Affordable housing options will not be found with the current Official Community Plan, says council candidate Garry Shearer.
Part of the Independents Working For You slate, Shearer says the cost of housing, like most commodities, is based on supply and demand. Delta has a lack of supply which has driven prices up as demand increased dramatically over the past three years. It’s simple: the development potential in our three communities is restricted by farmland, road infrastructure, lack of public transit, and the current OCP.
Shearer suggests, “We need to start considering different solutions to address affordable housing and we need to start now. When I developed products for our hi-tech businesses, I would start with a proto-type and test the market for the potential adoption of the product. I would take all the feed-back for the proto-type then make a beta version of the product for a controlled group of customers before releasing the final product or in some cases scrapping it.”
“We need to proto-type some new concept single- and multi-family homes that could fit within existing neighbourhoods and increase density without losing the character of the neighbourhood,” states Shearer.
“The Higgins family in North Delta are doing just that. Using a standard 66-foot lot they, with the support of their neighbours, have received approval to build four homes on the one lot to enable their children to own homes in Delta. It took them several years and petitions of support from their neighbours to get this plan approved. But the approval came with a high price: $66,000 in development fees and over $85,000 for a landscaping deposit.”
The Independents Working for You mayor and council candidates say development plans can encourage new proto-types for housing options that fit within our current neighbourhoods. For new plans to work, the city must remove the barriers, such as high development fees, and deposits that discourage these kinds of innovative developments.
The Independents Working For You slate of candidates is Jim Cessford for mayor, Jeannie Kanakos, Bruce McDonald, Sandeep Pandher and Garry Shearer for council, and Laura Dixon, Nick Kanakos and Joe Muego for school board.
The election takes place Oct. 20.
