Over 13,000 rental homes currently in progress in Coquitlam

Coquitlam City Centre (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)

The City of Coquitlam is making inroads with catalyzing more secured purpose-built rental housing, with over 13,000 units now in the pipeline.

This includes 2,225 rental homes currently under construction, including 445 below-market units, and over 11,000 rental homes in various stages of the municipal government’s development application process, including 2,000 below-market units, as of December 2023.

In 2023, 274 new rental homes reached completion, which brings Coquitlam’s rental housing completion total to 980 units since late 2015, including 400 below-market units.

You might also like:

In a report this month, the municipal government states these various figures are catalyzed by the City’s Housing Affordability Strategy, which was enacted by Coquitlam City Council in late 2015.

But the municipal government believes the provincial government’s new legislation relating to increasing housing supply and improving affordability could hinder the City’s momentum to date, suggesting negative impacts are possible.

The City of Coquitlam is amongst a number of Metro Vancouver municipal jurisdictions that have expressed concerns about the province’s legislation relating to introducing new gentle density to single-family neighbourhoods, and transit-oriented development (TOD).

Coquitlam City Centre has three SkyTrain stations — Coquitlam Central, Lincoln, and Lafarge Lake-Douglas — which each represented a legislated TOD area. But it also has four other legislated TOD areas due to the 800-metre-wide TOD circles of Port Moody’s two SkyTrain stations — Moody Centre and Inlet Centre — crossing over the municipal border into Coquitlam, and the TOD circles of SkyTrain’s Burquitlam and Lougheed Town Centre stations.

In total, Coquitlam has seven legislated TOD areas due to seven SkyTrain stations within or near its jurisdiction.

Transit-oriented development area for SkyTrain Coquitlam Central Station. (Government of BC)

Transit-oriented development area for SkyTrain Lincoln Station. (Government of BC)

Transit-oriented development area for SkyTrain Lafarge Lake-Douglas Station. (Government of BC)

Transit-oriented development area for SkyTrain Inlet Centre Station. (Government of BC)

Transit-oriented development area for SkyTrain Moody Centre Station. (Government of BC)

Transit-oriented development area for SkyTrain Burquitlam Station. (Government of BC)

Transit-oriented development area for SkyTrain Lougheed Town Centre Station. (Government of BC)

The municipal government is concerned the new provincial policies will have an unintended impact on the City’s Density Bonus Program, which provides developers with extra density for their building developments in exchange for higher fee payments that go towards supporting the City’s costs of improving and building new amenities and infrastructure.

The new provincial legislation also introduces the new Amenity Cost Charge (ACCs), which overhauls existing municipal Community Amenity Contributions (CACs) policies in favour of providing developers with a more clear and upfront framework for determining such contributions by developers.

As well, the Density Bonus Program also supports new affordable housing projects funded by the City. In February 2024, the City put on hold any further disbursements from its Affordable Housing Reserve Fund, which is fed by density bonuses, until a replacement funding source is determined.

Additionally, the City is worried that various new legislation will prompt developers to pause their shovel-ready development applications in order to pursue higher-density options.

Furthermore, the municipal government states that over the coming year through 2025, it will be redirecting “significant” City staff resources away from other initiatives and projects towards amending its bylaws and policies to align with new provincial legislation and the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund.

The provincial government is providing municipal governments and regional districts across BC with one-time funding to help cover their staffing costs of changing their bylaws and policies to align with legislation, including $879,000 for the City of Coquitlam.

The federal government has also awarded the City of Coquitlam with $25 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund, which is forecast to help fast-track over 2,800 new homes over 10 years, including more than 650 new homes within the next three years.

Some of Coquitlam’s most significant upcoming transit-oriented developments with a substantial secured purpose-built rental housing component include Marcon Developments and Quadreal Property Group’s proposal to redevelop an 11.6-acre site next to SkyTrain Coquitlam Central Station into nine towers up to 60 storeys with 4,000 homes, including 1,000 rental homes.

TransLink is also in the early stages of planning a major high-density, mixed-use development of its nine-acre park-and-ride facility and bus loop serving Coquitlam Central Station. It is expected to include a substantial rental housing component.

And near SkyTrain Inlet Centre Station, Wesgroup Properties’ 11.3-acre Coronation Park redevelopment will generate over 2,800 homes, including nearly 800 rental homes.

tricity central marcon quadreal property group 2954-2976 Pheasant Street 2960-2968 Christmas Way 2950 Lougheed Highway coquitlam

2022 artistic rendering of the TriCity Central redevelopment in Coquitlam. (Marcon Development/Quadreal Property Group/Perkins & Will)

coronation heights coquitlam polygon homes november 2022

November 2022 artistic rendering of the revised design for Polygon Homes’ Coronation Heights project in Coquitlam, with Wesgroup Properties’ separate Coronation Park project in Port Moody also depicted. (Polygon Homes)

You might also like: