Based on my own speculation, I think that Burnaby may have more land available for employment development but it definitely does not have the job
density that the COV has (nor do I think it is part of their plans). In fact, IIRC, Burnaby has more land set aside for light industrial uses which typically takes up more land than Offices and Retail centers. And that is taking into consideration that forms of high density industrial uses will start to become more predominant in the Metro region.
My speculative conclusion here is that even though Burnaby has more developable land geared towards the creation of employment opportunities, that the job densities offered in those areas will be outpaced by the COV and Surrey in the long term. I'm not saying it is a bad thing either as the region will
need these kinds of land uses to support the region; I just don't think that more developable land = more jobs when I take into consideration what types of employment that will be offered in these spaces.
I know that you said in the long term but it will be a long, long time before the focus of the Metro region shifts away from the COV though. And even then, I doubt it would shift to Burnaby.
The COV is unmatched at this time when it comes to creating jobs. The second highest employment center in the province of BC is on Broadway Street in Vancouver (after downtown Vancouver) and now it is getting a Skytrain extension built right under it. Plus areas like
Mt. Pleasant in the COV are definitely ramping up their own densities when it comes to employment centres.
It will be a long time before Burnaby can catch up and offer the employment opportunities that the COV does. And even then those employment opportunities will look different as I am sure that the competition for employment centers will come from Surrey in a big way.
It also seems to me that Burnaby doesn't have as much political momentum as Surrey when it comes to bringing jobs to their municipal area since most of its development seems to focus on residential with very small office/retail mixed portions of these developments; this is considering that there are some pockets of employment centres sprinkled throughout Burnaby (with some more industrial uses) on the way but I honestly think that
Surrey will start to overtake Burnaby in the near future when it comes to job creation since its plans for the future are more ambitious and robust than say developing town centres focused on residential components with small portions of retail/office mixed uses.
Agreed.
I just see a lack of political momentum from Burnaby to
really take advantage of this geographical location in the Metro region. I would think that with the larger land availability, the highway infrastructure, and the access to North America's 3rd largest port (Port of Vancouver), and access to some of the region's best transit infrastructure that Burnaby would be happy to race towards developing multiple diverse job creation centers.
But alas, we just don't see it in Burnaby and they quite frankly seem happy to continue developing residential focused town centers serving as the region's bedroom community even though they could be a lot more ambitious with developing office towers, Tech hubs, or light industrial centers
.
Btw, I feel that this kind of intra-regional competition is actually a very good thing for Metro Vancouver overall but Burnaby is a little behind when it comes to developing an ambitious long-term development plan.
And don't get me started on the missing middle SFH issue.
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