Mayor of Richmond BC: Vancouver Sun - April 13, 2024
Article of the Week April 21- 27, 2024 - Please share - See oakbaywatch.com
Note: This article should be of interest to Oak Bay residents as our municipality is also a Canadian highly ranked "livable" community.
Fourplexes a threat to Steveston?
The most desirable neighbourhood in Metro Vancouver is threatened by the provincial government's mass upzoning, says the mayor of Richmond.
Steveston, a historic township of about 6,000 people at the mouth of the Fraser River, came out on top when British Columbians were asked to name the “best neighbourhood” in Metro Vancouver out of 192 of communities.
But Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie is convinced the B.C. NDP'S decision to force municipalities to approve fourplexes to sixplexes on virtually all single-family lots in the province will have “a dramatic effect on the character of Steveston,” which is adjacent to a popular shopping village and fishing harbour.
“You will have many more people. You will have parking nightmares. You will have infrastructure challenges. You'll have no public hearings. It will dramatically affect not only the physical neighbourhood, it will affect the quality of life in the neighbourhood,” says Brodie.
The province's sweeping legislation, which Brodie and other mayors complain was rammed through without consultation, amounts to “vast overreach, of really historic proportions, without any controls,” he said.
The attractive, low-rise historic towns of Fort Langley and Ladner will also be harmed by the blanket upzoning of neighbourhoods, said Brodie.
Provincial Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon disagrees. If developers end up building sixplexes in Steveston, they will only go up gradually, he said. And, anyway, the neighbourhoods immediately adjacent to Steveston already have multi-unit complexes.
“They've already got townhomes in Steveston. I don't understand why a few single-family homes going to sixplexes would be a major change to the character of the community,” Kahlon said in an interview.
The Richmond mayor first raised alarms in February about Steveston when he said B.C.'S upzoning “will destroy a fine neighbourhood.”
That is when he was on a panel titled “Housing the Next Million British Columbians” at a Union of B.C. Municipalities conference, where officials said record population growth is a “massive problem” for housing in B.C.
Emphasizing Richmond has for decades approved dense housing projects in specific neighbourhoods, Brodie bemoaned how the province's broad new legislation does not require developers to provide off-street parking for sixplexes.
“On each lot, you're going to have up to six units. There are no parking minimums required. And because of the relatively small size and configuration of the lots in Steveston, for the most part there's no laneways. You're going to have a completely different neighbourhood than when you started.”
Brodie doesn't like imagining how low-density neighbourhoods, such as Steveston, which average 10 houses on one side of a typical block, could “end up having 60 residential units on that same one side of the block.”
For his part, Kahlon played down the parking conflict.
While the B.C. government waived the requirement for off-street parking as a “good thing,” to encourage people to use transit and lower the cost of a dwelling, Kahlon said the reality is most developers will provide parking anyway, because “they know the unit won't sell without a parking spot.”
Brodie, a lawyer who was elected to council in 1996 and as mayor in 2001, is not alone in his concerns. Many civic politicians and Metro planners appreciate the NDP'S attempt to push for more housing, particularly of the affordable kind, but still argue a “one-size-fits-all” approach is not the way to go.
Longtime Richmond councillor Chak Au is among those who worries that blanket upzoning could negatively change Steveston, which in 2020 won the popular vote in a CBC Radio contest, with locals saying it has a friendly, small-town feel unlike most Metro communities.
“Steveston's rich heritage, cultural diversity, vibrant fishery and agricultural activities could be jeopardized by ongoing over-development,” said Au.
Under the legislation, roughly 1,000 detached lots in Steveston are now zoned for sixplexes. That's because they are within 400 metres of a frequent-transit line on Seventh Avenue.
Even though the boundaries of the community of Steveston are often imagined more broadly, city staff draw Steveston township narrowly — as No. 1 Road to the east, Chatham Street to the south, Seventh to the west, and Steveston Highway to the north.
When Kahlon refers to how Steveston already has apartment blocks and townhouses, most of those complexes are east of No. 1 Rad or west of Seventh Avenue, which puts them just outside Steveston's official boundary.
Although some critics on social media have accused Brodie of being a NIMBY, an opponent of increased density, for trying to protect detached properties, he says Richmond has grown a significant amount since he was first on council.
“We've never been handcuffed by expectations of low density. We've always assumed growth. We've always taken our share,” Brodie said, referring to approving the construction of hundreds of medium-size apartment towers, condominium buildings and townhouse complexes.
The population of Richmond is now 230,000, he said, compared to 148,000 when he was first elected. Two out of three Richmond residents are immigrants or non-permanent residents.
“We encouraged rapid transit and transit networks. We want to build housing in those areas. So if someone wants a single-family home in a single-family area, what's wrong with that?”
For his part, Kahlon fully agrees Richmond has done its bit for density. And while Kahlon appreciates Richmond council “doesn't want another level of government pushing them to get more housing,” he argues the problem is that other mayors are telling him, “Everything is fine. Nothing needs to change. If you talk to people throughout Metro Vancouver, they'll tell you it's not fine. It's not affordable, and we don't have enough housing.”
That said, Brodie has been joined by Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley and others in saying upzoning will not lead to more affordable dwellings for Metro Vancouver, which last year Demographia ranked the third-most “unaffordable” region out of 94 when comparing mean household incomes to house prices.
Richmond's longest-serving mayor has learned that simply increasing housing supply does not reduce prices.
“In the past 10 years, the number of new residential units in Richmond has exceeded population growth by over 50 per cent,” says Brodie. “You would think that would make things less expensive. But during that same period the cost to buy a home in Richmond rose by 77 per cent. And incomes stayed roughly the same.”
Author:DOUGLAS TODD [email protected]
Oak Bay Watch Perspective
What is it that our Governments do not understand? As indicated in the article and confirmed by many credible authorities, more and more housing supply has not and will not lower the cost of housing. It is being built on expensive land by a for-profit development industry.
If senior government initiatives use up most of the municipal public owned land with housing, then what?
Reducing demand by reducing mass migration numbers and eliminating speculation would be much better, more successful, options. An option supported by many, including a Black Press letter to the editor - April 17, 2024:
"When so few people can afford to buy a house, a better plan is, first, to exclude every category of investor — from hedge funds to REITs to small independent rental market predators — from the housing market to prevent any more houses being rented at exorbitant rates ".
The Mayor's have not said , as reported by the BC Housing Minister, that "everything is fine". Many are saying the senior governments housing initiatives are unrealistic. They do not take into account all the negative impacts: on the infrastructure, the environment and, the high cost of the additional amenities and municipal services. The funding the Provincial and Federal Government provides to counteract these impacts has been described as, "a drop in the bucket".
There have been many valid criticisms of Canada’s Open Broader Immigration Policy. Not the least of which are the many abuses and failed objectives of the Immigration System.
As usual however, the Federal Government implanted their new immigration policy before addressing the existing abuses and inevitable impacts
Examples:
The Royal Bank of Canada and the Financial Post are also not saying, “things are fine”.
Royal Bank of Canada
A Growing Problem: How to align Canada’s immigration with the future economy
https://thoughtleadership.rbc.com/a-growing-problem-how-to-align-canadas-immigration-with-the-future-economy/
Impacts
A Growing Problem: How to align Canada’s immigration with the future economy
Immigration in Canada has accounted for all the growth in the labour force for well over a decade, but it’s still not enough to significantly offset the impact of an aging demographic or substantially reduce the structural shortages in the jobs market.
A big reason for this is that the skill sets that many immigrants bring to Canada and the study fields of international students do not match well with the anticipated longer-term structural needs of the economy. This impairs the prospects for newcomers and, more broadly, the economy.
Right now, the immigration system may be focusing too much on the labour market’s short-term demands, filling holes in sectors where low-skilled occupations have been experiencing acute shortages since the pandemic.
This has led to a surge in non-permanent residents, a strain on housing and social services, and eroded public support for immigration.
Financial Post
Canada’s immigration system isn’t living up to its potential. Here’s how to fix it
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/ravi-jain-fix-immigration-system-to-unleash-full-potential-of-newcomers
Abuses
The number of international student applicants, however, are rising every year, with government forecasts estimating that Canada will receive 1.4 million applicants in 2027.
But this system has been exploited. There have been reports of poor educational quality with some colleges overenrolling and others holding classes in strip malls or movie theatres. This often happens when students enroll at a private collage partnering with a public college, with the latter issuing the diploma.
These colleges are on the federal government’s approved list for student visa issuance, but some graduates are not even eligible to apply for coveted work permits upon graduation, unlike those who attend public institutions. The federal government should therefore prevent student visa issuance in these scenarios.
Fraud and negligence are rampant among some registered consultants in Canada, as well as their non-registered counterparts in India. For instance, it was reported this summer that 700 students from India faced deportation after it was found that they were accepted to come to Canada on fake admission letters. The problem needs to be solved.
The most desirable neighbourhood in Metro Vancouver is threatened by the provincial government's mass upzoning, says the mayor of Richmond.
Steveston, a historic township of about 6,000 people at the mouth of the Fraser River, came out on top when British Columbians were asked to name the “best neighbourhood” in Metro Vancouver out of 192 of communities.
But Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie is convinced the B.C. NDP'S decision to force municipalities to approve fourplexes to sixplexes on virtually all single-family lots in the province will have “a dramatic effect on the character of Steveston,” which is adjacent to a popular shopping village and fishing harbour.
“You will have many more people. You will have parking nightmares. You will have infrastructure challenges. You'll have no public hearings. It will dramatically affect not only the physical neighbourhood, it will affect the quality of life in the neighbourhood,” says Brodie.
The province's sweeping legislation, which Brodie and other mayors complain was rammed through without consultation, amounts to “vast overreach, of really historic proportions, without any controls,” he said.
The attractive, low-rise historic towns of Fort Langley and Ladner will also be harmed by the blanket upzoning of neighbourhoods, said Brodie.
Provincial Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon disagrees. If developers end up building sixplexes in Steveston, they will only go up gradually, he said. And, anyway, the neighbourhoods immediately adjacent to Steveston already have multi-unit complexes.
“They've already got townhomes in Steveston. I don't understand why a few single-family homes going to sixplexes would be a major change to the character of the community,” Kahlon said in an interview.
The Richmond mayor first raised alarms in February about Steveston when he said B.C.'S upzoning “will destroy a fine neighbourhood.”
That is when he was on a panel titled “Housing the Next Million British Columbians” at a Union of B.C. Municipalities conference, where officials said record population growth is a “massive problem” for housing in B.C.
Emphasizing Richmond has for decades approved dense housing projects in specific neighbourhoods, Brodie bemoaned how the province's broad new legislation does not require developers to provide off-street parking for sixplexes.
“On each lot, you're going to have up to six units. There are no parking minimums required. And because of the relatively small size and configuration of the lots in Steveston, for the most part there's no laneways. You're going to have a completely different neighbourhood than when you started.”
Brodie doesn't like imagining how low-density neighbourhoods, such as Steveston, which average 10 houses on one side of a typical block, could “end up having 60 residential units on that same one side of the block.”
For his part, Kahlon played down the parking conflict.
While the B.C. government waived the requirement for off-street parking as a “good thing,” to encourage people to use transit and lower the cost of a dwelling, Kahlon said the reality is most developers will provide parking anyway, because “they know the unit won't sell without a parking spot.”
Brodie, a lawyer who was elected to council in 1996 and as mayor in 2001, is not alone in his concerns. Many civic politicians and Metro planners appreciate the NDP'S attempt to push for more housing, particularly of the affordable kind, but still argue a “one-size-fits-all” approach is not the way to go.
Longtime Richmond councillor Chak Au is among those who worries that blanket upzoning could negatively change Steveston, which in 2020 won the popular vote in a CBC Radio contest, with locals saying it has a friendly, small-town feel unlike most Metro communities.
“Steveston's rich heritage, cultural diversity, vibrant fishery and agricultural activities could be jeopardized by ongoing over-development,” said Au.
Under the legislation, roughly 1,000 detached lots in Steveston are now zoned for sixplexes. That's because they are within 400 metres of a frequent-transit line on Seventh Avenue.
Even though the boundaries of the community of Steveston are often imagined more broadly, city staff draw Steveston township narrowly — as No. 1 Road to the east, Chatham Street to the south, Seventh to the west, and Steveston Highway to the north.
When Kahlon refers to how Steveston already has apartment blocks and townhouses, most of those complexes are east of No. 1 Rad or west of Seventh Avenue, which puts them just outside Steveston's official boundary.
Although some critics on social media have accused Brodie of being a NIMBY, an opponent of increased density, for trying to protect detached properties, he says Richmond has grown a significant amount since he was first on council.
“We've never been handcuffed by expectations of low density. We've always assumed growth. We've always taken our share,” Brodie said, referring to approving the construction of hundreds of medium-size apartment towers, condominium buildings and townhouse complexes.
The population of Richmond is now 230,000, he said, compared to 148,000 when he was first elected. Two out of three Richmond residents are immigrants or non-permanent residents.
“We encouraged rapid transit and transit networks. We want to build housing in those areas. So if someone wants a single-family home in a single-family area, what's wrong with that?”
For his part, Kahlon fully agrees Richmond has done its bit for density. And while Kahlon appreciates Richmond council “doesn't want another level of government pushing them to get more housing,” he argues the problem is that other mayors are telling him, “Everything is fine. Nothing needs to change. If you talk to people throughout Metro Vancouver, they'll tell you it's not fine. It's not affordable, and we don't have enough housing.”
That said, Brodie has been joined by Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley and others in saying upzoning will not lead to more affordable dwellings for Metro Vancouver, which last year Demographia ranked the third-most “unaffordable” region out of 94 when comparing mean household incomes to house prices.
Richmond's longest-serving mayor has learned that simply increasing housing supply does not reduce prices.
“In the past 10 years, the number of new residential units in Richmond has exceeded population growth by over 50 per cent,” says Brodie. “You would think that would make things less expensive. But during that same period the cost to buy a home in Richmond rose by 77 per cent. And incomes stayed roughly the same.”
Author:DOUGLAS TODD [email protected]
Oak Bay Watch Perspective
What is it that our Governments do not understand? As indicated in the article and confirmed by many credible authorities, more and more housing supply has not and will not lower the cost of housing. It is being built on expensive land by a for-profit development industry.
If senior government initiatives use up most of the municipal public owned land with housing, then what?
Reducing demand by reducing mass migration numbers and eliminating speculation would be much better, more successful, options. An option supported by many, including a Black Press letter to the editor - April 17, 2024:
"When so few people can afford to buy a house, a better plan is, first, to exclude every category of investor — from hedge funds to REITs to small independent rental market predators — from the housing market to prevent any more houses being rented at exorbitant rates ".
The Mayor's have not said , as reported by the BC Housing Minister, that "everything is fine". Many are saying the senior governments housing initiatives are unrealistic. They do not take into account all the negative impacts: on the infrastructure, the environment and, the high cost of the additional amenities and municipal services. The funding the Provincial and Federal Government provides to counteract these impacts has been described as, "a drop in the bucket".
There have been many valid criticisms of Canada’s Open Broader Immigration Policy. Not the least of which are the many abuses and failed objectives of the Immigration System.
As usual however, the Federal Government implanted their new immigration policy before addressing the existing abuses and inevitable impacts
Examples:
The Royal Bank of Canada and the Financial Post are also not saying, “things are fine”.
Royal Bank of Canada
A Growing Problem: How to align Canada’s immigration with the future economy
https://thoughtleadership.rbc.com/a-growing-problem-how-to-align-canadas-immigration-with-the-future-economy/
Impacts
A Growing Problem: How to align Canada’s immigration with the future economy
Immigration in Canada has accounted for all the growth in the labour force for well over a decade, but it’s still not enough to significantly offset the impact of an aging demographic or substantially reduce the structural shortages in the jobs market.
A big reason for this is that the skill sets that many immigrants bring to Canada and the study fields of international students do not match well with the anticipated longer-term structural needs of the economy. This impairs the prospects for newcomers and, more broadly, the economy.
Right now, the immigration system may be focusing too much on the labour market’s short-term demands, filling holes in sectors where low-skilled occupations have been experiencing acute shortages since the pandemic.
This has led to a surge in non-permanent residents, a strain on housing and social services, and eroded public support for immigration.
Financial Post
Canada’s immigration system isn’t living up to its potential. Here’s how to fix it
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/ravi-jain-fix-immigration-system-to-unleash-full-potential-of-newcomers
Abuses
The number of international student applicants, however, are rising every year, with government forecasts estimating that Canada will receive 1.4 million applicants in 2027.
But this system has been exploited. There have been reports of poor educational quality with some colleges overenrolling and others holding classes in strip malls or movie theatres. This often happens when students enroll at a private collage partnering with a public college, with the latter issuing the diploma.
These colleges are on the federal government’s approved list for student visa issuance, but some graduates are not even eligible to apply for coveted work permits upon graduation, unlike those who attend public institutions. The federal government should therefore prevent student visa issuance in these scenarios.
Fraud and negligence are rampant among some registered consultants in Canada, as well as their non-registered counterparts in India. For instance, it was reported this summer that 700 students from India faced deportation after it was found that they were accepted to come to Canada on fake admission letters. The problem needs to be solved.