Our city is shaped, to a surprising degree, by public feedback to staff and Council. We've seen public feedback make the difference between more housing and less many times.

In two weeks, on Tuesday, July 14, the City is proposing some big changes, and they are asking you for your thoughts on whether and how to legalize more apartments in Vancouver.

The NIMBYs are already rallying to stop this change. They will show up in numbers to try to stop these apartments. So please sign up to speak or write in here.

What's happening?

The Villages plan is to introduce 17 "villages" to single-family neighbourhoods across Vancouver: in Dunbar, Mackenzie Heights, Marpole, near Cedar Cottage, in Killarney, and more. Each will allow up to six stories and 2.4-2.7 FSR on large lots, but just 1.0 FSR on standard lots.

This plan is amazing, in that it technically permits up to six-storey buildings around nodes across the city. In theory, this could moderate land and home prices by increasing the number of sites on which is it legal to build apartments.

The plan even legalizes apartments on some quiet, leafy streets, whereas past plans have relegated apartments and renters to noisy, polluted arterial roads. This is a huge improvement, and one that responds to pro-housing feedback to the City over the years.

There's lots to love in this plan. But it could be better! In particular, it ONLY allows for higher densities on large sites, so that only big developers can play in this sandbox, and even they have to spend years purchasing adjacent sites, driving up costs.

One way this plan could be better would be by allowing higher densities on standard, ~400 square metre residential lots. This way smaller builders could build small, delightful buildings faster. Right now, only big developers on larger sites are going to get those higher densities:

What can you do about it?

You can speak to Council, in person or by phone, by signing up here. Signups went live this morning at 8:30am.

You can also write in with comments here.

Housing Beers July 9 at 5pm

Monthly housing beers are scheduled for next week, Thursday, July 9, at 5pm, at the Rogue in Waterfront Station.

If Canada gets past Morocco tomorrow at the World Cup, they'll play at 1pm that day. We're keeping our eye on that possible match.