Right Worshipful Mayor of Vancouver and Honorable Members of City Council;
Following the discussion which unfolded during the public hearing for our housing project at 3532 E Hastings, we feel compelled to contact this council directly to provide some context from practitioners working primarily in the local housing sector.
Vancouver is at the turning point from a provincial, suburban city?primarily connected to its local economies, modest in scale and density?into a true world city. This transition has been going on for some time, but it is now, in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis, that strong leadership and hard decisions are clearly needed. The primary question exposed in this public hearing??how can we reconcile a desire to protect existing rental housing with the parallel need to construct new housing at an unprecedented scale"??is emblematic of the tension between Vancouver-the-local and Vancouver-the-world-city. A rendering of Gair Williamson?s proposed housing project at 3532 East Hastings, which raised a debate over rental housing developments at Vancouver City Council. Rendering by Olena Strunk
We are not policy experts; however, as specialists in multi-family rental and condominium developments in Vancouver, we have become keenly aware of city policies and bylaws which are problematic. There is certainly room for changes at a fundamental level, but a good place to start is to scrutinize the existing framework of policies, and look at some fairl...