B.C. ombudsperson to look into Burnaby rezoning, civic party says

A Burnaby civic party says the B.C. ombudsperson will investigate Burnaby's rezoning practices due to allegations the city didn't go through proper procedures before allowing condo towers to be built near SkyTrain stations.

The Burnaby First Coalitionfiled the complaint, alleging the City of Burnaby never went through the proper consultation process required under the Local Government Act before rezoning for more density in 2010.

"There was a notice in the newspaper about that text amendment. The notice said: 'The purpose of this zoning bylaw text amendment is to provide a supplementary community benefit bonus policy within the city's designated town centres,'" Burnaby First chair Helen Ward told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn.

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"It doesn't even mention the word 'density.' They omitted that word in that little notice they gave. Nobody attended that public hearing;nobody submitted anything the public was not aware of what that meant."

Ward says any additional population growth should occur at all of Burnaby's SkyTrain stations, not just a select few. She also accused the city of favouring developers' need to build new projects over the proper consultation processes.

'Every confidence' proper procedures followed

For his part, Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan says the city did everything by the books.

He says the Burnaby First Coalition is simply trying to re-hash issues from the last municipal elections, in which he says this sort of development was an issue.

The Burnaby First Coalition unsuccessfully ran against Corrigan's dominant Burnaby Citizen's Association in that election, failing to take the mayorship, any seats on council or the board of school trustees.

"I think they're trying to reinvigorate the people they ran with and this application to the ombudsman is a way for them to restate positions they made earlier," Corrigan said.

Corrigan says city staff found Burnaby to be more conservative than neighbouring cities when it comes to building height, and it makes sense to further densify near SkyTrain stations.

He disputes the characterization of zoning amendments being done quietly, saying they were reported on by the media and followed all proper legal procedures.

He says he's not concerned about the ombudsperson's investigation and has "every confidence" the investigation will exonerate the city.

With files from Kamil Karamali CBC Radio One's On The Coast

To hear the full interview with Helen Ward, click the audio labelled:B.C. Ombudsperson to look into Burnaby rezoning and added density