April 7th Council Notes: Metro Vancouver, Cannabis, and BC Builds Public Hearing

On Monday, Langley City Council held an afternoon Council meeting followed by a public hearing.

At the Council meeting, Councillor Albrecht was reappointed as the Langley City Director for the Metro Vancouver Regional District Board.

We also received a presentation from the BC Chapter of the Canadian Medical Cannabis Partners. This group is looking to set up a medically supervised pilot program to switch people from fentanyl and other opioids to cannabis to reduce health risks. They asked Langley City to consider supporting a pilot program. Council will consider this request as part of our upcoming strategic planning, potentially asking staff to explore the feasibility of a pilot program in our community.

The public hearing was for a proposed 6-storey BC Builds rental mixed-use project at 49th and 200th. You can read more about this provincially-supported project in a previous post. A significant part of the project is that it will have 60 units priced at 20% below Langley City market rents. These 60 units include 15 studios, 30 one-bedroom, 12 two-bedroom, and three three-bedroom units.

Around 150~160 people attend the public hearing, with about 30 people providing verbal or written feedback at the public hearing.

The top concern expressed at the public hearing was the impact on traffic, especially along 50th Avenue. This proposed project would have primary access from the Grade Crescent/200th Street intersection and secondary access from 50th Avenue. Another common concern was the height of the building.

Other concerns expressed included environmental protection considerations, impact on neighbouring property value, impacts on the character of the neighbourhood, and schools and hospital capacity.

I also noted a lot of concern and confusion around the role of the church, the province, and the City in this proposed project. The province will provide financing, the church will provide land, and the City will sell land below market value for the project if approved. The church's non-profit housing society would own the building with a mortgage. All rent money (commercial and residential) would have to be used to pay down the building's mortgage and maintain the building. The church would get a new auditorium/meeting space (shown as Congregation/Sanctuary on the building drawings) in the proposed project.

I didn't cover all the feedback but wanted to highlight some top themes.

Council considers all feedback received at the public hearing and written responses received before the close of the public hearing as part of its overall determination of whether to give third reading to amend the Official Community Plan and rezoning bylaws to enable the construction of this proposed project. After the public hearing, Council cannot receive or consider further feedback on the proposed project. This process is standard for all local governments in BC.

Council plans to consider the third reading of the bylaws for this proposed project on April 28th.

Single Use Items: Progress Being Made. Cups Still a Challenge.

There is an effort to reduce the number of single-use items we use throughout Canada. Some of these reduction are a result of government regulations and some consumer action. People in Metro Vancouver have shown leadership in reducing the amount of single-use items. So, how have we been doing?

The Metro Vancouver Regional District tracks the amount of single-use items that make it into the waste stream. The following table shows the latest data.

Single-Use Items in Metro Vancouver's Waste Stream from 2018 to 2023. Source: Metro Vancouver

What stands out is a reduction in absolute terms in using single-use shopping bags, straws, and utensils. The per capita use of single-use containers is steady, but due to population growth, absolute numbers are growing. Unfortunately, the use of single-use cups is skyrocketing.

One of the easier ways to reduce single-use cups is by having "for here" cups by default at restaurants and cafes instead of the default being "to go." For example, two international coffee chains have "for here" cups, but you must ask for them in person; otherwise, you get a "to go" cup by default.

We've made much progress in reducing single-use items, which is good, as many make their way into our natural areas. We still have work to do.

Langley City and the Updated Metro Vancouver Housing Data Book

The Metro Vancouver Regional District recently released an update to its Housing Data Book, which provides a wide range of statistics about housing in our region. I wanted to look at some of the updated data.

Langley City continued to punch above its weight regarding BC Housing's non-market (subsidized) housing. BC Housing funds 6.3% of the total housing units in Langley City. Only the City of Vancouver has a higher percentage at 7.6%.

BC Housing Non-Market Housing Units (2024) as Percentage of Total Dwellings (2021 Census), Metro Vancouver

Looking further into the data, Langley and Delta have seen the fastest growth in people on the BC Housing registry. The number of non-market housing units likely needs to double region-wide, including in Langley, to help reduce the waitlist.

Growth of the BC Housing Registry (2020 to 2024) and Total Households

There is also below-market rental housing, which isn't funded by BC Housing and isn't reflected in this data.

Another interesting statistic is that Langley City has the most urban redevelopment profile of any municipality in Metro Vancouver. 98% of housing units built between 2020 and 2024 were apartments or townhomes/rowhomes. Langley City lags behind other municipalities with the construction of new purpose-built rental housing.

Multi-Unit Housing Starts as Percentage of Total Housing Starts, 2020 to 2024 (Five-Year Average), Metro Vancouver

For more information, please look at the Metro Vancouver Housing Data Book.

DASH - A Regional Approach to Speeding Up Housing Construction

Langley City is one of 11 municipalities partnering with the Metro Vancouver Regional District on its DASH - Digitally Accelerated Standardized Housing project, which is looking at ways to speed up housing construction in Metro Vancouver.

The DASH Program transformation. Selection the image to enlarge.

The initiative has three primary areas of focus to speed up housing construction: rezoning processes, municipal regulations, and off-site (modular) construction.

The first area they prepared a report on was municipal regulations. They found that all 11 municipalities that are participating have slightly different regulations when it comes to zoning that would accommodate a simple six-storey apartment building. Standardizing these regulations would enable more straightforward off-site construction, reducing design complexity and cost while increasing speed.

The proposed zoning regulation changes are simple, for example, looking at standardized heights and setbacks.

The report also looks at standardized development permit regulations, which include pedestrian access, landscaping, exterior design, building cladding, and amenity areas.

As a region, we have worked together to streamline processes such as inter-municipal business licensing and region-wide ride-hail services licensing. I'm confident we can also standardize zoning to enable off-site, modular construction of wood-frame apartments. I look forward to seeing further recommendations from the DASH project and working toward implementing these recommendations region-wide.

Please read the April 3rd Metro Vancouver Regional Planning Committee agenda for more information.