About this project
The City of Burnaby is developing a new community plan for the Royal Oak neighbourhood in southwest Burnaby. This plan will establish a vision and policy direction to guide the development of a unique and diverse Urban Village and shape how this area will redevelop over the mid to long term.
In addition to creating a thriving, centrally-located and complete Urban Village, the Royal Oak plan will lay out a range of opportunities for the area, including:
- new or enhanced public spaces, community services and amenities for residents
- an expanded mix of market and non-market housing options, including mid-rise, mixed-use and multifamily residences
- the accommodation of local growth and employment opportunities
- reinvestment as the existing building stock ages
- the shift to more sustainable forms of transportation (walking, transit, cycling)
- the enhancement of the natural environment
- building community resilience
- re-shaping and rethinking existing industrial uses
- a carbon neutral community by 2050
The neighbourhood is located in south Burnaby between the Metrotown downtown core to the northwest and Edmonds Town Centre to the southeast. The Royal Oak SkyTrain Station provides direct access along the Expo SkyTrain Line, and major routes such as Kingsway, Imperial Street, Gilley Avenue, Nelson Avenue and Royal Oak Avenue also play a significant role in providing access to and from the neighbourhood.
What's happening now
In January 2023, City Council endorsed the community planning process for the Royal Oak Urban Village Community Plan. In spring 2023, upon Council approval, Phase 1 public engagement will begin to introduce the community planning process and to gather input on the preliminary vision, goals and directions for the plan. Stay tuned for more information and the opportunity to share your thoughts on a future identity for the area.
Our goals
The development of the Royal Oak Urban Village Community Plan supports significant actions in This is Climate Action, a framework developed to guide how the City will put into action its commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050. Preliminary goals for the Community Plan will support housing, sustainability and resilience, strengthening links between local jobs, housing and transit, and advancing sustainable community design.
Ask a question
Read our questions and answers below to learn more about the community plan process. We will update the questions and answers based on the common themes from questions we receive prior to the start of Phase 1 in spring 2023.
If you have any questions or would like to provide a comment, please contact our project team at [email protected] or 604-294-7829.
Did you know? The City is also developing new community plans for the Edmonds Town Centre and Cascade Heights Urban Village neighbourhoods. Read more about the Edmonds Town Centre Plan. For more information on the Cascade Heights Plan, please contact [email protected].
Questions and answers
Community plans are documents that guide the mid- to long-term future development, growth, and change of a Burnaby neighbourhood, in alignment with the Regional Growth Strategy, the Official Community Plan, and other city-wide strategies and policies.
More recent community plans include policy direction for topics such as land use and development, sustainability, housing, community amenities and services, transportation and parks and public spaces that will help the community grow and thrive in a well-managed and strategic manner.
As we develop community plans, we consult extensively with the public including area property owners, residents and other community partners before presenting the final plans to City Council for consideration and adoption. Examples of recently adopted community plans in Burnaby include the Bainbridge Urban Village Community Plan (2022) and the Lochdale Urban Village Community Plan (2022).
As community and development needs change over time, Council may amend or update community plans. The Royal Oak Urban Village Community Plan was originally adopted in 1999. Since then, many priorities and directions have shifted at the neighbourhood level, city-wide and beyond–for example, around transportation, land use and development potential, housing needs, population growth, climate action and resiliency.
Royal Oak is a significant Urban Village neighbourhood in South Burnaby that is located close to the SkyTrain. A new community plan for this continually growing neighbourhood would take a renewed look at future policy direction in line with these shifting priorities and community needs.
City Council endorsed an introductory report at the January 23, 2023 Council meeting that briefly described the Royal Oak community planning process over the coming years. This process will involve several phases of public engagement before a final community plan is developed and presented to Council for consideration.
Public engagement for Phase 1 is anticipated to begin in spring 2023. At that time, we will provide information about the community planning process and invite the public to engage and learn more about the project. We will also be gathering feedback on the broad-level vision and concepts for the community plan moving forward, and input on whether the current plan area boundary should be revised or expanded.
Before we begin Phase 1 public engagement, we will share more information about how you can become actively involved and provide your input.
Once a community plan is adopted by Council, development does not necessarily begin immediately or in all areas of the neighbourhood in the short term.
If a property owner and/or developer is interested in redeveloping a property in line with the policy directions of the community plan, they are still required to submit a site-specific development application, which often includes opportunities for further public input and Council consideration (e.g. development rezoning application) prior to the redevelopment being approved. Further, community plans are meant to provide policy direction for land owners when they are interested in exploring options for their land, which is why growth and change in a community occurs incrementally over the long term.
In Burnaby, tenants are protected from displacement due to rezoning redevelopment through the City’s Tenant Assistance Policy (TAP). For more information, please see the Burnaby Tenant Assistance webpage.
We expect the new Royal Oak Urban Village Community Plan will include direction for the TAP to be applied to future redevelopments in the neighbourhood, where applicable, in order to protect existing residents during the redevelopment process.
Throughout the community planning process, we will work with Council and the community to ensure that the new Plan is directly aligned with the City’s recently-adopted or updated policies, priorities and strategies, as well as ongoing initiatives, including:
- Burnaby Official Community Plan Update (Burnaby 2050)
- Burnaby Housing Choices Program
- Burnaby’s HOME Strategy
- Burnaby’s Climate Action Framework
- Burnaby’s Tenant Assistance Policy
- Burnaby’s Transportation Plan
- Burnaby Urban Village Design Guidelines
- Burnaby Town Centre Standards
- Burnaby’s Economic Development Strategy
- Burnaby’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy
- Burnaby’s Social Sustainability Strategy
If you have general questions about the community planning process, please email us at [email protected] or call 604-294-7400. We will update the questions and answers based on common questions and comments we receive prior to the start of Phase 1 in spring 2023.