Metro Vancouver is seeing a rise in developers seeking to build student-oriented residential buildings that are off-campus and not necessarily affiliated with a particular school.

Because such projects don’t fall neatly into residential or institutional categories, developers often have to ask municipalities to tweak zoning bylaws to allow for dormitory-style units that are smaller than what current bylaws allow — with mixed success.

The largest developer of purpose-built, student housing in Canada has spent the last year and a half working with the City of Burnaby on a rezoning application to turn a land assembly of 16 single-family lots into a massive student housing project near Simon Fraser University.

Toronto-based Forum Asset Management has a 3.7-acre site on Rathburn Drive at the

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