A protest held outside of Burnaby City Hall on Tuesday night didn’t change the mind of Councillors to rezone land near Metrotown.
Stop Demovictions Burnaby is raising its voice over city council agreeing to zoning changes that could force out tenants of three apartment buildings.
Organizer Zoe Luba says this is just the latest attempt to gentrify the neighbourhood and the group is looking to take their protests up a notch.
“To push for mass civil disobedience in the form of refusing eviction orders when those eviction notices start being pushed through over the next couple of years. So it just means upping our tactics. Deaf ears means you just have to yell louder.”
Luba says 64 units in three buildings on Sussex Avenue could be demolished for a new condo tower.
READ MORE: City of Burnaby approves controversial Metrotown development plan
Luba says once they get eviction notices, tenants will have nowhere to go.
“The displaced residents are going to have the option of moving back into the new development but they won’t have anywhere to go in the meantime. The tenant support worker who’s working with them – but from talking to tenants in the building, someone has already been told, ‘we don’t have any replacement housing for you.'”
She says this is the first zoning change since the Metrotown Downtown Plan was passed by council earlier this year.
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan has yet to respond to Global News’ request for comment.
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