Solid breakdown of the disconnect betwen rhetoric and action. The irony of rejecting streamlining when red tape reduction was literally part of the campaign platform is pretty glaring. The point about non-profit projects already getting approved anyway makes the delay-plus-cost barrier seem more performative than substantive. If the stated goal is affordability but the mechanism to deliver it gets blocked, that's basically saying the goal doesn't actually matter.
While I don't always agree with ABC councillors decisions, this time they did the right thing. As someone who spent almost 10 years at CMHC approving social housing projects and has spent the last 40+ years building market and non market housing in both wood frame and concrete buildings the staff proposal was illl-conceived. Why?
This proposal was essentially rezoning over 33,500 properties for towers up to 20 storeys when many of these properties are nowhere near transit corridors. They are in the middle of low-scale residential areas.
Moreover, there wasn't a need to do this. First of all, given who is in greatest housing need, highrise buildings are the wrong building form. What's needed are low rise buildings that are not only more suitable in terms of design, but also overall cost per unit.
Furthermore, the key issue was how best to fast track worthy social housing projects. There are better ways to do this. As I said, this was using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Council made the right decision and I'm happy to further discuss if anyone is interested!
Is this not an argument to keep the 20th century gatekeeping policies (which surely contributed to unaffordability) intact? I think the "perfection is the enemy of the good" trope applies here.
There's a number of co-ops on land leased from the city. As the land leases expire and are renegotiated, the city will want much higher lease payments. One option is to redevelop co-op sites for higher density, and to keep them 100% co-op. Cardston Court, near Lougheed Mall, is an example of a high-rise co-op.
Requiring a rezoning is going to make such projects more expensive and difficult.
Solid breakdown of the disconnect betwen rhetoric and action. The irony of rejecting streamlining when red tape reduction was literally part of the campaign platform is pretty glaring. The point about non-profit projects already getting approved anyway makes the delay-plus-cost barrier seem more performative than substantive. If the stated goal is affordability but the mechanism to deliver it gets blocked, that's basically saying the goal doesn't actually matter.
While I don't always agree with ABC councillors decisions, this time they did the right thing. As someone who spent almost 10 years at CMHC approving social housing projects and has spent the last 40+ years building market and non market housing in both wood frame and concrete buildings the staff proposal was illl-conceived. Why?
This proposal was essentially rezoning over 33,500 properties for towers up to 20 storeys when many of these properties are nowhere near transit corridors. They are in the middle of low-scale residential areas.
Moreover, there wasn't a need to do this. First of all, given who is in greatest housing need, highrise buildings are the wrong building form. What's needed are low rise buildings that are not only more suitable in terms of design, but also overall cost per unit.
Furthermore, the key issue was how best to fast track worthy social housing projects. There are better ways to do this. As I said, this was using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Council made the right decision and I'm happy to further discuss if anyone is interested!
Is this not an argument to keep the 20th century gatekeeping policies (which surely contributed to unaffordability) intact? I think the "perfection is the enemy of the good" trope applies here.
This also affects co-op redevelopments.
There's a number of co-ops on land leased from the city. As the land leases expire and are renegotiated, the city will want much higher lease payments. One option is to redevelop co-op sites for higher density, and to keep them 100% co-op. Cardston Court, near Lougheed Mall, is an example of a high-rise co-op.
Requiring a rezoning is going to make such projects more expensive and difficult.
https://morehousing.ca/mva