Richmond city council seems to have closed a loophole that allowed rental properties to be converted into strata condos.
City council voted unanimously Monday to place a rental-only zoning on 60 Richmond properties that are already 100-per-cent rental.
But, as was clarified at Monday’s council meeting, without this zoning bylaw, a property owner could have rebuilt a same-sized building on these properties – which doesn’t require a rezoning application – stratified them and sold them as condos.
The “rental tenure” being placed on these 60 properties will stop that from happening.
Dana Westermark with Oris Development told the planning committee last week the economics of rebuilding a rental and stratifying it and selling it doesn’t make sense economically.
He added that the bylaw was “a solution searching for a problem and there is no problem that requires a solution.”
City staff explained to council the bylaw – which passed first reading and will go to a public hearing - is stronger than the policy that the city had before to retain rental-only properties.
Joe Erceg, director of planning and development with the city, gave an example of one of the 60 properties in question that developers were trying to rebuild on, asking to keep the same number of rentals but convert the rest of the property into market condos.
This had been going on for six years with four different developers trying to redevelop the property.
Finally, as city staff had rejected all of the condo plans based on the rental policy, a plan was developed to turn the property from a 50-unit rental property to a 270-unit rental property.
This proposal will come to council in the near future.
Erceg told council the policy that was in place before to keep rental-only zoning was often viewed by developers as “negotiable.”
But the bylaw, affecting these 60 properties, Erceg explained, was more “defensible” and stronger at stopping condo development on rental properties.
Having this clear bylaw will also save city staff time in the redevelopment process, Erceg said.
When this bylaw was first before city council in 2019, there was an outcry from the developer community, after which the planning committee asked city staff to consult with them.
Erceg said, at last week's planning meeting, the “theme” of the feedback was condo developers should be part of the solution, but that would mean reversing or eroding the rental-only policy.
“The stakeholders didn’t comment on the merit of what was being proposed, they were actually trying to undo policy that’s been in place for a long time,” Erceg said.
