March 12th, 2024

At Council on January 29th, a report was received on an ‘Interim Development Review Strategy’ in response to the new provincial housing legislation released at the end of 2023.

A ‘New Provincial Housing Legislation’ webpage has also been established, which will be updated on a regular basis as new information is available.

The following policies outline the key aspects of the Interim Development Review Framework, which will be applied to all development applications in New Westminster as of the date that the relevant legislation received royal ascent or as otherwise noted in this framework, and until such time as fully realized regulations and policies are put into place.

Public Hearings and Notification

• Public Hearings will not be held for rezoning bylaws that are consistent with the Official Community Plan;

Transit Oriented Areas (TOAs)

• The City’s Development Review policy for development applications within TOAs will apply to Columbia Station and New Westminster Station as of November 30th, 2023. They will apply to Braid Station, Sapperton Station, and 22nd Street Station as of June 30th, 2024;
• There are four streams of development applications within Transit Oriented Areas:
  • For applications developed under existing zoning, these applications proceed directly to Development Permit/Building Permit as they do currently;
  • For applications which require rezoning and are consistent with the property’s Official Community Plan designation, these applications proceed under the current policy context with two possible sub-streams:
    • Stratified developments which trigger amenity charges and inclusionary housing requirements; or
    • 100% rental projects for which amenity charges and inclusionary housing requirements do not apply;
  • For applications which require rezoning and are not consistent with the property’s Official Community Plan designation, but are permitted by the TOA legislation, these applications proceed under the following conditions:
    • The area is not currently under active review (e.g. land use or infrastructure review); and
    • The project proposes to rezone to rental only zoning with a registered housing agreement; and
    • Other community benefits are proposed, possibly including affordable units;
  • For applications which are inconsistent with both the OCP and TOA, per current practice, the City will continue to consider amendments to the Official Community Plan on a case-by-case basis, when a compelling argument can be made and appropriate benefits aligned with Council policy and priorities can be provided.
• Residential minimum parking space requirements are not in effect within TOAs as of the effective date but remain encouraged. Developments that wish to reduce parking below current bylaw standards will still be required to supply Transportation Demand Management measures in-line with current practice and expectations from Transportation Planning, including the possibility of cash-in-lieu. All other parking regulations, standards and policies continue to apply including, but not limited to: size and configuration of stalls, loading, non-residential parking, accessible stalls, and residential parking requirements outside of TOAs. Other requirements which are based on a ratio of parking provided (i.e. accessible stalls) will continue to be determined based on the current by-law, even if less overall parking is provided.

Transition to Fixed Rates

• The City will be moving away from negotiating Voluntary Amenity Charges (VACs) on a case-by-case basis and be moving primarily towards fixed rates which will likely be a combination of DCCs, ACCs and Density Bonus. Projects using fixed rates will not require a pro forma review;
• Development applications must proceed under one of two categories, as determined by where they are at in the development review process as of January 29th, 2024:
  • Existing applications, for which negotiations are already underway and progressing for a VAC or in-kind amenity, must continue under the negotiated approach; 
  • Existing applications, which are not proposing an in-kind amenity or which have not yet initiated substantial VAC negotiations, as well as new applications for OCP compliant residential developments, will be subject to fixed rate charges, as yet to be determined;
• Developers of new projects may propose in-kind amenities but will need to await the fixed rates to run the appropriate financial analysis on the value of the amenity. OCP Amendments, as well as larger and/or unique projects, will still require an in-depth evaluation which may require a pro forma review to evaluate amenities and benefits proposed.

More information, including Design Guidelines, Tenant Relocation, Rental Replacement, and other City policy expectations can be found in the full report by City staff.