Burnaby's SkyTrain towers a housing model for Vancouver: Mayor Ken Sim

Burnaby's SkyTrain towers are a housing model for Vancouver: Mayor Ken Sim

The Burnaby Metrotown skyline from the lounge at Cineplex VIP Cinemas Brentwood at The Amazing Brentwood. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

If Vancouver is to address its housing affordability and supply issues, part of the solution is to look at what its neighbour Burnaby is doing, specifically next to its SkyTrain stations, according to Mayor Ken Sim.

Amongst the seven key strategies outlined in today’s press conference to address Vancouver’s housing crisis is high-density, transit-oriented developments next to SkyTrain stations that are currently surrounded by low-density developments. The strategies will be formally presented by Sim through a member motion next week.

“TransLink is a world-class transit system, and SkyTrain stations are the envy of many. Yet there’s a lack of homes surrounding them — not one, not two, but multiple stations in our city,” said Sim.

“We only need to look at Burnaby, that’s right Burnaby… We’re looking at Burnaby as a role model, they’re doing a lot of great things. They’ve been able to successfully marry densification and homes around their SkyTrain stations. So when we think about it, it makes a lot of sense. More homes surrounding SkyTrain stations means a smaller carbon footprint for people that live near the area. It also means a more interconnected city.”

You might also like:

Transit-oriented developments adjacent to SkyTrain stations in Metro Vancouver’s suburban municipalities are increasingly known for having a far larger scale through density and added tower-based height than what is found around SkyTrain stations within Vancouver.

Burnaby’s town centres of Brentwood and Lougheed and its main downtown area of Metrotown — all served by SkyTrain stations — will be the future sites of Metro Vancouver’s tallest buildings, with each future tower taller than Living Shangri-La in downtown Vancouver. In fact, the Gilmore Place II tower adjacent to Gilmore Station in the Brentwood district has reached a stage of construction progress where it is now Metro Vancouver’s new tallest building and effectively BC’s new tallest.

This represents the start of a highly unusual pattern where the tallest buildings in a major metropolitan area are located in suburban municipalities instead of in the region’s core city.

gilmore place burnaby construction october 5 2023

Construction progress on the first phase of Gilmore Place in Burnaby’s Brentwood Town Centre, as of October 5, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Construction progress on the first phase of Gilmore Place, as of October 5, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Along the Central Broadway corridor anchored by future subway stations of SkyTrain’s Millennium Line Broadway Extension, taller tower-based developments of up to about 40 storeys will only be permitted near the area of South Granville Station (intersection of Granville and Broadway streets) where there are no protected mountain view cone impacts. Height restrictions are lower near other future stations to the east due to a combination of view cones and the helicopter flight path for Vancouver General Hospital.

Sim also criticized the mid-rise buildings at King Edward Station, where buildings in the immediate area around the station are limited to up to six storeys in accordance with the Cambie Corridor Plan, with the exception of the eight-storey building built directly above the subway station entrance building.

“At the end of the day, we need more housing. We look at King Edward… seven or eight storeys on the northwest corner of that street above Canada Line. It seems quite ridiculous, and so that’s a lost opportunity,” said Sim.

“If we can build vibrant neighbourhoods with a mix of all different housing, we have to utilize our infrastructure, or else it’s not going to work.”

Canada Line Cambie Star King Edward Station

The eight-storey Cambie Star building atop the King Edward Station entrance building is the tallest building permitted around this subway station under the Cambie Corridor Plan. (Google Maps)

ABC City Councillor Mike Klassen added that while Burnaby is one potential example, he sees the possibility of replicating the tower-based developments around Vancouver’s Joyce-Collingwood Station — where there is a cluster of towers generally roughly up to 35 storeys in height — for Vancouver’s SkyTrain stations with under-built areas.

Sim’s member motion will specifically aim to catalyze new high-density rezoning in the targeted underdeveloped SkyTrain-adjacent areas of Nanaimo Station and 29th Avenue Station on the Expo Line, and Renfrew Station and Rupert Station on the Millennium Line.

Nanaimo and 29th Avenue stations, built in the 1980s, are amongst SkyTrain original stations, but their transit-oriented development potential is currently highly limited due to existing sewer and water supply infrastructure limitations, according to Klassen. In a previous interview with Daily Hive Urbanized, a lead City planner also shared the underground infrastructure capacity limitations around both stations were a major obstacle requiring significant reinvestment for expansion.

A developer has already floated the potential proposal concept for a handful of towers up to 36 storeys immediately adjacent to Nanaimo Station.

Transit-oriented development concept for SkyTrain Nanaimo Station in Vancouver. (submitted)

For Renfrew and Rupert stations, the City is currently conducting an area planning process for the Renfrew and Rupert station area to identify more housing and employment opportunities. This area planning process is similar to the Broadway Plan, with the Renfrew and Rupert Station Area Plan expected to be finalized by City Council in 2024 after public consultation.

But there are some limitations with the immediate area around Renfrew and Rupert stations, as this is a protected industrial zone by Metro Vancouver Regional District and within the Still Creek flood plain. However, the regional district’s recently approved Metro 2050 Plan prescribes the consideration of transit-oriented, mixed-use development for industrial areas that surround SkyTrain stations, given that many SkyTrain stations across the region are located within traditional industrial zones. The regional district prescribes a possible combination of residential uses above industrial and commercial uses for such sites.

renfrew rupert station skytrain area plan

Existing employment and industrial land uses within the area plan for SkyTrain Renfrew and Rupert stations. (City of Vancouver)

The future tallest towers adjacent to SkyTrain stations outside downtown Vancouver entail the 52-storey, 100% secured rental housing tower at the Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) redevelopment next to Oakridge-41st Avenue Station, and the 39-storey, mixed-use tower with rental housing directly above the future South Granville Station entrance (the current tallest building in the pipeline within the Broadway Plan area). Both towers are now in the process of rising in the city’s landscape.

The proposal for the Safeway redevelopment next to Commercial-Broadway Station — one of the region’s busiest SkyTrain stations and a principal transit hub — has also been revised to achieve towers up 38 storeys. This is up from the previous tallest building of 29 storeys.

Immediately adjacent to the future Arbutus Station entrance building, TransLink has partnered with a developer on a proposal to build a 30-storey rental housing tower.

oakridge park oakridge centre mall 2022 rendering

2022 artistic rendering of the revised design of the Oakridge Park (Oakridge Centre) redevelopment. (Westbank)

1477 west broadway vancouver south granville station tower pci developments

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

Safeway Broadway Commercial 1780 East Broadway Vancouver September 2022

Artistic rendering of the September 2022 revised concept for the Broadway Commercial Safeway redevelopment at 1780 East Broadway, Vancouver. (Perkins&Will/Westbank/Crombie REIT)

You might also like: