Just in case anyone missed this comment from Trish French, here it is:
About 20 years ago, as a planner with the City of Vancouver, I wrote the zoning that has preserved the character houses of Kitsilano’s RT-7 and RT-8 districts.
I won’t bore you with the zoning’s details, but I will say that it took an amazing amount of work. The technical work involved detailed analysis of the various types of house built in Kits before about 1930. The public consultation work involved managing a very divisive neighbourhood dynamic, and a detailed survey to every household to gauge support for a proposed zoning that would require a “character house” owner to add/renovate to get the full allowable floor space (rather than demolish and build new: effectively a downzoning).
Has anyone at the City contacted me about how the zoning was developed, and how it functions, to ask about pros, cons, pitfalls, how-tos? Nope. History does not exist for the current Council and senior management.
And the results of the hard work are much appreciated! England also has the robust and strict Listing program for buildings. There’s no reason it can’t be done here.
Given that the Arbutus corridor is once again in the news, why is it that the city could wave it’s magic wand and rezone that large piece of land preventing any development, and yet now is to afraid to act and use zoning to preserve heritage homes?
Make no mistake, allowing modest sized heritage homes to be bulldozed for mini-mansions contributes to urban sprawl. Most families will strive for a home with some green space, if they can’t find it in Vancouver they will go farther afield.
Bob, I do not buy the argument that, in general, if the city permissively allows old houses to be taken down and the sites redeveloped, this contributes to urban sprawl; but if the city restricts such redevelopment opportunities, this would restrict urban sprawl.
If anything, I think that the opposite is true. A more subtle and refined understanding of demographics, cultural attitudes, and real estate development trends in the region is required.
There may be some people who are looking for a modest, expensive, old house in a leafy, inner-Vancouver neighbourhood with lots of parks and public schools with great reputations.
But there are a lot more people who are looking for large, cheap houses with large yards, and for the near future, they will continue to drive urban sprawl.
There is also a significant contingent of buyers who are looking for a brand new house in a leafy, inner-Vancouver neighbourhood with lots of parks and public schools with great reputations, and for them, price is not really an object. Although their number is small in regional terms, their impact is highly noticeable. I don’t think that regulation will have the intended effect on stopping this trend, in the short term.