Straight Talk

GREEN POLITICIAN SEEKS REVIEW OF RENTAL 100

Coun. Adriane Carr is calling for an audit of Vancouver’s program that provides incentives for developers of what the city describes as “forprofit affordable rental housing”.

Carr wants to know if the program currently known as Rental 100 is actually producing affordable housing for renters.

In a motion, Carr noted that the city hasn’t tracked rents under Rental 100 and its predecessor, the Short Term Incentives for Rental (STIR), since projects were completed.

In an interview, Carr said she has heard that rents have become “way higher” in some of these developments.

“I have heard from people that there are some projects that came through either the Rental 100 or the earlier STIR program that really never have delivered the kind of affordability that we expected,” Carr told the Straight by phone.

Carr also claimed that she has heard that the addresses of some of these projects have changed and are now different from those identified in staff reports submitted to council.

One of the various Rental 100 incentives is an exemption from payment of development-cost levies (DCLS) if rents at first occupancy do not exceed rates stipulated by the city in its guidelines.

The starting rents apply at the date of the public hearing, and developers can raise rents each year while projects are being built at the rate allowed by the province’s tenancy law.

Under the rental-incentive guidelines for 2018, “for-profit affordable rental housing” projects are eligible for DCL waivers if their proposed starting rents for East Side projects do not exceed $1,496 for a studio, $1,730 for a one-bedroom, $2,505 for two bedrooms, and $3,365 for three bedrooms.

For the West Side, the maximum starting rents are $1,646 for a studio, $1,903 for a one-bedroom, $2,756 for two bedrooms, and $3,702 for three bedrooms.

In her motion, Carr noted that both STIR and Rental 100 have been subsidized by taxpayers. The motion has been referred for council discussion Wednesday (June 20). > CARLITO PABLO

PARKS CANDIDATE CHIDES VSB OVER HYDRO PROJECT

The Vancouver School Board (VSB) is scheduled to decide on a B.C. Hydro proposal for a power substation underneath Lord Roberts Elementary Annex in the West End’s Nelson Park.

In advance of VSB deliberations, a candidate in this year’s civic election has some words for the board. Jamie Lee Hamilton says the board may be inviting legal action if it approves the B.C. Hydro proposal, which will lead to the closure of the school during construction.

“School board has to be careful there because they could be breaking their own procedure, which says that any plan for school closures requires the public to be consulted, and that hasn’t happened,” Hamilton told the Straight in a phone interview.

Hamilton explained that if the board approves the project, it will mean that it has effectively prejudged the outcome of any future public consultation regarding the closure of Lord Roberts annex.

“I think injunctions will be brought,” said Hamilton, who is running for the park board with the Independent Democratic Electors Alliance, or IDEA Vancouver, which has taken on the B.C. Hydro project as an issue.

As a park-board candidate, Hamilton is also concerned that portions of Nelson Park will be dug up.

The school board’s current policy on school closures involves a detailed process of engaging the community. It requires a “fair consideration of the community’s input” before a decision is made.

District staff have submitted a report included in the agenda Wednesday (June 20) of the planning and facilities committee, updating the board about the status of the B.C. Hydro proposal.

According to the report, the board is set to “make final deliberations” about the matter on June 25.

B.C. Hydro has offered to buy the space immediately below Lord Roberts annex at the end of the 2022–23 school year for the construction of the power substation.

The proceeds of the sale will go to the construction of a future elementary school in Coal Harbour, where annex students will be relocated.

As the staff report noted, construction of the substation will take five years, from 2023 to 2028. Upon completion, a new Lord Roberts annex will be developed at the site.

VSB chair Janet Fraser was not available for an interview.

> CARLITO PABLO

JUDGE RULES BLOOD STAYS IN HANDS OF CROWN

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has refused to return blood to an unnamed person who appeared in court seeking to get it back.

Instead, Justice Robert Jenkins granted the Crown’s application to retain the blood for an additional 18 months in connection with a possible prosecution for impaired driving.

The person was in a motorvehicle accident, which prompted the police investigation.

According to Jenkins’s June 15 ruling, two vials of blood were seized from Royal Columbian Hospital on February 24, 2017, after the RCMP obtained a production order. The Mounties had legal authorization to seize the person’s health records from the hospital two months later.

“From those records, the RCMP officer learned that blood had been taken from the suspect at Royal Columbian Hospital and a toxicology screening indicated the suspect’s blood alcohol concentration to have been high on the date of the accident and that cannabis was also detected and referenced as high in the same report,” Jenkins wrote.

He concluded that the items— two vials of blood—could not be needed for any purpose, which wouldn’t necessarily have been the case if other items, such as a cellphone or vehicle, had been seized.

“There is no reason given in the matter before me of ‘the exact nature of their need for return’ and it is difficult to imagine what possible need the suspect may have for the same,” Jenkins concluded.

> CHARLIE SMITH