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The City of Vancouver expects to collect $2.4 million in development cost levies or DCLs from a market rental project on Fraser Street.

Strand Development did not seek a DCL waiver, which it could have done in return for setting maximum starting rents.

This means that the company can charge whatever starting rents it wants for the 121 units it will develop on the west side of Fraser Street between East 22nd and 23rd avenues.

Other developers avail of such DCL exemptions, like the one doing a market rental at 708-796 Renfrew Street.

In that project, Bains Holding Group Inc. sought a DCL waiver of $1.2 million for two five-storey residential buildings with 73 rental housing units.

On June 11 this year, council approved the Renfrew Street project, with councillors Pete Fry and Jean Swanson voting in opposition.

Rents at the Bains Holding Group development start at $1,607 for studio units; $1,869, one bedroom; $2,457, two bedrooms; and $3,235, three bedrooms. The rents are effective on the day of the public hearing last June, and can be increased yearly until construction is complete.

On Fraser Street, Strand Development filed a rezoning application for a six-storey, mixed-use building. There will be commercial spaces on the ground level of the southern portion of the project.

“Vancouver has one of the lowest vacancy rates in Canada,” city planner Karen Hoese wrote in a report to council about the proposed development. “In fall 2018, the vacancy rate in the City was 0.8 per cent. That means only eight out of every 1,000 market rental units were empty and available for rent. A vacancy rate of three per cent is considered to be a balanced rental market.”

“The vacancy rate in the Fraserview neighbourhood was very low at 0.2 per cent,” Hoese continued.

The $2.4 million DCLs that the city anticipates to collect will be for the residential and commercial components of the project.

DCL exemptions are given only to the residential portion of mixed-use developments.

Strand Development’s rezoning application is scheduled for public hearing on Tuesday (July 9).