ies British Columbia Vancouver must have a vision to counter developers’ greed Vancouver is growing rapidly, but it is doing so in a hit-and-miss fashion. The city lacks a plan; its growth is not con- trolled. It is growing by bits and pieces. One developer after another comes along with a project and our city council, dominated by the Non Partisan Associa- tion, goes along with it. Meanwhile per- fectly good affordable housing is being demolished to make way for expensive condos. Whole neighbourhoods are being destroyed by the developers with the blessing of city council. The planning department at present doesn’t know where it’s going to what it’s supposed to do. It is in fact being co- opted by the developers to facilitate their plans. This became clear when the new planning director, T.H. Fletcher, pres- ented a report to city council on Jan. 11. He noted that in the last six years, 8,391 residential units have been demol- ished to make way for more expensive apartments or condos. Changes are occurring in previously stable neigh- bourhoods, but the role of the city planner is unclear. The city has no long term planning, no policy planning, no vision, no overall strategic plans, no regional planning and no capital plan- ning on an area basis. “We don’t really know what’s going n,” he reported. There is a “lack of information/ analysis on housing, indus- try, neighbourhoods, trends and change.” The city planner asked some pertinent questions. “Are we going in the right direction with growth? Will we get the kind of city we want in the end? Should we slow down growth?-What about quality of life? Are we destroying our neighbour- hoods? Are we going to meet the needs of our existing residents, of future resi- dents?” All these questions remain unans- wered because the city has no plan. One of the solutions proposed by the planning director was to hire more planners. It may be necessary that we should have a bigger planning staff, but -chure called, that’s not the solution. It’s not the planners who are to blame for the plan- less situation we’re in — it’s city council. It is council’s responsibility to develop a plan, to control growth, to set priorities. These are political decisions that can only be made by council. The planners’ job is to carry out council decisions. How can they do this when the city has no plan and the planners just receive piecemeal instructions to do this or that specific job for a developer? Vancouver has been without a plan for a long time. Back in 1968, just after I was elected to council, [ published a bro- couver.” It noted that Vancouver had no overall plan, that “too often our growth is only in the direction desired by real estate promoters and private developers who want special concessions at our expense to guarantee their financial ven- tures.” That was 22 years ago and we still Harry “A Program for Van- Rankin have no plan. We’ve had plans for indi- vidual projects but no overall plan to use as a guide. In that brochure I expressed the view that “‘what we lack and need is a carefully prepared, well thought out, citi- zen approved, master plan for the devel- opment of the city.” We still need such a plan. I proposed that it be done in three stages: (a) City council and the planning department should come up with an out- line of the main issues that should be looked at in an overall plan. (b) The plan should be submitted to public hearings in all areas of the city so that all residents and their organizations can have some input into how they would like to see their neighbourhoods and the whole city developed — com- mercial, industrial and residential. (c) Based on these hearings the plan- ning department and city council should develop an overall long term plan that would be submitted to voters in a refer- endum. The residents of this city should have the final say. VANCOUVER ... calls for a master plan go back to Sixties. TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON e Pacific Tribune, March 5, 1990 Victoria tenants rally against rent gouging Protesting tenants press for boycott of View Towers. VICTORIA — “Rise up and unite, an affordable home is our right,” was the slo- gan as some 150 tenants gathered Feb. 24 outside a local apartment building in a demand for a rent freeze and construction of affordable housing. The demonstration, organized by the Tenants Action Coalition, protested rent hikes averaging $100 effective March | at the View Towers 358 apartment block, home to many elderly, disabled and low- income tenants. New Democratic housing critic Robin Blencoe criticized Social Services and Hous- ing Minister Peter Dueck, and Labour and Consumer Services Minister Norm Jacob- sen for not responding to appeals for a review of the housing and rental situation in the city. Renters constitute 62 per cent of Victo- ria’s population while the city has a 0.2-per- cent vacancy rate, the lowest in Canada, the Victoria MLA noted. Demonstrators backed a proposal to deposit the rent increase into a trust fund until a decision has been made about the | legality of the hikes. The Tenants Action Coalition has also | staged pickets of the offices of the Residen- tial Tenancy Branch and has called on prospective renters to boycott View Towers. The coalition’s demands include an immediate rent freeze, a tenant-involved rent review process, more public money and land for affordable housing and an ade- quate minimum wage. Additional speakers at the fally Tae Rev. Ron Atwell of the United Church, and representatives of the Vancouver-based Tenants Coalition and the Vancouver Island Human Rights Coalition. With files from Nadya Dowson, Victoria. Mayor’s rent review plan called ‘toothless’ The Tenants Rights Coalition has charged that Vancouver Mayor Gordon Campbell’s proposed rent review system resurrects a “toothless dinosaur” and will do nothing to alleviate the housing crisis in the province. Coalition co-ordinator John Shayler said Feb. 22 that Campbell’s proposal, by which Lower Mainland residents will petition the provincial legislature to re-introduce early- Eighties style rent controls, would merely make tenants pay inflationary increases. The coalition in a release called for a regulation system that stabilizes rents and establishes rights for tenants, rather than one based on the housing market. “Too many tenants have already expe- rienced what amounts to market extor- tion,” Shayler stated. “For the rent gouging to end we will need more than political posturing and old ideas. What is needed is strong and creative politi- cal action.” The mayor’s proposal, aired so far in two meetings of the Greater Vancouver regional district, would see mayors, council members, business and community representatives form a delegation to go to Victoria and press the government to implement a province-wide system of rent review. Such a system was in place in the early Eighties, the coalition noted. Under the auspices of the Rentalsman’s office, abol- ished by the Bill Bennett Socred govern- ment in 1983, tenants could appeal rent hikes and a system of percentages limiting annual increases was in place. But the onus was on the tenants, and rent hikes were granted irrespective of afforda-. bility. That system was bureaucratic, arbi- trary and ineffective, the coalition charged. Campbell’s system is based on rent being justified by market factors, and that prom- ises no relief for tenants, the tenants’ group stated. “We are currently suffering through what could best be described as a prolonged and chronic period of ‘market failure.’ There is an incredible demand for afforda- ble rental housing, and virtually no supply.” The coalition, which sent its views in a letter to the last GVRD meeting, said the proposed rent review “would create the illu- sion that real protections were in place.” A tougher rent control system could, for example, peg increases to the Consumer Price Index and force landlords to justify hikes that exceed it, the coalition suggested. “It is interesting that the mayor, who has voted against other forms of tenants protec- — tions, is introducing his proposition now,” Shayler remarked. Campbell and the dominant Non Parti- san Association on Vancouver city council have voted against a demolition ‘morato- rium and a city-run rent review board, such as proposed by the minority Committee of Progressive Electors.