Vancouver councillor wants to limit public hearings in housing push

A Vancouver city councillor is hoping to streamline the process for developing non-market housing in the city, although some have concerns about limiting public feedback.

Pointing to the need for more affordable homes in the area, councillor Christine Boyle is putting forward a motion that, if passed, would involve skipping public hearings and rezonings for buildings of a certain size.

“This process would still allow for neighbourhood engagement and feedback and some shifts to a project, but neighbourhoods don’t have a right to a veto of affordable housing,” Boyle told CityNews.

“There’s certainly agreement across this new council that we need more affordable housing and we need to make it faster and reduce red tape to getting it built.”

Her motion is set to be brought before council next week, after a similar motion failed to pass under the previous council.

The key piece in her plan is the proposal that co-op, non-profit, and social housing project go straight to staff if the structures are 12 storeys or smaller in multi-family areas, and six storeys or smaller in other residential areas.

“Right now it’s faster and easier to build a large, new mansion than it is to build a co-op or supportive housing. That means that we’re building more of the kind of housing that people can’t afford and not building what we need,” Boyle said.

However, some community groups aren’t impressed with some of the proposals that come with the motion. Removing public hearings goes too far, in the view of Craig Ollenberger, the chair of the Grandview-Woodland Area Council.

“Getting rid of the only true public consultation in these processes is risky and you sort of have to ask why that’s necessary. Why don’t you want to hear from the public on these?” he questioned.

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“I think if it’s a good project, it’s going to get supported, so you don’t have to push the public out of the way if you’re doing good city building.”

Ollenberger says public hearings are the only times “decision makers really truly have to listen to the community.”

“If the politicians, essentially, want to push that aside, I think it’s concerning and you have to ask why is it necessary to push the public out of these processes.”

Boyle is a member of the OneCity slate, but ABC Vancouver holds a majority on council. When asked whether its councillors would support the motion, CityNews was told the party would need to look at the specific language included in it before commenting.

OneCity has said that Boyle’s motion “gives the new ABC majority a chance to make good on a campaign promise,” pointing to promises like a doubling of co-op supply. It adds every ABC candidate also previously “committed to delegating approval of non-market housing to staff – up to 12 storeys in multi-family areas, and up to six storeys in other residential areas – without a rezoning requirement.”

Mayor Ken Sim’s platform also included a plan to eliminate Vancouver’s housing construction backlog with a new permit approval system, as well as a promise to look at ways to create a greater supply of affordable rental housing in the city.

There have also been promises to review the city’s “missing middle” housing strategy, with an aim to address a shortage of supply for the middle class.

-With files from Greg Bowman