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Transit Oriented Development Areas

There are five Transit Oriented Development Areas in New Westminster which are required by the Province to be designated in order to encourage more housing opportunities around transit hubs.

LOCATIONS

Transit oriented areas are defined as land within 800 meters of a SkyTrain station. There are five areas in New Westminster:

The new legislation from the Province requires these areas be designated for transit oriented development, in order to encourage additional housing to be created in well-connected places. Most of these areas in New Westminster are well on their way to meeting the Province’s form and density goals already.

DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

For detailed information on making a development application in one of New Westminster’s transit oriented areas see:

A designation does not mean that (re)development is allowed outright or that the site is ‘pre-zoned’ for construction. For many properties, a rezoning application will still be required. The new legislation does not change the existing rezoning process such as application fees or staff review. It also doesn’t remove the City’s ability to establish some conditions of approval for the application, like protection for existing tenants or infrastructure and servicing upgrades.

PROPERTY ELIGIBILITY

This new legislation applies only to properties already zoned for residential uses (housing). Any industrial or agricultural land is exempt from this transit oriented legislation. There may be other limitations to development on land in these areas; for example heritage protections, Federal Crown land, or flood plains, hazard and riparian areas, and other environmentally sensitive areas. Properties with these kinds of limitations may not be able to develop to the available densities or heights.

To view the TOD Area maps for New Westminster and determine your property's eligibility, visit CityViews, the City's interactive map viewer.

BUILDING HEIGHT AND DENSITY

In transit oriented areas, the Province has required the City to consider applications with the forms (building height) and densities (calculated with a floor space ratio) shown in the table below. Though, as noted above, local governments retain the ability to turn down applications for reasons other than height or density.

MINIMUM ALLOWABLE DENSITY AND HEIGHT

TOD Area Tier

Distance from Station (Metres)

Allowable Building Height (Storeys)

Allowable Density

(Floor-Space Ratio)

1

200 or less

Up to 20

Up to 5.0

2

200 – 400

Up to 12

Up to 4.0

3

400 – 800

Up to 8

Up to 3.0

It is important to understand that this level of development is still required to go through the rezoning process. A map illustrating the properties are included in each tier is below:

Parking

In transit oriented areas, the City can no longer require a developer or owner to supply a minimum number of vehicle parking spaces in a residential building. These areas are anticipated to be well-connected with transit and active transportation options like walking and cycling paths which are expected to reduce the need for personal vehicles. Some parking will still be required. For example: accessibility stalls and for bicycles. In other types of uses or buildings, like commercial (e.g. a retail store) and institutional (e.g. a school), parking requirements have not impacted.