Unveiling changes aimed at increasing housing supply | Provincial Government
Dan Fumano: As both Vancouver and B.C. look to speed up housing, expect debate
Dan Fumano
The Vancouver Sun
Opinion: Changes proposed by both Vancouver and the province are “heading in the same direction,” says Vancouver housing official. They’re also likely to be controversial, especially at the civic level.
Photo showing a detached house in foreground, beside a multi-unit residential building, in Vancouver. The city is moving toward making it easier to build more of the four-storey units without complex zoning changes. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG
The governments of both Vancouver and B.C. are eyeing changes to speed up housing construction, moves sure to be criticized by some for going too fast and too far, while others will call them as timid half-measures.
“That’s exactly what we’ve heard: for some people, it’s anxiousness about change in their neighbourhoods. For other people, this is just an initial step that doesn’t go far enough,” said Dan Garrison, Vancouver’s assistant director of housing policy and regulation. “It’s one of the hardest balances to strike.”
Vancouver city council is set to make a final decision next week on significant changes, in the works for a few years, aimed at making it faster and less expensive to build rental housing. These include buildings up to six storeys high on busy arterial streets and — in what’s likely to be the more controversial piece — up to four storeys on side streets a block off arterials.
Meanwhile, the provincial government made its own announcement Tuesday, unveiling changes aimed at increasing housing supply, including dropping requirements for local governments to hold public hearings for zoning changes as long as they are consistent with official community plans.
While the B.C. NDP government’s announcement was welcomed by developers and non-profit housing executives, as well as the organization representing the province’s local governments, expect some residents to complain about the provincial government removing opportunities for public participation in decisions about their neighbourhoods.
The B.C. government has been recently trying new things to help — and sometimes push — local governments to approve more affordable housing more quickly. In one example this year, Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer observed Housing Minister David Eby was willing to assume “the political risk” of weighing in on a major local decision, endorsing a massive project proposed for Port Moody encompassing social, rental and market housing.
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Garrison said: “I think you’d have to have been living under a rock to be working in the planning world and housing world and not be aware that minister Eby and the provincial government generally are looking for ways to expedite the delivery of housing, and particularly affordable housing.”
The proposed amendments to B.C.’s Local Government Act will not affect the City of Vancouver, which is governed by a unique law, the Vancouver Charter.
But the changes proposed by both Vancouver and the province are “heading in the same direction,” Garrison said.
They can also be seen as part of a broader trend, including the national example from New Zealand, where the national government recently ordered an end to single-family zoning in its five biggest cities, a move many British Columbians noticed and some want to follow, Postmedia’s Derrick Penner reported this week .
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Rendering from the City of Vancouver showing what types of building densities could be allowed on single-family residential streets a block from arterial streets. Photo by City of Vancouver /PNG
Vancouver’s council will consider proposed changes that, in short, would make it easier to build six-storey mixed-use rental buildings on busy commercial streets (think Kingsway or West 4th Ave.) and four-to-six-storey rental buildings, depending on the level of affordability, on streets outside those commercial shopping areas (think areas dominated by detached houses on Arbutus Street between West 16th and King Edward Avenue, or along West Boulevard and East 41st Avenue).
The change most likely to draw the most opposition would be allowing four-storey apartment buildings, subject to a case-by-case decision from council, on side streets a block off certain arterials (40th and 42nd Avenues, for example).
For many Vancouver neighbourhoods, busy commercial streets are the only place to contemplate anything much bigger than a duplex or triplex. Of course, apartment buildings exist on quiet residential side streets in many other cities in the world, and in some Vancouver neighbourhoods, especially older ones.
So when council considers allowing four-storey rental buildings on certain side streets next week, they will certainly hear arguments about shadowing and neighbourhood character from homeowners in favour of preserving those blocks as they are.
Although the proposed changes include maximum building widths, heights and depths for the side streets, to prevent overly large buildings, there is still “a strong attachment to the house form” in many residential neighbourhoods, Garrison said.
But perspectives seem to be shifting on what neighbourhoods should look like, and the city has been hearing from a wider range of residents.
Edna Cho, a senior housing planner with the City of Vancouver, added: “We also did hear from a lot of people who want to see more change in the neighbourhood, that we go further.”
Cho said that since the COVID-19 pandemic has led to more online participation by the publics, the city has observed “a much younger and more diverse demographic” than the crowd in previous years, when in-person attendance was usually required to address council.
The 348-page report going to council next week includes a summary of three years of public engagement on the subject of encouraging more rental housing construction. Respondents expressed “equity concerns” about concentrating almost all apartment developments along busy streets with more noise and air pollution. The report says 82 per cent of survey respondents “supported policies to allow rental buildings in low-density areas close to arterials and commercial districts.”
Those findings might surprise some: If you sat through a lot of public hearings on housing — especially in past years, before online participation — you might be left with the impression almost everyone opposes these kinds of neighbourhood changes . But the people who show up at public hearings — who should be applauded for caring about their communities and participating in these processes — may not be representative of the entire neighbourhood population.
Research has found that members of neighbourhood associations, which often oppose development in cities like Vancouver, tend to be older homeowners who have lived in their homes for longer. Younger renters, for example, may have different priorities, but have traditionally been less likely to show up to council meetings.
At press time, only 11 people had registered to address Vancouver council next Tuesday about the proposed rental housing changes. Expect that number to increase in the coming days.
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