AN OPEN LETTER REGARDING CONCESSIONS TO DEVELOPERS
Request For Investigation of Senior City Staff Members

Editor’s Note: With permission of the author, The West End Journal is sharing this formal Code of Conduct complaint, dated April 28, from Robert Renger to officials at the City of Vancouver.

**artists rendering of the proposed CURV development at 1075 nelson.**

This relates to city council’s decision in March 2025 to remove social housing requirements from the existing zoning for the proposed CURV apartment tower at 1075 Nelson Street, with the developer making a $55 million cash payment to the municipal government instead. The cash-in-lieu payment will be used to deliver social housing elsewhere, according to the city.

The letter was first published in City Hall Watch on the date it was issued.

(click images to enlarge)

This graphic from robert regner shows the key zoning changes (in red) approved by council this year. The text is an overview of the project’s original social housing component, as approved in 2020.

AN OPEN LETTER
by Robert Renger
2025 April 28

I am writing to complain of and ask for an investigation of contravention of (section) 7.3 of the City’s “Code of Conduct for All City Staff” by Josh White, General Manager, Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability and Director of Planning.

That section of the Code of Conduct states that “Staff are expected to: ... Provide Council officials with information sufficient to enable them to carry out their civic functions”.

**robert Renger. former senior development planner for the City of Burnaby.**

My complaint is regarding three specific omissions of basic fact and explanation (specified below) in the report “CD-1 (836) Text Amendment: 1075 Nelson Street (Formerly 1059-1083 Nelson Street)” dated January 21, 2025, to Council, from General Manager of Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability.

That was the report in which Mr. White recommended significant concessions from the existing zoning for the CURV apartment tower in return for a $55 million cash in lieu payment. Council approved his recommendations.

For your information, I also thought that a complaint to the professional planners institute would be appropriate, but that is not possible, because Mr. White is not a member of PIBC (Planning Institute of British Columbia) nor of APPI (Alberta Professional Planners Institute – which would have related to his previous position in Calgary).

**Josh White, City of vancouver General Manager, Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability and Director of Planning.**

Details of Complaint

Specifically, by not including and explaining the following three basic facts, Mr. White did not provide “information sufficient” to enable Council to evaluate the adequacy of the recommended $55 million payment in relation to the rezoning concessions:

The report did not state that the recommended $55 million payment in lieu of the provision of social housing did not include land cost, contrary to recently adopted Council policy.

The wording of the report actually led readers to believe that land cost was included: “Under the West End Rezoning Policy, the cash-in-lieu payment should reflect the costs the City of Vancouver may incur to deliver such social housing off-site, including land and construction, and is determined on a case-by-case basis through the rezoning process. Real Estate Services have reviewed this application and determined that the $55,000,000 is appropriate.”

Stating that land cost was not included, would have required a written explanation for this staff decision, on the record, which would have allowed Council to evaluate this staff decision.
The report did not clearly state that the same social housing in lieu of which a $55 million payment was now recommended, had been valued at $70 million in the 2020 rezoning report.
Clearly stating the fact of this change in valuation, would have made it necessary for staff to explain its decision that, after 5 years of inflation and rising construction costs, the social housing was now worth only $55 million, which is 21% less.

There is no certainty that staff would have been able to provide an explanation satisfactory to Council.
The report did not state that the rezoning granted the developer a 29% increase in market housing floor area, i.e. an additional 95,000 sq. ft.

Clearly stating the fact of this increase, would have necessitated providing information on any resulting increase in the value of the site, and a discussion of whether the City should get a share of any “land lift”.

Staff’s decision was obviously that no payment was required, but there is no certainty that Council would have accepted staff’s explanation for that decision if one had been provided.

To summarize, it appears that these three omissions were likely strategic, made for the purpose of avoiding difficult explanations and Council evaluation of significant negotiating decisions that had been made by staff in favour of the developer to the disbenefit of the public. The omissions severely limited Council’s ability to make its own informed decisions regarding the rezoning application.

This is clearly in contravention of (section) 7.3 of the City’s “Code of Conduct for All City Staff” which states that “Staff are expected to: … Provide Council officials with information sufficient to enable them to carry out their civic functions”.

Instead of providing the information outlined above, Mr. White’s report simply provided the bland statement: “Real Estate Services have reviewed this application and determined that the $55,000,000 is appropriate.”

A related issue is that the omissions in Mr. White’s report also limited public oversight and the ability of members of the public to raise questions and comment on these matters at the Public Hearing.

I look forward to receiving the results of your investigation, and would appreciate an early indication of when the results are expected.

Thank you,
Robert Renger

UPDATE: As The West End Journal launched this month’s issue Robert Renger received the following email from City Manager Paul Mochrie:

Mr. Renger,
I am writing to confirm receipt of your email and attached letter. We will review the substance of your complaint and take such further steps as required to ascertain any relevant facts. I am not in a position to estimate the timeline for any determination as to compliance/non-compliance with City policy.
Best,
Paul

Robert Renger is a former senior development planner for the City of Burnaby
and was the city’s lead for the planning and development of the UniverCity community at Simon Fraser University. See links to more articles by Renger for City Hall Watch here.