[thechat] canada's new democratic party

Tara Cleveland tara at taracleveland.com
Mon Jan 27 15:39:01 CST 2003


Erik Mattheis wrote:

> On Monday, January 27, 2003, at 01:16 PM, Tara Cleveland wrote:
>> Well, I may be speaking out of turn, but I think Martin's talking about
>> requiring developers to have a percentage (not enough to put them
>> totally
>> out of business) of units be affordable.
>
> Are such zoning regulations not already in effect in every urban area
> in every developed country on the planet? Bitch-slap me if I'm wrong.
<slap! slap! sound of slapping in the background>

> Where to zone affordable housing and such is a mainstay of local
> political debate everywhere in the US. Are others elsewhere not
> familiar with headlines such as "Neighborhood Group Confronts City
> Council on Proposed Development Plan", "Change in Property Taxes Called
> Racist",  "New Housing Planned; Local Family Fears Rise in Crime" ...
> etc etc.

Sure, they can create public housing projects and put them where they want
(change zoning etc.) - but do they? 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?? ;-)

>
>> And he's not saying that the
>> developers would have to be "interested" in it, he's saying that they
>> wouldn't get planning permission to build without it.
>
> I understand the idea. But those projects would never be profitable for
> the developer without public subsidies, so there would be no motivation
> to undertake them except philanthropic.

Actually, there has been at least one condo development here in Toronto that
was built as a co-op condo - mostly affordable housing. It can be built and
people can make money on it - just not as much money.

And what business isn't going to scream at the politicians if government
regulations start eating away their profits? Besides, the idea would be to
build only parts of projects as "affordable housing" not big public housing
developments.

Anyway, there's a whole bunch of ideas on how to stimulate the building of
affordable housing on Jack's site. Most of which aren't direct "government
builds housing" projects - but they nevertheless cost money ;-)

<http://www.jacklayton.ca/jacks_vision/default.asp?load=housing>

Tara




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