Front Street poor location
Dear Editor: Facades are easy to fix. The charming character of Front Street should be kept intact (Herald letters, Apr. 17).
The Front Street development proposal by Chase Valley Group is for a four-storey complex supplying needed commercial and office space (Herald, April 14) The residential component contains 16 residential 1,000 sq. ft. rental units featuring “high-quality finishings throughout to appeal to an underserved, upscale market in the downtown core.”
The residential component needs adjusting. We desperately need decent small footprint housing for working singles and pensioners wishing to retain their independence in their latter years. We need 300 sq. ft. microsuites to fill this need.
While developers are well aware of micro suites they prefer to build luxury upscale apartments with compensating huge profits. They do not worry about preserving the character of an area. They build for profit not for social engineering. A balance can only be provided by a council and staff that build for the futuremaking decisions based on the needs of a varied economic populace requiring adequate housing to serve their needs whilst preserving the character of our city.
Ideally apartment housing in the downtown core should include a variety of options; luxury and not so luxurious; 300 sq. ft. micro suites to 500 sq. ft. bachelorettes and suites with bedrooms providing a sound economic mix for all levels of society. Outside the downtown area apartment complexes should still contain a certain percentage of smaller units such as bachelorettes and micro-suites.
Crime is lessened in a community when a variety of housing is built that follows the pattern of society with a good mixture of all scales of income combined with the various elements of society. History shows isolating people by income can indoctrinate a tenement mentality with all the attendant crime that comes with it as these buildings age.
While council made inroads in affordable housing in the low income bracket to mitigate the burden for people on assistance and disability pensions they need to expand their horizons and look to more variation in suites to ensure we build a well rounded society encompassing the needs of the economic spectrum in our city.
Developers are well aware of the need and acceptance of smaller units in other communities but will choose to ignore it in favour of easier more profitable ventures as long as council and staff allow them to do so. Elvena Slump Penticton