337 & 339 Keary Street

Project update, August 2022: At its August 29, 2022 meeting, New Westminster City Council gave First, Second and Third Readings and approved the Rezoning and Development Permit Applications for 337 and 339 Keary Street. Click here to view the Council meeting recordings from August 29, and click here to read the Council package and all public correspondence received.

July 2022: This rezoning application was initially put before Council for a waived public hearing on May 9, 2022. It received Third Reading on May 30, 2022. The City in June 2022 realized that it has made an administrative error in the timing of the Council readings due to changes in the Local Government Act. To correct this error, the City is repealing all three readings of the bylaw and beginning a new Council approval process. This process will correct the administrative error. No changes have been made to the content of the zoning bylaw, or the proposed project. Given this, the City is not requiring the applicant to complete any additional steps in the rezoning process, as all required steps were completed previously.

New notifications were mailed to properties in the immediate vicinity, and published in the New West Record newspaper.

What's being proposed?

Rezoning and development permit applications have been received for 337 and 339 Keary Street. A total of nine side-by-side, ground-oriented residential units are proposed across two buildings, with an overall Floor Space Ratio (FSR) of 1.00. All of the proposed units would be family-friendly, containing three-bedrooms, and stratified. The development proposes 10 off-street parking spaces in accordance with Zoning Bylaw requirements. Long-term bicycle storage would be provided for each unit, as well as four short-term bicycle spaces, as per policy expectations. This project is consistent with the Official Community Plan land use designation for the site (Residential – Ground Oriented Infill Housing).

A Preliminary Application Review for this project was completed on November 12, 2020 and the applicant has incorporated the majority of this feedback into their proposed design.

The applicants hosted a virtual Open House with a live Q&A session on February 7, 2022 and written feedback was accepted until February 14, 2022. Based on the feedback received, the applicants worked with the City to revise their drawings to reflect the community’s comments. Click here to view the revised architectural drawings and click here to view the landscape drawings of the proposed residential units . You can also review drawings of the original proposal here.

How can I engage?

City-led consultation on the revised plan was held from March 22 to April 12, 2022. The addition of City-led consultation to the review process is intended to offer enhanced opportunity for public participation before the project is finalized and presented to Council. This staff-led consultation can potentially take the place of the Public Hearing.

On May 9, 2022 Council gave First and Second Reading to the Zoning Amendment Bylaw and, as the project is consistent with the Official Community Plan, has waived the Public Hearing. Council gave Third Reading of this Bylaw on May 30, 2022.

The final staff report to Council included a summary of the feedback received during both the applicant and City-led consultation processes, as well as any feedback submitted directly to staff during the project review process. You can view this report by clicking here.

There have been multiple opportunities for the public to provide feedback through the application review process. The review process was iterative and revisions were considered, based on engagement feedback, throughout the process. The process involved applicant-led consultation, and City-led engagement, prior to being presented to Council for approval.

Applicant-led Engagement: Findings
Options for comment through the applicant-led engagement included email, mail and a survey. A Virtual Open House was held on February 7, 2022 through Zoom. The feedback has been reviewed by staff and will be made publicly available in the forthcoming report to Council (not yet scheduled).

What We Heard
During the applicant-led consultation, survey feedback indicated that the majority of respondents support the overall project (88%). The majority of community feedback focused on the following:

• Support for more housing choices in Sapperton;
• Support for tree retention;
• Concern about additional density; and,
• Concern about increased traffic and on-street parking.

Applicant Response and Revisions
In response to consultation feedback, the applicant has made changes to their proposal in the following key areas which are considered to address feedback received:

• Moved the short-term bike parking stalls towards the rear of the site, to reduce potential theft;
• Added non-glare, low lighting across the site to increase resident safety;
• Added additional landscape details to increase separation between the townhouses and neighbouring properties.