This year marks 30 years since I got my first permanent job in community newspapers, a profession that has meant listening to a lot of hysteria.
By hysteria, I mean people throwing out all sorts of extreme reasons for opposing housing projects. I’ve wasted too many hours of my life covering public hearings in which people fight against anything going up near their backyards.
A couple of years ago, a group of residents in the New Westminster neighbourhood of Queensborough were upset about an affordable housing project being built in their area to house women at risk of being homeless. The level of vitriol spewed at this project by some of the opponents – not all – was reprehensible. According to them, this project would be a disaster for the community.
Since then, the project has been completed and women have been living there since last year. And guess what? It’s fit right in.
I’m not saying people are always wrong to oppose projects in their neighbourhood, but during the past 30 years, I’ve seen most of the projects I’ve covered as a journalist - that ended up being approved by city councils - be no problem at all.
I wrote about this issue recently in regards to residents opposing an affordable housing project for people from Indigenous and Swahili communities, listing the shadows of a six-storey building as being a major reason for turning down this project.
For this column, I wanted to focus on another claim these opponents have made in their official petition sent to the City of New Westminster last November.
It’s a real doozy.
“Only the majority of the citizens who own the properties in this neighborhood and have to live with the consequences of any zoning changes, big or small, should be making such final decisions.”
I’m listing this quote to express what a terrible idea this is. Under no circumstances should area residents get a “final” say on projects, especially housing. If we let “neighbours” (usually single-family house owners) make the final decision on projects that increase density, we would literally never, ever, ever see any projects approved.
Consult? Sure, of course. City councils should listen to what the neighbourhood is saying.
But it’s up to council to make the decision, of course. They are the elected representatives. I can’t believe I have to explain this.
It’s these kinds of ludicrous assertions that destroy any kind of meaningful argument you might have for opposing a project so just stop.
The petition is connected to the Aboriginal Land Trust Society, which has made applications to the city for an amendment to the official community plan, a rezoning and a development permit as part of its plan to build a 96-unit apartment building at 823 to 841 Sixth St. The proposed six-storey apartment building, which would be built on six lots across the street from the new high school, would house members of the Indigenous and Swahili communities.
Now there is an argument to be made about sticking to the OCP. A staff report does note the neighbourhood around the site is designated in the official community plan to have lower density uses. And Mayor Jonathan Cote is on record in the past defending the sanctity of the OCP.
However, the New West OCP also allows for the consideration of six-storey buildings in cases where there is “high alignment” with city policies, according to a staff report.
“This project would deliver much-needed affordable units in New Westminster, aligning with the mandate of the 2019 to 2022 strategic plan through which the city resolved to ‘aggressively pursue creative approaches to housing policy and on-the-ground projects to transform the way housing is provided in New Westminster’ and to ‘use partnerships, negotiations with developers and leveraging city resources to secure development of below- and non-market housing, as well as affordable child care,’” said the report. “The project’s intent to house multigenerational members of the Indigenous community, including elders, families and individuals, is aligned with the city’s reconciliation initiative.”
We’re in a housing crisis so helping get these kinds of projects completed could be worth bending the OCP.
Opponents now have a website set up about the project and New West residents from across the city have been saying on social media they’ve been asked to sign a petition.
If they stick to the OCP argument, maybe they’ll get amass enough opposition, but if they keep yelling about traffic (the proposed site is already on a busy street so that seems like a non-starter) and how neighbours deserve the “final decisions” then they’ll get laughed out of the council chambers.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
