The union plans to develop a multi-use building, located on Palm Avenue, with 292 units of housing. At least 50 per cent of those units are expected to be at below-market affordable rates.
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Burnaby has approved an affordable housing project by one of BC’s biggest unions near the Royal Oak SkyTrain Station.
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The BC General Employees Union says the plan is to develop a multi-use building, located on Palm Avenue, with 292 units of housing. At least 50 per cent of those units are expected to be at below-market affordable rates. The BCGEU also plans a 49-space childcare center and new office space for the union in the development.
“Our union has been working on this project for more than two years,” said BCGEU president Stephanie Smith in a statement Tuesday, adding Monday’s vote is “a major milestone that brings us one step closer to making our project a reality.”
Smith said the project stemmed from concerns that housing costs are far outpacing wage increases labor unions can bargain for, and BCGEU members have passed multiple convention resolutions calling for their union to take action on housing affordability.
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The chosen location near the Royal Oak SkyTrain Station aligns with Burnaby’s 2019 Mayor’s Task Force on Community Housing recommendations, which called for density around SkyTrain.
Affordable rents will be commensurate with working-class wages, with the highest monthly rental cost for affordable units being 80 per cent of market rates for the local area, according to the union.
It’s an unusual project for a union to take on, and one the union’s treasurer, Paul Finch, has called a potential “game-changer.”
Generally, when a municipal council reasons a property to allow a developer to build something bigger than existing zoning allows, that increases the value of the land, an uplift that also allows developers to turn a profit while providing public benefits such as low-income housing .
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Finch earlier told Postmedia News that the union is acting as a developer and they plan to take that “significant value uplift” and, instead of putting it into profit margins, use it to produce more affordable rental homes.
“I want to be clear here: we’re going to come out in the black on this project,” Finch said. “The BCGEU is not going to subsidize these affordable rents — the affordable rents are being created by the land lift from the up-zoning.”
The BCGEU bought up five lots along Palm Avenue one block from the Royal Oak SkyTrain Station, between December 2019 and February 2020 for a combined $20.6 million.
— With files from Dan Fumano
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