UniverCity is designed to be a compact, mixed-use and transit-oriented community founded on our Four Cornerstones of Sustainability: Environment, Equity, Economy and Education.

The groundwork for UniverCity was laid in 1963, when Arthur Erickson and Geoff Massey submitted their initial plan for SFU. Complementing their vision for the mountain-top campus, their plan saw the new university anchoring a dense residential community. It took another 30 years before the implementation of this initial plan would begin with SFU agreeing to transfer more than 320 hectares of University-owned land to the City of Burnaby to more than double the size of the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area. In return, the city approved an Official Community Plan (OCP) in 1996, allowing SFU to begin development of a residential community, later named “UniverCity”.

The 1996 OCP envisions a dense, mixed-use community on approximately 65 hectares of land surrounding the SFU campus. It allows for up to 4,536 residential units in two distinct neighbourhoods to the south and east of SFU’s campus, each with its own elementary school and neighbourhood park. The OCP includes provisions for a commercial core, community facilities, and an extensive network of pedestrian paths and bike trails.

UniverCity is currently home to approximately 2,500 residents and is planned to accommodate more than 10,000 when fully built out.