Quote:
Originally Posted by seamusmcduff
It's one of the few things I liked about Burnabys zoning/policy. I haven't worked with them for a while, but from what I recall there are a lot of areas where density can essentially stack.
Like a site may allow for 4 Residential FAR, 2 Office FAR, and 1 Hotel FAR. You couldnt ever get 7 FAR of only Residential, but if you chose to maximize each of those uses you could potentially get 7 FAR total. I believe its how they got a decent amount of Office into the Solo district.
If a developer has a choice between Office or Hotel and residential density, they're almost always going to choose residential. But if the density for the Office/Hotel is essentially a free bonus, there's a better chance that it will be added to the project.
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It's kind of similar in the CBD in Vancouver, but these days only where there's also heritage preservation as well. The difference is that the base commercial zoning has to be built as commercial space before the residential can be added. So Shangri-La has the hotel, and the preservation of the Coastal Church, and there's an office building underneath both TheJameson and the Residences at Hotel Georgia. It was how the early version of The Post was able to have residential too.
The downside of the policy is that before the rules were tightened under the Metro Core Employment Plan, some developers were just building the residential, with maybe a token retail unit. The same is true in Burnaby, many projects are leaving the commercial space unbuilt, or with a modest amount, rather than putting in hotel or office space, although that seems to have changed with several recent projects. Once it's a strata tower, it probably won't see a commercial potential added, (except if it becomes a hotel, as Onni are proposing on Seymour Street).
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