Every approval is a miniature political campaign
Everything requiring special approval by the city of Vancouver turns into a mini-referendum, complete with a miniature political campaign.
At a public hearing, 100 speakers is a very large number. At five minutes per speaker, it takes close to 10 hours to hear them all. But it’s useful to remember that in an actual election, 100 votes is not much.
To quote the MacPhail Report:
We recommend a stronger role for housing needs estimates and citywide official plans, which guide how entire communities are expected to grow. We also recommend reduced reliance on site-by-site public hearings and council approvals that delay homebuilding and amplify the voices of groups opposing new housing at the expense of citywide objectives and affordability.
I’m part of an informal but very active pro-housing crowd (we call ourselves the Vancouver Area Neighbours Association), with a lot of younger people and renters. When the opposition to a proposal is particularly fierce, we’ll show up to help counterbalance opponents. Our goal to remind council that we have a chronic and terrible housing shortage, so that they’re not just hearing from people who are most fearful and opposed to new housing.
I think it’s useful to do this - but it’s also useful to remember that this entire process is happening on a miniature scale.
It is vital for council to hear all points of view in order to come to a decision; vilifying those opposed or those concerned with a developement as NIMBYs is not helpful. In saying this, council needs to provide greater weight to the opinions of those most directly impacted (positively and negatively) and flooding a "hearing" with outside voices (again, on either side) is disingenous and, I would argue, harmful to the process.