VANCOUVER — Two Metro Vancouver municipalities are rethinking plans to build community centres because new provincial rules limit their ability to get developers to pay for civic amenities through the rezoning process.
On Monday night, Burnaby city council was to consider a staff report that recommends a $215 million expansion of the Confederation Park Community Centre be put on hold due to a lack of funding, even as the city readies for construction to begin this fall.
“Design of this project is complete and the work has been tendered in preparation for construction to begin this fall,” reads the report. “However, due to recent changes in legislation, there is now insufficient funding … to proceed with the project.”
The problem, say staff, lies in new provincial rules for bonus density and community amenity charges. These charges have long helped build community infrastructure such as libraries, youth facilities and community centres.
Introduced in November, the law requires municipalities and developers to follow a formula for determining the fees on housing and commercial construction that would go towards community amenities in the neighbourhood surrounding that project. Previously, these fees were negotiated on a case-by-case basis, which the province says often caused lengthy delays and additional costs for developers.
Burnaby staff say the changes also limit the use of amenity fees to new projects or the new part of projects, and not upgrading or replacing existing facilities or the existing part of an expanded facility. For the Confederation Park Community Centre, staff said that means a $31.2 million funding gap that might have to be paid for directly by city taxpayers.
Another challenge is that the fee process set by the province is so new that there is very little money available for Burnaby to use on the project.
“As this funding program is new, no ACC funding has been collected to date to fund this growth portion,” said staff. “The timing of the collections of these funds are uncertain.”
If the community centre project goes ahead, staff warn it could force a 1.19 per cent property-tax increase.
Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said the province has already provided Burnaby with $29 million for community amenities, and pointed out that the city’s own 2023 annual report showed it only raised a little over $62 million in amenities funding, well below their $237 million target.
He said this occurred before the provincial legislation came into force, meaning the budget shortfall is not the province’s fault.
“They were already underperforming for how much money they thought they were going to get,” he said. “So I certainly hope that fact gets shared by staff to council, and we’re going to continue to work with Burnaby to ensure that they have the ability to build critically important amenities.”
Richard Stewart, the mayor of Coquitlam, said Monday that his council is also having to re-evaluate some of its planned projects because of the “convoluted” nature of the new rules.
One of those projects is the $147.9 million Northeast Community Centre on Burke Mountain, which Stewart said was relying on amenities funding.
“It was absolutely counting on the development funding, which was pretty secure under the old system, and it’s almost impossible to fathom how that’s going to take place through the new regime,” he said.
“We’re going to have to examine all of our capital projects — fire halls, sports fields, rec centres — because the new rules affect us so enormously. Coquitlam has always insisted that the cost of growth be funded by growth rather than by existing residents, and at this point, that’s no longer possible.”
Kahlon defended the new process by saying it will not preclude communities from raising money for infrastructure projects so long as they do it transparently. He said the whole point of the changes were to get projects built faster and at less cost.
“Communities need to identify the amenities that they want to build. They can figure out how much those amenities will cost, and they can set fees accordingly,” he said.
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