wom OUNCH

NOV 23 1976

TO: Mayor and Council November 16th, 1976

FROM: _- Alderman E.W. Mabbett

Mayor Campbell has mentioned by memo that the U.B.C.M. is requesting comment
on the Bawlf Housing Report. This is not a report from the Housing Committee

as such, as I am away on business for my employer so am unable to call a meeting

this week.

Although I have not had time to really get down to all the parts of the report:

- I do believe tha U.B.C.M. Executive hit the nail on the head when they said it

-was more the personal views of Mr. Bawlf than a good report covering all respects

of the problem.
When he talks about land use contracts and impost fees by the municipalities, he

indicates we are the bad guys.
Where would we be under our present tax and grant structure if we were unable

to charge the Developer for the basic services, such as larger watermains, closed

storm sewers, paved roads, money towards parks development, etc.

People moving out of the larger cities are not satisfied to come out in the
country and have open ditches, poor roads, inadequate parks, etc., this has
been proved over and over again. Therefore it is not right under our present
system to increase the land taxes on the present home-owners in order to meet
the demands of the newcomers.

Bawlf talks about public hearings, slowness of municipalities, etc. Most of

our problems as I see it, come from problems created by the Provincial Government,

school construction has been one of the greatest complaints from the ratepayers
when discussing additional housing. One other is road systems, although the
City system is not the best, the real problems are with our highway system which

has been nearly non-existent.

Aldermen and ratepayers do have to listen to these type of problems and sometimes

resist or slow down housing construction. ;

Gur City does not control much of the available residential land and therefore

cannot be,accused of putting slow down restrictions on housing in this regard.

Bawlf mentions he cannot find where large developers are holding large blocks of

land in order to keep the price up; that is not what I read; they are corralling