Town Centre Design Standards

Four distinct town centre characters, one coherent vision

You may have noticed wide sidewalks, striking public art, colourful rain gardens and comfortable seating areas appearing around the Brentwood, Edmonds, Lougheed and Metrotown town centres. These improvements and others are the result of our Town Centre Standards and will become increasingly common as new development is completed in Burnaby’s four town centres. Our Town Centre Standards are adding to the livability and sustainability of our neighbourhoods and streets.

Creating centres in our town

The origin of design standards for Burnaby's town centres was council’s adoption of the Supplementary Community Benefit Bonus Density Policy in 2010. This policy calls for additional community amenities to support and service residents and businesses within the town centres with the goal of enhancing the livability of the city and its town centres.

The standards have been developed specifically for complex streetscapes in the four town centres and a few streets outside the town centres. The standards are intended to integrate pedestrian, cyclist, transit and driving networks with sustainable storm water, urban forestry, street lighting, public art and place-making functions for accessible, complete and resilient streets.

Each town centre will be build upon a common set of design principles and design guidelines–but each will also strengthen its own identity through use of subtle variations such as unique hardscape colour palette.