If elected mayor in November, NPA mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton says she will hire a red tape commissioner to recommend changes at city hall to reduce delays for developers to build all forms of housing in Vancouver.
Anton, who is the NPAs lone city councillor, said housing contractors are reporting record wait times at city hall for permits and approvals to begin construction of social, rental, market and seniors housing.
Within the first 90 days of our NPA administration, I will be appointing a red tape commissioner who will work with industry experts and neighbourhoods to reduce delays at city hall, she told reporters Thursday from a sidewalk along Second Avenue, where a public housing project and several private developments were under construction. Our inability in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»to get housing projects from concept to concrete in a timely fashion reduces our housing supply and kills jobs at a time when we need every job that we can get.
Cutting red tape, she said, will allow for more purpose-built rental housing in a city in which residents are worried is becoming a city for the very rich or very poor.
She also promises to ensure major developments have two, three and four-bedroom units so people dont have to move out of the city to find family housing.
More townhomes and seniors housing are also priorities for Anton, who promised an NPA majority will help make home ownership and rental housing more affordable in Vancouver.
Vision Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Coun. Kerry Jang, who is seeking re-election, said he was confused by Antons housing platform because of her voting pattern against housing initiatives.
Shes voted against any affordability options, she voted against the citys housing plan that details exactly where we need to go and how to get there fast, said Jang, who added that hiring a so-called red tape commissioner is simply adding another layer of bureaucracy. It seems really, really odd.
Antons plan to develop more market housing is to increase the supply of pre-zoned land, reduce parking requirements on housing close to transit and be firm on the cost of development cost charges.
She pointed to construction in the Southeast False Creek neighbourhood where she held her press conference as an example of how the city can cut red tape.
On these private lands here, the zonings have gone through very quickly, she said. The reason theyve gone through quickly is that theres established policydevelopers know what its going to cost, their projects can move ahead quickly.
Antons announcement came two days after Mayor Gregor Robertson and Housing Minister Rich Coleman officially opened the 105-unit Karis Place on Seymour Street.
The social housing project is one of the first of 14 city-owned sites to open since Robertson and Vision Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»took office in 2008. Three others have also been built.
Anton was a member of the NPA-dominated council from 2005 to 2008 that agreed with the provincial government to provide the sites in return for provincial money to build them.
It was the ruling Vision Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»council that negotiated the funding for the sites and Coleman has promised all 14 buildings will be built within two years.
But Anton said all 14 buildings should have been built by now.
It does not make any sense, it is not common sense that so many of the 14 city-owned housing sites that were approved by our NPA council in 2007 are still not completed four years later, she said, dismissing the fact final funding wasnt approved until last year and doesnt believe all 14 sites will be built within two years. Job one of our NPA housing priorities will be to speed up the development and construction of these delayed city-owned supportive housing sites.
Twitter: @Howellings
