Thursday, July 30, 2009

BACKING INTO THE LANE


The Vision-less Council is approving "laneway housing" across the board for all of Vancouver, a clear violation of the process of neighbourhood involvements that have been in place for decades.

This is typical of a naive, agenda-driven council with answers to complex problems drawn from the nearest Simpleton Box.

Following is a little taste of the issue to be added to in more detail in the coming days.

First is the Frances Bula piece in yesterday's Globe.

Then, a comment from local lawyer and former council member, Jonathan Baker:

"Laneway Housing is a bad idea whose time has come.

This scheme is driven by and for developers under the false pretense that it is green, inconspicuous and cheap. The phrase "laneway housing" is 'developer speak' redolent of hobbits and country shires. Hobbitville is not what it will be produced. Every new house will have a second house in the backyard. Off street parking will be at the expense of landscaping and trees. Streets will be jammed with parked cars. They will not be able to restrict occupancy to families, students or rental. Developers will whine to the next council that their profits are insufficient to meet their goals. This will inevitably give rise to subdivided lots. This idea was concocted by NPA politicians who, thanks to the voters are no longer among the politically living. It is after all the least green form of development because it uses the most land as opposed to apartment buildings. At least that is what the eco-density policy proclaimed.

By this mass rezoning, Council has repudiated the policy of neighborhood planning put in place in the late sixties."

Watch this space for more on this matter soon.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyone who thinks laneway housing is a harbinger of doom should visit Garrison Crossing in Chilliwack.

Anonymous said...

David , this seems like another attempt to transform Vancouver into a third world city. This seems to be a way to make us more like Hong Kong or some other over crowded city. Chickens and slum like housing. We do know how to make our imigrants feel at home.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the third world city comment, not that Hong Kong is part of the third world, but living cheek by jowl in crowded apartments, as they do in HK was not a result of good planning. In many ways we are becoming third world, certainly in the level of corruption exhibited by our governments and the RCMP, for instance, and now we want to shove ever more people into smaller spaces, you know, just like large cities in India and China. Other than as a boon to developers, I fail to see how this is a good thing for our city.

Mo.

Anonymous said...

Laneway housing is nuts, just plain nuts. Who are the loony-tunes behind this?

Th-th-th-that's all folks!

Evil Eye