(Note: CityHallWatch welcomes comments and analysis regarding the Final Report — at bottom of this web page or by e-mail to citizenYVR [at] gmail.com.) Vote in The Province poll online:
http://blogs.theprovince.com/2012/09/26/editorial-dense-and-denser-rule-at-vision-vancouvers-city-hall/
The FINAL Report of the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability was made public today (today (Sept 26) when posted online under the agenda for the Regular Council meeting starting at 9:30 am on Tuesday, October 2, 2012.
http://former.vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20121002/regu20121002ag.htm
(See link for instructions on requesting to speak, probably on the morning of Oct 3 at the Planning, Transportation and Environment Committee meeting. You may also write to mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca, or directly to individual Councillors. And let the media know what you think.)
Download report in PDF format (2.2 MB): Mayor Task Force Housing Affordability Final Report 25-Sept-2012
On September 25, 2012, Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver wrote Mayor and Council yesterday urging Council to receive the report for information only, and NOT to immediately adopt the recommendations.
http://nsvancouver.ca/nsv-news
The public will have had only three full working days from the posting of this report until Council is to discuss and decide on it. Even the Vancouver City Planning Commission, the City’s advisory body on development issues, did not have access to the report until today.
Here are the key recommendations by City Manager.
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT Council receive the final report from the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing
Affordability (Bold Ideas Towards an Affordable City), including the results of
the re:THINK HOUSING competition and the web-based Place Speak survey
attached as Appendix B, and thank the members of the Task Force for their
work.
B. THAT Council direct staff to implement the action plan in Appendix A, including
immediate action to undertake a business plan and feasibility study for a City
Housing Authority.
C. THAT Council direct staff to begin immediate implementation of Action 1,
providing an interim rezoning policy that allows for consideration of rezoning
applications immediately in certain specific existing residential or mixed use
areas (not industrial, office or mixed employment areas) as outlined in 1.2
below.
Here are the Terms of Reference of the Task Force.
HousingAffordability-CouncilMotion-2011-12 Terms of Reference
Official website for the Task Force:
http://vancouver.ca/your-government/mayors-task-force-on-housing-affordability.aspx
Selected media coverage:
http://www.theprovince.com/business/Dense+denser+rule+Vision+city+hall/7306743/story.html#ixzz27gEGwIr8
(critical editorial on densification)- CBC Radio interview (Stephen Quinn interviewing Vancouver Councillor Geoff Meggs, 7 minutes)
http://www.cbc.ca/video/player.html?clipid=2284249450&position=325&site=cbc.news.ca
http://www.theprovince.com/business/Affordable+housing+means+greater+density+says+mayor/7303697/story.html
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Vancouver+considers+immediate+development+thin+streets+boost+housing+affordability/7303613/story.html
http://www.straight.com/article-788571/vancouver/thin-streets-city-housing-authority-among-actions-recommended-vancouver-mayors-task-force
http://www.vancourier.com/news/Vancouver+housing+task+force+prescribes+fundamental+changes/7303488/story.html
http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/384335/thin-streets-and-below-market-housing-pitched-by-vancouver-task-force/
http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/local/2012/09/26/20236806.html
http://www.openfile.ca/vancouver/blog/2012/vancouver-consider-%E2%80%9Cimmediate%E2%80%9D-actions-boost-affordable-housing-stock
(decent analysis)
And to put things into perspective, watch this video of newly elected Vision Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson in December 2008, slamming EcoDensity and thanking supporters for helping him get elected to fight EcoDensity. But the Mayor’s Task Force recommendations in 2012 are for Super-EcoDensity, couched in language about “affordability.”
I think the thin streets idea is good, but perhaps the options should be examined. Is more homes the best idea or perhaps a way to have street gardens to take advantage of a need to increase the cities food production.
I see a great need for mixed use neighbourhoods where housing and shopping could be integrated. Another option might be taking the centre of the street for housing, small businesses (markets, coffee shops, etc) with only a lane width for car traffic and a path on the other side for foot traffic.
The list goes on but more housing may not be the best option for the thin street idea.
Does this mean 3-storey buildings half a block long (or longer!) will be built smack in the middle of thousands of family homes, gardens and blooming boulevards – places where community-minded people have worked for many years building people-friendly neighbourhoods? (And with City encouragement to build and beautify clean, safe, beautiful communities.) Can you imagine having a 35-foot “stacked condo” building rising straight up beside your home? Now imagine one on either side!! Total shade, no sun, there goes the gardens folks have spent a lifetime building up. These things would dwarf most trees in the ‘hood, not to mention more noise, litter, traffic. And the personal becomes impersonal as 20 or 30 more cars roar out of the concrete parking lots beneath, rushing off through formerly quiet lanes and streets. All-in-all, this strikes me as a Community-Destroying idea and runs counter to the spirit of Neighbourhood Plans endorsed by the City and citizens of Vancouver.
It is patently ludicrous to strike a “Task Force on Housing Affordability” without ever defining affordability. The specific meaning of this term must be spelled out EXPLICITLY and this meaning EXPLICITLY shown as a measurable benchmark outcome of every adopted recommendation of the Task Force. To do anything otherwise is a rank farce, and a waste of taxpayer money, City resources, and citizen consultation time.
The common definition of affordability is here: http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/corp/faq/faq_002.cfm#5.
Starting with this definition, The Task Force should have focussed on issues specific to Vancouver, especially the City’s low median household income in comparison with average income, the extreme range of income disparity that contributes directly to homelessness, its lack of any effective industrial or jobs policy and poor recent performance thereto, and the City’s own failure–in comparison will ALL other large OECD cities–to further develop its own housing stock, owned an operated by the City to support both its residents and the City treasury.