Anne Kang, NDP MLA for Burnaby-Deer Lake says the 410-home project “will also offer indispensable community spaces to the neighbourhood.”
Two Burnaby MLAs have expressed their enthusiasm for a newly announced building project. MLAs Raj Chouhan and Anne Kang were responding to a proposed highrise in the Edmonds area which would be built on church land.
The province’s Ministry of Housing referred to several projects in a September 9 (updated September 12) statement:
These projects are part of a $19 billion housing investment by the B.C. government. Since 2017, the Province has nearly 80,000 homes that have been delivered or are underway, including nearly 1,400 homes in Langley and more than 3,700 homes in Burnaby.
The release commented specifically about the Burnaby project:
A rezoning proposal is also moving forward for approximately 430 units at 7135 Walker Ave. and 7244 Arcola St. in Burnaby, in a partnership between the BC Builds program [delivered by BC Housing] and The Neighbourhood Church, formerly known as Southside Community Church.
If approved by council, the planned 45-storey project would replace the Neighbourhood Church’s gathering space and replace it with a ministry hub program space, retail and arts centre with a theatre for community concerts and performances.
Full project details on 7135 Walker Ave. and 7244 Arcola St., including total project cost, BC Housing grants and financing through BC Builds, will be made public after the project has proceeded through the rezoning and financial approvals process. If approved, construction is anticipated to begin in late 2025.
The Neighbourhood Church in now multi-congregational, with its presence extending beyond Burnaby. While it began at the Edmonds location, it now has a campus in Surrey, as well as a storefront location in the Forest Grove area of Burnaby and a missional church in Sauk, Albania.
A September 9 article in Burnaby NOW covered the project:
The Neighbourhood Church offers services including a food pantry, neighbourhood table, an outreach centre, emergency weather response shelter and more.
Cam Roxburgh, team leader at the Neighbourhood Church, said the team understands the Edmonds neighbourhood’s needs and has dreamt of helping it flourish for 25 years.
“By partnering with BC Builds and the City of Burnaby, this dream is better than we’d imagined and will make a difference for generations to come,” Roxburgh said in the release.
“The housing is phenomenal, and the ministry space is so needed in our neighbourhood – finally, we’ll have space specifically designed with programming in mind and to serve people well.”
Construction on the project is anticipated to start in late 2025, if it receives council approval.
It appears that Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley will be inclined to support it, judging from his statement attached to the Ministry of Housing release:
The BC Builds program offers the city a significant boost to help address the significant housing needs in our community. Partnerships like this are key to creating homes so families can live and thrive in Burnaby. We’re proud to be working together with government, developers and our community to move projects like this forward.
Raj Chouhan, NDP MLA for Burnaby-Edmonds supports the project.
Provincial politicians from Burnaby are supportive:
- Raj Chouhan, MLA for Burnaby-Edmonds:
Through this collaboration with The Neighbourhood Church, over 400 middle-income earners, such as families and young working professionals, will soon be able to access quality housing with attainable rents within their budgets.
I look forward to seeing this development get underway, so people who call Burnaby home can continue to stay in the area they love and help make our community stronger and healthier.
- Anne Kang, MLA for Burnaby-Deer Lake:
This proposed 410-home project will not only offer middle-class families in Burnaby an affordable place to live where they can thrive but will also offer indispensable community spaces to the neighbourhood through a community auditorium and an arts centre.
By tapping into these partnerships through BC Builds, we’re ensuring that nurses, teachers and construction workers can afford to stay in the communities that they build up and support.
Cam Roxburgh leads Neighbourhood Church.
Cam Roxburgh prayed for the project as he introduced his September 15 sermon:
Lord, it feels like words are not enough to say thanks. How do we express it more deeply? You have done so much for us. There have been so many miracles, so many people who are, Lord, fighting fighting for us – and I guess even said better than that, fighting for you and for your cause.
This is your plan, this is your development and we bless you. We say thank you for Graycor, we say thank you for Martin and David as consultants. We say thank you for Lisa Helps from the province, who has been working on our behalf, and so caring and gracious to us. We say thanks for this announcement that happened on Monday and all that will come as a result.
He acknowledged that “At the same time Lord, we can’t help but say we’re a little bit afraid, we’re a little bit hesitant, we’re a little bit uncertain,” asking for strengthened faith and for protection in the face of any opposition.
And there are opponents. The BC Humanist Association (BCHA), for example, posted September 11 that “Secularists are calling on the Government of BC to reverse a recently announced partnership between BC Builds and a Burnaby church that opposes same-sex marriage.”
No mention of The Neighbourhood Church’s deep connection to its local community, its Neighbourhood H.U.B. (food pantry, neighbourhood table, outreach centre, emergency weather response) – or anything else for that matter. Actually, their goal is much broader than the particular focus of this release: “The BCHA has called on the government to ensure that public funds only support secular projects.”
There is also a Change.org petition, which seeks to “save Burnaby’s historic church,” a “beautifully designed Arts and Crafts landmark” created by J.P. Matheson and Son.