Maple Ridge Council refers family friendly housing policy back to staff 

Maple Ridge won’t be going forward with a family friendly housing policy — for now.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, council referred the policy back to staff, saying they weren’t comfortable with delegating a minimum percentage of three-bedroom units in apartment complexes.

“I don’t see this as our role, really, to be this far in interfering — and I call it interfering — in what developers want to build,”  said Coun. Ahmed Yousef.

Between 2020 and 2024, three-bedroom units made up three per cent of new units in the city. The housing needs reports predicts Maple Ridge needs that percentage to be at 31 per cent as the city continues to grow.

At a committee of the whole meeting on April 15, staff presented its family friendly housing policy to council, recommending that new apartments and mixed-use residential developments with more than 10 dwelling units have a minimum percentage of multi-bedroom units.

However, Yousef and other councilors said they thought the market should regulate the supply.

“They are the ones that are in the market, and they provide a product that is sold on the free market. And if they see that this is a desired product, they will build it,” Yousef said. 

The report suggested 40 per cent of the units in a new building should have at least two-bedrooms and at least ten percent of units have three-bedrooms or more.

Staff’s reasoning was that there’s currently an oversupply of studio and one bedroom units, and that there’s a trend to smaller and smaller units.

Apartments, if left to the market, tend to produce more studios, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units which are more profitable for developers. Buyers tend to be willing to pay more for townhouses with an extra bedroom, even if mortgage payments are higher than it would be in a condo, according to the report. 

But according to Maple Ridge’s housing needs report published last year, there is an “urgent need” to address affordable housing options for current and future families in Maple Ridge.

Since 2011, the cost of homeownership has increased by about 250 per cent on average, and monthly rents by about 89 per cent. Average household median income has only increased by 36 per cent. 

“It is true, our housing needs report shows that  we are going to have to move towards more three bedroom apartments,” said Coun. Korleen Carreras. 

“I don’t want to end the conversation. I just want to explore the conversation a little bit more,” she said.

Councillors noted that they had heard from local developers who were concerned with the 10 per cent minimum, given that three-bedroom condos are less profitable.

“It’s one thing to encourage three bedroom units, and it’s another thing to say you must do 10 percent based on your application,” said Coun. Judy Dueck.  “The market will determine if that’s feasible or not.”

Coun. Jenny Tan said that she wanted staff to consider incentives for developers to build three bedrooms.

Several Metro Vancouver cities have taken on family-friendly housing policies with 10 per cent three bedroom minimums, including Coquitlam, North Vancouver, Port Moody and Vancouver.

Staff will now review the minimum requirements and explore possible incentives.