[thechat] canada's new democratic party

[Martin Burns]

On Mon, 27 Jan 2003, Erik Mattheis wrote:

> >  Of course zoning regulations exist
> > everywhere. But do they have a blanket law in your city that says
> > *all* new
> > developments must be 10% affordable housing? I doubt it - if they do,
> > where
> > do you live?? ;-)
>
> I must not have made myself clear: my point is that if developers are
> not given financial incentives to build affordable housing, they won't.

The incentive is "You get to build houses that make you money"

> It's common sense: if you have money to buy an acre of land to develop,
> you're going to find land that you'll be able to make the most profit
> from. Look at this short article:
> <http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2002/04/08/
> daily42.html>. If Minneapolis required them to make _any_ portion
> "affordable", would they have chosen a Minneapolis location?

Because there's a market there. And if there is a city-wide law then they
can't evade it and continue to target the market.

Cheers
Martin
--
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie