Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, yesterday voted against a proposed Variation to the Greystones Local Area Plan which proposed changing part of the zoning of the Burnaby from R3 to RE. The Greystones Plan was adopted in December 2006 and recognised part of the Burnaby as an Architectural Conservation Area (ACA). The area which was the subject of the proposed rezoning was outside of the Conservation Area.

“The existing zoning, R3, allows for a density of ten houses per hectare which is really in keeping with the character of the surrounding residential areas” says de Burca. “However, the proposed new RE zoning was much more open-ended and would have allowed for much higher densities, and possibly for high-density apartment developments” says de Burca.

The Green Party councillor pointed out that of the 130 public submissions that had been made to the council, 123 of these were opposed to changing the zoning. “In fact one really has to ask why we were changing a Development Plan that had only been adopted last December” she says. “The planners told us that the reason they had put forward this proposed rezoning is because they had been asked to do so by councillors. I am very surprised that local councillors would have tried to get this change through, as it appears that it would have facilitated only a small number of landowners who clearly were interested in developing high-density developments on their properties”.

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Press Release by Deirdre