With two new extensions of the SkyTrain system getting underway and home prices at record highs in the Lower Mainland, the B.C. government is moving to make sure development density follows transit lines as quickly as possible.

Transportation Minister Rob Fleming introduced changes to B.C. law Tuesday that will allow a provincial agency to buy and develop land along transit corridors for more than just the lines and stations themselves. The authority is already being extended for the planned expansion of SkyTrain from Surrey to Langley and the Broadway subway extension in Vancouver, and Fleming said the amendments to the Transportation Act will make that authority permanent.

The Canada Line development from Richmond to Vancouver saw 鈥渕issed opportunities鈥� to densify development around SkyTrain stations, Fleming told reporters April 5 after introducing the changes in the B.C. legislature. Rapid-bus plans in Kelowna and other transit projects around B.C. can also benefit from the changes, he said.

鈥淚nstead of enriching speculators and being the last one involved, losing control of the development of affordable housing, this is designed to give us much more control and collaboration with local governments to enter into partnerships with the non-profit housing sector to have below-market projects being part of building a compact, complete transit-oriented development community, and to work with the private sector as well,鈥� Fleming said.

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tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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