On Thursday the 15th of November, council voted on a motion put forward by the NPA’s Colleen Hardwick to rescind the previous council’s motion passed in September to blanket rezone all single-family lots in Vancouver for duplexes. It’s rare that I agree with motions put forward by the NPA; this is one of those rare…
Category: Planning
Support “shop local” when you “vote local”
With “for lease” signs popping up everywhere in Vancouver’s commercial districts, it’s become crystal clear just how difficult the situation is for our city’s small businesses. Online retail is part of the reason so many small businesses are closing shop. Many of us now find the convenience of shopping with our keyboards much preferable to…
View cone demolition – another nail in the coffin of affordable housing
Yesterday, Vision Vancouver approved the application for a tower adjacent to BC Place Stadium. The application is from BC Pavilion Corporation or PavCo, the provincial Crown corporation originally created to manage the Expo 86 site. The tower, one of three PavCo is proposing in total for the site, has created a lot of concern given…
Affordable rents: There’s a way, just no will
Over the last number of years, Vision Vancouver has been offering developers significant incentives in the form of waiving development cost levies or DCLs in return for a commitment from the developer to provide purpose-built rental housing. (See my June 29 blog on DCLs.) Unfortunately, this has not helped at all in addressing Vancouver’s housing…
Hurried “chainsaw massacre” of our city’s zoning
I don’t normally read the Vancouver Sun — it’s much too conservative for me. However, I was recently made aware of a great guest editorial by Elizabeth Murphy, a respected urbanist and former member of Vancouver’s planning department. Her op ed ran July 2 and is a must-read. Calling it a “chainsaw massacre”, she does…
Developers, their fair share — and real low-cost housing
Housing was all over the news this week, but three examples really speak to the usefulness of development cost levies in this regard — when they’re used for real affordable housing. I’ve long been critical of the City of Vancouver for its policy of waiving development cost levies or DCLs when a developer agrees to…
Put the right pressure in the right place for affordable housing
Housing in general and housing affordability in particular continue to grab attention in Vancouver. In the case of the development of Northeast False Creek, the City of Vancouver owns two blocks on Main Street near Chinatown and Hogan’s Alley that it expropriated in the ’60s for the Georgia Street viaducts. If ever there were a…