Canada needs to fix planning mismatch between housing and transit: study

Canada needs to fix the planning mismatch between housing and public transit: study

Artistic rendering of the 39-storey tower with rental housing, office, and retail uses integrated with the entrance of SkyTrain's future South Granville Station at 1477 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/PCI Developments)

There is much room for improvement to integrate housing and public transit infrastructure planning in Canada, including catalyzing more transit-oriented development opportunities, according to a newly released study by the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA).

“Currently, there is a mismatch between planning for housing and planning for transit. In Canada, these two are typically planned separately,” reads the study.

“The main problem with this approach is that it often results in new housing developments with little to no transit services, and/or new transit projects that do not come with additional residential density needed to increase ridership and maximize the investment in transit.”

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To help address these challenges, CUTA has outlined 17 recommendations to policymakers in an effort to help address the lack of integration in the planning considerations.

The recommendations will not only help generate much-needed housing supply, but the right type of housing supply for households to benefit from living in close proximity to affordable, car-light transportation options, and to help generate additional long-term ridership and new fare-driven revenue sources for financially struggling public transit authorities.

Vancouver’s Marine Gateway development integrated with SkyTrain Marine Drive Station. (Marine Gateway/Perkins&Will Vancouver)

“Given ongoing challenges with operating costs, any additional revenue to help pay for operating costs is important, especially in cases of new rapid transit infrastructure that may be more expensive to operate compared to the conventional bus services that they replace. New housing stock needs to be added near new transit stations so that transit agencies do not lose an opportunity to generate additional revenue to pay for those operating costs,” reads the study.

According to CUTA, public transit authorities should be provided with the ability to acquire not only the land to build new public transit infrastructure but also for housing when land values are still relatively affordable. This would deter speculation, which greatly increases the cost of the land especially when the new transit service, such as a subway or light rail transit, opens. The elevated land costs also encourage private developers to build expensive, market-rate housing as a measure to recoup the money they spend on acquiring the land.

Major headway was experienced on this front in British Columbia last year when the provincial government provided BC Transportation Financing Authority with the legal ability to acquire land next to public transit hubs to build more housing and community benefits — not just the land needed to achieve transportation infrastructure projects.

Also in 2022, TransLink launched its for-profit real estate development arm to build residential, commercial, or mixed-use developments near its public transit infrastructure through partnerships with the public and private sectors.

2096 West Broadway 2560 Arbutus Street Vancouver TransLink PCI rental tower Arbutus Station SkyTrain

Arbutus Street perspective; Artistic rendering of the rental tower at 2096 West Broadway and 2560 Arbutus Street next to the future SkyTrain Arbutus Station. (MCMP Architects/TransLink/PCI Developments)

Metro Vancouver’s public transit authority already has a handful of proposals underway, including a 9.3-acre redevelopment of its park-and-ride and bus loop at Coquitlam Central Station, which is served by both SkyTrain and the West Coast Express commuter rail. It also has a formal application to build a 30-storey rental housing tower next to SkyTrain’s future Arbutus Station, opening in 2026.

In September 2023, Ontario’s provincial government signalled to municipalities that they should integrate planning opportunities for housing and public transit to fund the design and construction of GO commuter rail stations.

CUTA specifically recommends building housing on park-and-ride lots, encouraging the construction of building developments directly above subway station building entrances and prioritizing rental housing for sites closest to transit hubs. This not only generates more ridership but also long-term ancillary revenue for public transit authorities.

“Despite the significant impact that transit projects have on urban development, transit agencies typically have limited input on housing decisions. There is an untapped opportunity for transit authorities to better illustrate how public transit can play a bigger role in shaping our cities to be more sustainable, affordable, and liveable,” states the study.

1477 west broadway vancouver south granville station tower pci developments

Artistic rendering of the tower concept above SkyTrain’s future South Granville Station at 1477 West Broadway, Vancouver. (Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership/PCI Developments)

SkyTrain King Edward Station’s entrance building integrated with the Cambie Star residential and retail building. (Jeremy Segal/W.T. Leung Architects)

Municipal governments are also to blame, states CUTA, as they are slow with rezoning land surrounding major investments in public transit infrastructure for added residential and job space density. For example, Vancouver’s municipal government has been criticized in the past for dragging its feet on finalizing the densification strategy of the Cambie Corridor Plan almost a full decade after the opening of the SkyTrain Canada Line.

“Sometimes this is intentional, as municipalities want to negotiate fees, concessions, or amenities from developers who apply to upzone. However, the result is that additional transit-adjacent housing supply is delayed by several years, and the transit agency misses an opportunity to generate additional ridership,” continues the study.

“Similarly, many local governments are financially incentivized to keep supply low so that land values remain high, which allows them to generate greater revenue from new developments.”

CUTA asserts municipalities not only need to enable density but also expedite the review and approval of transit-oriented development applications.

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