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ews & features

EDITOR CHANDLER WALTER

THE VOICE, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30,2016 7

ALYD LLEWELLYN photo

Rain gardens, eco-friendly ditch drainage systems, are being implemented in the four major town centres of Burnaby. These rain gardens sit near Brentwood town centre.

Rain gardens are now required to be installed by developers at chosen Burnaby locations

By ALYD LLEWELLYN

urnaby advocates who work to

protect the city’s water streams

say the city should be doing

more to help manage the de- structive effect water run-off is having on local streams and rivers.

Members of the Burnaby Stream- keepers, an organization made up of local residents who help maintain vari- ous streams around Burnaby, are con- cerned with the city’s current drainage system.

“All of this water comes off the road

and is not treated in any way so it car- ries all sorts of pollutants like copper, petrol products like gasoline, anti- freeze, stuff like that. This toxic spew that comes off the road is particularly harmful to salmon,” said Paul Cipy- wnyk, a Burnaby streamkeeper.

The streamkeepers met with City of Burnaby employees this fall to discuss the city’s plan to improve water filtra- tion.

The city’s main technical solution is a ditch drainage system referred to as rain gardens. A rain garden is a swale that runs alongside sidewalks and that

absorbs large quantities of water be- fore shipping it off through drainpipes.

Although the city is demanding that developers put in these kinds of drain- age systems in select locations, the city itself is refusing to do so on its own roads. Currently, rain gardens are only required in major redevelopments within the four main town centres of Burnaby. The costs for construction rest entirely with the development companies.

The city itself has yet to build any rain gardens of its own.

According to Mark Sloat, an environ-

mental planner for Burnaby, rain gar- dens are still new enough that the city has questions as to how well they’ll work in the long term.

“Municipalities know how to main- tain pipes and that traditional infra- structure, but more with the green in- frastructure, the plants and so on, there are questions on how to maintain it,” said Sloat.

Cipywnyk thinks that’s just an ex- cuse. “Other municipalities like Delta are putting in rain gardens left right and centre and they don’t seem to be having any trouble with that.”

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This toxic spew that comes off the road is particular- ly harmful to salmon

PAUL CIPYWNYK STREAMKEEPER

Start-ups roused by housing heat

In part two of this rental housing series, The Voice delves into responses to Vancouver’s hot market

By ALYSE KOTYK, BONNIE LEE LA MAD- ELEINE, CAITLIN O’FLANAGAN, EMELIE PEACOCK, CHELSEA POWRIE, JESSICA PURVER

ver’s near zero vacancy market, start-ups have emerged to bridge the gap between renters and landlords.

Biddwell, launched in September, is an eBay-style online platform facilitat- ing negotiations between renters and landlords. CEO Jordan Lewis created the company with renters in mind.

There are also services for people with tight schedules that will search for apartments with showings on week- ends. The tight market has created op- portunities to exploit time-strapped renters willing to pay more.

“Tenants are just at the whim of owners and companies. It’s really hard in low vacancy markets,” Lewis said. “Our goal is to just disrupt the normal rental marketplace and give room for negotiations and empowering tenants to have a part in that conversation.”

The site gives users the opportunity to create a “renter resume” that in- cludes their credit score, employment details, landlord references and other personal information. They can then use this to bid on rental housing and increase their chances of securing a

T help manage searches in Vancou-

rental through conditional bidding.

“Owners don’t want to put bad ten- ants in their properties because it’s ex- pensive. People know that a bad tenant can be extremely costly and we’ve seen it time and time again,” Lewis said.

When first launched, many criticized Biddwell for encouraging bidding wars, including Mayor Gregor Robertson. While Biddwell claims to facilitate a fair market value through tenant-land- lord negotiation, rental prices are high on the website; the average monthly rent for a one bedroom apartment in Vancouver at $2,120.

Another start-up in the rental mar- ket is Casalova. Initially launched in Toronto, Casalova expanded to Vancou- ver in January. The service aims to bring the entire rental process online, including signing a lease and paying deposits and rent.

“The problem with the current pro- cess is that it’s all conducted offline and everyone has their own way of doing it,” said Ray Taeeb, CEO and co-found- er of Casalova. “What we’ve done is that now you can finish that process in a matter of one or two days if both par- ties are engaged in the process.”

Vancouver has yet to see a purely tenant-focused start-up. Rental Dog, the app mapping all rental properties in Vancouver with current bylaw infrac- tions, was abandoned by its founders. Rent Logic, another data-driven solu- tion, is coming to Vancouver next year. Tested out in New York City, Rent Logic uses city data to give landlords grades from A to F and allows renters to see common issues in specific buildings.

LANDLORD resources

1 The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a national authority on housing, provides a step-by-step about the entire rental

process and steps landlords may encounter.

TENANT resources

1 The tenants.be.ca is a website maintained by the province that outlines concerns and tips at every stage of the rent agreement lifecycle.

2 The Condominium Homeowner's Association holds seminars and 2 TRAC, or the Tenants Resource & Advisory Centre, is a non-profit that provides an ombudsman service for renters, legal advice and outlines

forums about strata management.

3 PAMA, the Professional Association of Managing Agents, provides property managers with training, events and connections with other 3

professionals in this industry.

steps to take for a myriad of possible situations tenants may face from signing a lease to leaving the apartment.

Renters’ Advisory Committee, which is attached to city hall, is a commit-

tee that advises the city on issues and concerns facing renters in the

city.

Source: https://landlordbe.ca

Source: http://tenants.be.ca

Movers weigh in on rentals

Moving companies were asked by The Voice’s investigation team about renters in Vancouver

By ALYSE KOTYK, BONNIE LEE LA MAD- ELEINE, CAITLIN O’FLANAGAN, EMELIE PEACOCK, CHELSEA POWRIE, JESSICA PURVER

vestigation, the Voice surveyed

moving companies operating in Metro Vancouver to gauge whether the low va- cancy rate in the city had affect- ed moving trends.

None of the moving companies surveyed noticed a change in the volume of renters moving

|: connection to a rental housing in-

homes.

While the companies understood the rental market was tight, the com- panies were still moving many rent- ers.

“We do a lot of Vancouver, so people are still getting rentals,”

Peter Kohl, owner of Angel’s Mov- ing, said. “Like I know [the rental mar- ket] is really low but there is still avail- ability, right. People are moving all the time.”

Moving companies did, however, see a downturn in their business corre- sponding directly to the foreign home- buyer’s tax.

Renters and homeowners are moving fur- ther out of the city, according to all moving companies sur- veyed. Clients are moving to surrounding cities, some as far as Aggasiz, the Sunshine Coast and Whistler.

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I know [the rental market] is really low, but there is still availabil- ity, right. People are moving all the time

PETER KOHL

OWNER OF ANGEL'S MOVING