Jerome Irwin was the founding president of the Lower Capilano Community Residents Association 27 years ago in North Vancouver and has been a community activist ever since. He sees “the North Shore's natural iconic beauty, unique historical heritage homes and traditional single-family-zoned neighbourhoods as cultural treasures to be passed down as priceless legacies to those generations yet to come.”
8 comments:
Jerome writes excellent philosophical reasons for not densifying for the sake of densifying.
It is incorrect that building market condos does anything to promote "affordable housing" quite frankly it does the exact opposite.
How so? And how does maintaining the current stock of single family homes promote affordability? Wouldn't the demand for detached housing just drive the prices of these homes up and up beyond any reasonable levels of 'affordability'?
BY ANITA ROMANIUK, VANCOUVER SUN APRIL 9, 2012
Re: No housing affordability with-out density, Issues and Ideas, April 3
This article is only the latest that touts increased density as a means of ensuring affordability. The problem is, it doesn't. Rezoning to increase density has the effect of making properties in adjacent areas more desirable to developers. These properties frequently have some form of housing on them because the City of Vancouver has very little undeveloped land. As developers start buying up the properties adjacent to the rezoned land, it pushes the price up, making the existing housing more expensive. In many cases, this housing was originally what we would consider affordable: older low-rise apartment buildings, older houses with one or more rental suites, older commercial buildings with walk-up apartments on the second floor, older small houses with less than 1,000 square feet. Once the developers have crowded out potential buyers who can no longer afford these properties, and accumulated the land and rezoning necessary to build their new, more expensive condominiums (or condos plus retail), the older affordable housing is demolished and lost. Often the tenants of the original multi-unit housing or the owners of the small older houses can't afford to live in their original neighbourhood and have to search for housing else-where. The newer residences might be more numerous, but they are not more affordable.
Anita Romaniuk Vancouver
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Density+will+make+housing+more+affordable/6429598/story.html#ixzz1rr83TtRP
With regard to the district-wide official community plan, which was approved unanimously by DNV council in June last year, it is a sham.
All incumbents during the November campaign were bragging about this plan and were saying things like, 'It's the most public engagement we've ever had in the District.'
Richard Walton has been quoted as saying: "More than 3,000 people actively participated in this public process.."
Guess what folks, there are approximately 54,000 registered voters in the DNV. Do the math. This is not public engagement.
This question should have been on the November municipal ballot: Do you or do you not approve of the OCP as it stands?
It certainly would have improved the democratic process by encouraging the silent 79% to possibly get out and vote.
The silent 79% don't care about the OCP.
Lynn Valley Community Association
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES SERIES
Planning for Lynn Valley's core is underway, which will bring changes to our neighbourhood.
Why Density in the Right Place is So Good for Your Neighbourhood
This is the second in a series of speakers on Sustainable Communities with a talk by Michael Goldberg.
With a new Official Community Plan approved in 2011 by the District of North Vancouver council, Lynn Valley and a number of parts of North Vancouver are poised for increased density in town and village centres. Michael Goldberg has studied the issues behind smart growth densification extensively and can speak to it in a way that it makes sense.
Michael Goldberg currently serves as a director of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and of the Surrey City Development Corporation. He has wholly or partly authored 9 books and over 200 academic and professional articles and applied them successfully with diverse businesses and governments in North America, Asia and Europe, often working with citizen, business and community groups, as well as governments to help them adapt to the changing demands of the global economy.
Of special interest has been the economics of urban land policy and its impact on housing, urban development and transportation. In this vein, he has stressed the necessity of understanding the interaction of urban transportation and urban land use policies.
There will be a Q & A session after the presentation.
SPEAKER: Michael A. Goldberg
Professor and Dean Emeritus,
The Sauder School of Business,
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Time: from 7:30 - 9:00pm
Location: Mollie Nye House
940 Lynn Valley Road.
North Vancouver
Admission is free.
No need to register, just drop by 5-10 minutes before start time. Bring a friend and pass this information on to others who may be interested. Phone John Gilmour, LVCA Director at 604-808-1171 for more information.
Sponsor: District of North Vancouver
Let's have feed back
on the proposed Harbourside development
RE:
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES SERIES
I can see a big turn out for this with the Canucks in a crucial play off game during the same hours.
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