Happy Halloween!
It's that time of year again when ghosts & ghouls roam the streets in pursuit of candy, but it's also time for a housing update!
On October 31, Council unanimously approved the Dunbar-Ryerson rezoning! Thanks to all of you who wrote in, appeared before council, or attended the February open house to help get this rare combination heritage conservation and quiet-street rental housing project approved.
Below are upcoming rallies, open houses, and hearings that need your attendance, speeches and letters of support to help more rental homes be created.
November 5 - Rally to Stop Evictions, 12:00 PM, Surrey City Hall (13450 104 Avenue, Surrey)
Clayton For Families, our friends in Surrey are fighting to prevent the City of Surrey from evicting hundreds of families from unauthorized secondary suites in hopes of freeing up on-street parking. The Clayton fight has made progress in pressuring Surrey Councillors to pull back but more pressure is needed. You can sign up here if you haven't already signed up with Surrey for Families.
November 6 - Open House, 5:00-7:30 PM, Aboriginal Friendship Centre (1607 East Hastings Street)
Come help new rental homes obstruct AHV director Brendan Dawe's view! A proposal for 2109 East Hastings Street is up for community feedback. The six-story project proposes 42 secured market rentals in Grandview Woodland on what is currently the site of a Dairy Queen drive-in .
When Abundant Housing says yes to more homes in more places, we mean it.
November 8 - Open House, 5:00-7:30 PM, Grenfell Elementary School Library (3323 Wellington Avenue)
For 4459 Rupert Street, 12 secured market rentals are proposed for a small site near E 29th Ave. This project replaces only a single detached house on a 38 foot lot with 12 desperately needed rental units and new commercial space! This sort of low-car single-lot mixed-use density is something we should all like to see allowed over more of the city.
November 14 - Public Hearing, 6:00 PM, City Hall (453 West 12th Avenue)
This hearing includes a number of important rental projects that need your support. You can either register to speak starting November 3 at 8:30 AM or communicate your views to council by emailing [email protected] (or do both, if you are so inclined)
- 3681 Victoria Drive/1915 Stainsbury Avenue: This project proposes 153 secured market rental units in a six-story building near Commercial-Broadway Station.
- 1920 Southwest Marine Drive (Casa Mia): Combining heritage retention and seniors' care, the Care Group in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health propose to expand and restore the 1932 Casa Mia mansion to be a 90-bed Class B Seniors' Community Care facility. This proposal has seen significant push-back in the past, and will need your support to prevent area malcontents from stopping it again.
Angry NIMBY of the Month
Reading through comments from project opponents is the surest way to remind yourself that there are a number of people in this city who have classist, incoherent, or otherwise terrible opinions that they have chosen to share with the public. Claims that mid-rise buildings would shroud them in perpetual shadow, or bring undesirable poor people are all too common.
Denise from Kerrisdale, writing in response to Dunbar Ryerson:
"In fact, what happens when everyone mixes together is a slow deterioration of the cleanliness and peaceful feeling that is essential to the folks who have worked hard to be able to live in an exclusive neighbourhood. Safe neighbourhoods become less safe and the essence of the character of Kerrisdale would be further diminished. So I strongly disagree that social housing should be spread evenly throughout the city."
This is why we YIMBY