Dan Fumano: Vancouver multiplexes could mean more homes, but likely few rentals

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Vancouver’s proposal to enable what staff call “multiplexes” could soon enable new kinds of homes in many of the city’s lowest-density areas, but is unlikely to add many rental homes, council heard Thursday.

After years of discussing how to add so-called “missing middle” housing to residential neighbourhoods, the public hearing focused on a series of proposed zoning and bylaw amendments that could enable up to six strata units per lot, depending on size, or as many as eight secured rental homes.

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As of Thursday evening, council was still listening to members of the public speak in favour of or in opposition to the proposal, and it was not clear how soon a final decision might come.

Although the proposal allows for rental apartments, builders and city planners agree that, as it’s currently designed, it’s unlikely to produce many. They say that’s because rental projects just would not be financially viable as presented in this proposal — even after the federal government’s announcement Thursday about removing GST on new rental housing construction.

The home building industry has long called for the removal of GST on new rental construction, and the federal government said this move will mean more apartment buildings, student housing and senior’s residences are built.

“The GST news is good news,” said Bryn Davidson of Lanefab Design/Build, a Vancouver company specializing in laneway houses and duplexes. While this change will help rental projects in general, Davidson said he expects that the eight-unit rental projects allowed in Vancouver’s proposal will not be financially viable.

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“I do hope that some can get built as we really need more of that housing,” he said, but he expects the strata multiplexes will be more viable.

Davidson said the multiplex proposal is “a profoundly important step forward in terms of moving beyond the exclusionary ‘single family’ zoning that has defined city planning in Vancouver for a century.”

Monte Paulsen, whose company Climate Ready Buildings Group consults with developers, said rental multiplexes “are so far from pencilling for a commercial developer that it’s hard to imagine GST will close that gap.”

The city’s staff agreed. Responding to questions from council, city planner Graham Anderson said the city’s internal calculations suggest that if these three-storey multiplex proposals are approved, then “rental (units) would be a very minor part of the uptake.”

Anderson said the city’s analysis suggests that for market rental buildings to be viable in these neighbourhoods, they would need to be “apartment-scale buildings, generally, of five storeys and up.”

Helen Lui, a development manager who works on market and non-market housing in Vancouver, said that in general, removing GST will help rental developments, but she doesn’t expect that rental multiplexes will work.

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“Ultimately though, this policy won’t result in any real significant addition of units, rental or strata,” Lui told Postmedia.

“The issue is less whether it’s better for rental or strata, but more the fact that we’re spending a lot of time and resources on a policy that won’t make any real dents in terms of adding new housing.”

Lui addressed council to encourage support for the multiplex policy, although she expressed frustration that it didn’t go far enough.

The sentiment was echoed by several speakers who were disappointed that the plan was not ambitious or transformative enough to meet the scale of the housing shortage, especially rental housing.

Almost 60 people signed up to address council on the multiplex proposal, and of those who had spoken before the dinner break, most  encouraged council to approve the proposal, but noted it didn’t go far enough. Some speakers said they wanted to see mid-rise apartment buildings allowed everywhere.

Council also heard from opponents of the multiplex proposal — including residents who raised concerns about parking — and representatives of the  Vancouver Heritage Foundation, which expressed worry about older houses being demolished to be replaced with new multi-unit buildings.

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When the meeting recessed, council was still hearing from speakers. Debate over any amendments and a final decision was set to follow the speakers.

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