HOUSING Npa-green alliance could reverse mass rezoning

FCharlie Smith

or the first time in a decade, Vancouver’s mayor will be a tenant rather than a homeowner. The man who won the October 20 election, Kennedy Stewart, also has some ideas for helping to improve life for tenants, which he elaborated on in an interview with the Georgia Straight during the election campaign.

He has already given consideration to the city assembling land by buying single-family homes or duplexes. He suggested that if council decides to take this action, it could rezone these properties to allow for multi-unit housing.

“Then we can have rental-only that we assemble and we could turn over to a nonprofit,” he said.

That’s just one method for the mayor-elect to try to meet his goal of 25,000 affordable nonmarket rental units in the next decade.

He also said during the campaign that he supported the Vision Vancouver–controlled council’s mass rezoning to permit duplexes in single-family areas of Vancouver. This decision covered 52 percent of the city’s land area and occurred in the final council meeting before the election.

The “Making Room” policy was opposed by the only two incumbents who were elected: Green councillor Adriane Carr and NPA councillor Melissa De Genova. It was also opposed by NPA councillors George Affleck and Elizabeth Ball.

In addition, the Making Room initiative was vehemently rejected by NPA councillor-elect Colleen Hardwick in a speech she gave before council prior to the vote.

“The thought that, on your way out, you would even consider approving these sweeping citywide zoning-bylaw changes without due process, without proper public consultation, and without community input is unconscionable,” Hardwick told council.