Burnaby public hearing on multiplex changes

City of Burnaby public hearing agenda, Monday November 24, 2025.

Last night Burnaby held a public hearing on amendments to the R1 multiplex zoning, reducing the height allowed by right from four storeys to three storeys, reducing the maximum site coverage from 45% to 40%, reducing the maximum height of a building at the rear of the lot, and increasing parking requirements.

I grew up in central Burnaby, close to Burnaby City Hall, but until last night I’d never actually been there.

It was packed. There were lots of people opposed to multiplexes, period. There were also quite a few builders, and people wanting to build their own multiplexes, saying that they were okay with reducing it from four storeys to three, but cutting the site coverage from 45% to 40% would be too restrictive, and that the restrictions on the rear building were also unreasonable.

Seems to me that people often complain about high-rises and shoebox condos, but then they also complain about “monster houses” and “monstrosities.” You can’t make housing that’s bigger on the inside and smaller on the outside.

What I said:

Thank you for serving on council. I understand that it’s difficult to find a reasonable compromise between allowing enough floor space to make badly needed housing viable, and keeping the backlash from becoming overwhelming.

Younger people are being crushed and driven out because housing is so scarce and expensive. This is bad for everyone, including older homeowners, because we all depend on the healthcare system. If younger people can’t afford to live here, hospitals will have trouble finding nurses and even doctors, and the healthcare system will be under increasing strain.

In the last couple of years, a combination of more supply and weaker demand has resulted in unsold inventory and declining prices and rents. Affordability is improving … a little bit. But the pipeline of new high-rise projects is drying up. The problem is that costs act as a floor on prices. To keep building and keep pushing down prices, we need to bring down costs.

I’m sorry to see that Burnaby is retreating from allowing four storeys by right to allowing only three storeys on a single lot. This does have a cost. Under the current by-law, my understanding is that the cost of land is $200 per buildable square foot of floor space. By reducing the allowable square footage by one third, the amendments increase the cost of land by $100 per square foot. For a 1000 square foot home, that’s an additional cost of $100,000.

Thank you.

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