).
The only other possible locations would be somewhere in the vicinity in of the Skytrain station itself, but I don't know of any site in that area other than the BCGEU development that has plans for anything major or that dense.

It would be a pity if a major development on that old Safeway site ended up getting killed by the current policy cost charges.

And this wouldn't be the only project in Burnaby right now that's looking like it's hit a brick wall thanks to those policy charges.
It would really behoove the city to take another look at them and possibly revise them, otherwise you're looking at killing a lot of project proposals before they've even began in the middle of a housing crisis, which is just insanely stupid.

[BaddieB]

Poilievre has spoken about how he wants to financially target cities that impose huge taxes on housing development, and as much as I don't like him I hope he gets the chance. We've been pretending economics don't exist for too long.

[vanc]

Originally Posted by Redtruck

Found this interesting.

1901-2311 Beta Avenue, Burnaby•Brentwood Park

BC assessment 2022 $ 864,000
2023 $ 815,000

Currently listed for $ 668,000

From 2022 to 2023, most property assessments increased, but this address decreased? To be listed for $147k, a 18% drop from the 2023 BC assessment, is crazy. It appears to be a combination of factors: the building is blacklisted, and there is oversupply in this area. Also Eclipse the final tower in this project appears to be making no progress. Anyone have insight?

All of the Lumina buildings are total lemons and underpriced compared to the rest of the neighbourhood as a result. As for BC assessment decrease, without going into where I live my unit in the general neighbourhood also saw a similar decrease (not Lumina though).

[Redtruck]

Originally Posted by vanc

All of the Lumina buildings are total lemons and underpriced compared to the rest of the neighbourhood as a result. As for BC assessment decrease, without going into where I live my unit in the general neighbourhood also saw a similar decrease (not Lumina though).

I compared several properties in the neighborhood and found that most BC assessments increased. However, some older buildings saw minor decreases, but nothing like this listing. Additionally, I found online that this developer is clearly blacklisted. I wonder what will happen with Eclipse. I assume they have not sold enough units to get an occupancy permit, so they are taking their time finishing it, or they owe a bunch of contractors money.

[CondoInvestor]

Originally Posted by vanc

All of the Lumina buildings are total lemons and underpriced compared to the rest of the neighbourhood as a result. As for BC assessment decrease, without going into where I live my unit in the general neighbourhood also saw a similar decrease (not Lumina though).

What are the issues with Lumina buildings?

[jasonpark]

Originally Posted by CondoInvestor

What are the issues with Lumina buildings?

Search up the google reviews for "thind properties". There are some crazy horror stories. Units are smaller than advertised, HVAC not working after 4 years, party room still under constructions 2 years after moving in etc etc

[SpongeG]

is that why the Thind development in Surrey seems to be going nowhere?