Straight talk

LAWYER SAYS CHARTER LETS CITY SET RENTS

Vancouver city council actually has the ability to set and regulate rents, according to a local lawyer.

Why councillors aren’t wielding the full extent of the authority they have under the Vancouver Charter is something that stumps Nathalie Baker, an attorney who specializes in municipal law.

“They should use the powers that they have to ensure that we get affordable housing, not expensive rental housing,” Baker told the

Straight in a phone interview. Since 2009, the City of Vancouver has been granting financial subsidies and other incentives for developers of what is called affordable for-profit rental housing.

Developers are required to enter into a housing agreement with the city, and this is where Baker said powers under the Vancouver Charter are relevant.

Section 565.2 of the charter provides that council can enter into housing agreements whose terms include “rents that may be charged and the rates at which rents may be increased over time”.

Baker noted that what is happening is that rents start high, and these rates apply only to the first tenant. Moreover, the starting rents become effective on the day of the public hearing for the project, allowing developers to increase rents per year during construction.

“By the time it goes to market, the developer gets to charge the current rents, not the ones that were reviewed by council,” Baker said.

Baker cited as example the Duke, a project on Kingsway that was approved by council in 2015 under the Secured Market Rental Housing Policy, or Rental 100.

A city-staff report to council stated that the developer “estimates” to rent a studio unit would rent for $1,050 a month, a one-bedroom unit for $1,200, and a two-bedroom unit for $1,725.

Baker noted that a studio unit at the Duke now rents for $1,702.

An inquiry with the Duke revealed that rent for a one-bedroom is currently $1,979, and a two-bedroom goes for $2,494.

Green councillor Adriane Carr has called for an audit of the rentalincentives program.

A staff report is expected next spring about Carr’s motion to compare starting and current rents in Rental 100 projects as well as those approved under the program’s predecessor, the Short Term Incentives for Rental (STIR).

“The public needs the information,” Carr told the Straight by phone, “and I think councillors need that information to make the best possible decisions on how to support the building of rental housing in the future in a way that actually delivers affordability, because it’s not delivering affordability right now.” > CARLITO PABLO

An East Vancouver community garden

will be uprooted to make way for public housing. The Cedar Cottage Garden Society will have to find a new patch to replace its current home at 2009 Stainsbury Avenue, near its intersection with Victoria Drive. The City of Vancouver is planning to develop a five-storey rental building at the site, with tenants expected to move in by 2021. “We’ve been told we can garden until the end of 2018,” gardener Dalia Levy told the Straight in a phone interview. The Cedar Cottage Community INDIGENT SUES MAYOR GREGOR ROBERTSON When Meynard Aubichon ran for mayor of Vancouver with the Stop party in 2014, he attracted 508 votes. Aubichon, whose birth name is Matthew Michael Bristo, didn’t succeed in halting Mayor Gregor Robertson’s political career as the incumbent collected a record 83,529 votes. But now Aubichon is once again taking on Robertson—this time in B.C. Supreme Court. On June 28, the Regal Place

Garden started in 2008 under the Hotel resident succeeded with his

Skytrain guideway and has since “indigent application”.

expanded. The garden has 109 This means that his court fees

plots, an orchard of about 30 different are being waived in his conflict-ofinterest

fruit trees, a composting system lawsuit against the mayor.

of multiple bins, an apiary, and In a phone interview with

areas dedicated to growing foods the Straight, Aubichon said he’s

that are donated to the Cedar alleging that Robertson has “gone

Cottage Neighbourhood House. too far” in using his influence.

The community gardeners are The former mayoral candidate

eyeing a new location nearby. also claimed that Robertson and

The Cedar Cottage Garden his Vision Vancouver councillors

Society is proposing to use a “were too close to developers”.

0.2-hectare area, which is about the “He thinks he owns communities,”

same size as its current location, in Aubichon declared.

the 27-hectare John Hendry Park. None of his claims have been

The group has written the proven in court and Robertson hasn’t

Vancouver Board of Parks and yet filed a statement of defence.

Recreation, noting that a community In 2014, Aubichon was a strong

garden has been one of the ideas advocate for term limits for municipal

suggested for a new master plan politicians, and his view hasn’t

for the park, whose central feature is changed four years later.

Trout Lake. “I’ve known Gregor for years,”

“From our perspective, John Aubichon acknowledged. “Don’t

Hendry Park would be an ideal location get me wrong. The city wouldn’t

as it provides both proximity be the same without Gregor, but

(being close to our existing location they’ve just been there too long.”

allows us to draw on the same Aubichon added that he’s planning

membership base and support the another run for Vancouver

same community organizations) mayor in 2018, this time with the

and stability (no threat of imminent “Weed party”.

development so we can invest our