Webcast
To get the full flavour of how decisions are made tune into the webcast. The webcast is timed and titled so that you can refer immediately to your topic of interest.
Affordable Housing
Strathcona County’s Affordable Housing Implementation Committee delivered its final report to Council on Nov. 8, 2011. This committee was made up of public stakeholders and staff and successfully allocated over 12 million dollars of provincial funding to three major housing gaps in our community: entry level ownership, affordable market rental and special needs.
Ten low income families now own their first homes thanks to Habitat for Humanity and this program. Pioneer Housing was able to construct 60 self contained units for seniors and they plan to build 69 housing units for older non seniors on AISH and single parent families. Strathcona Schizophrenia Foundation (two condo units) and the Robin Hood Association both met the criteria (38 housing units).
This process has been a example of public, non profits, the province and the County working together to utilize tax dollars in the most efficient way to ensure that our community cares for its own residents and has a diverse population.
The recommendations are thought provoking and merit further discussion and analysis.
One recommendation requires more explanation. The committee urged Council to review their level of commitment to address future affordability. “The AHIC feels that although the responsibility for housing should remain the responsibility of the Province, where it makes sense to benefit Strathcona County, on the whole, affordable housing subsidization should be considered as an opportunity that needs to be explored”. Direct substitution with County residents’ tax payer dollars would be double dipping as our residents’ dollars are already being used through the provincial mandate to subsidize affordable housing. There is, after all, only one tax payer. However – there are ways for the County to support provincial leadership and leverage developer and nonprofit relationships. I look forward to a more detailed report from administration for discussion.
Advisory Housing Committee - Motion
I made a motion requesting Council to direct administration to put forward the merits of an advisory committee to council that would examine current and future housing needs in both urban and rural Strathcona County. This would encompass all types and density of housing and supplement the only report we have to date which focuses on seniors affordable housing. Industry stakeholders and the public would work together to identify what the best type of housing development is for Strathcona County. Additionally, they would make recommendations to change standards of service delivery to ensure increased competitiveness with other municipalities. Issues of clarity and effectiveness of current bylaws would be reviewed and recommendations come to Council. An element of education and relationship building would be inherent in the committee process. Council tabled this until May.
Traffic Bylaw
Council passed first reading of the new traffic bylaw, with the proviso that much work needed to be done. this bylaw is an amassing of eight bylaws into one. Residents should be aware that there is a 36 hour parking limit for RVs on public roadways with a maximum of twice in a seven day period. RV’s parked on private property cannot extend over the top of the curb or sidewalk. I receive numerous complaints throughout the year because RV owners show a lack of respect for their neighbours and do not realize they create a safety hazard by blocking visibility.
The proposed bylaw requires rubber driveway mats to be removed by November 1 of each year. I did request a date change to December 1, closer to actual road clearing times.
I noted concern over issues that condo associations have been experiencing with parking and asked for clarification on sign standards and support in parking enforcement.
Sidewalk Snow Clearing Bylaw
Please comment to Council before or at the Nov. 29, 2011 public input session.
Budget
I urge residents to go to this link to look up the webcasts of our budget meetings. Council will meet to review administration recommendations on November 25, 30 and December 2. I am concerned with annual requests for dozens of new hires, the number and type of new Business Initiatives when I see over 180 capital projects from years past. I focused on this last year and will be highlighting the merits of a catch up year again this Council session. Your comments would be greatly appreciated.
Interesting comments on affordable housing in Strathcona County and what is being done to ensure that as many people who choose to live here can indeed do so. I think that homogeneity is anathema to a community, particularly since the world is getting smaller and smaller. We risk isolating ourselves and creating narrow opinions, and I don’t think that’s helpful.
ReplyDeleteSomething that wasn’t mentioned in your comments is the role that zoning plays in the creation or rejection of affordable housing options. I bring this up because it’s something in which council has a direct hand. It’s also something that the whole capital region has seen as important enough that the Capital Region Board now has a role in metro-area land use planning.
Around election time we often hear that urban sprawl is costing us in many ways and we need to do something about it, yet urban density seems not to be front of mind at other times. I think that a mix of density, with encouragement given to higher density living options could help us with our affordable housing issues. Centre in the Park is part of the solution – attracting higher density living spaces to the core of the community – but it’s not really ‘affordable’ housing.
It takes political will, but I think mandating a mix of housing in new developments should be considered. Creating communities within neighbourhoods, where the breadth of our society is represented would be positive.
Adding new low density neighbourhoods probably costs us millions of dollars in the long run. We need to service each one of them and replace that infrastructure when it wears out, we need to provide additional transit coverage – a service that is very heavily subsidized by tax dollars, we need to provide additional police, fire and ambulance service because of the increasing distance from existing emergency services facilities. The list of new expenses goes on and we don’t make that cost back in new tax dollars.
Creative urban design can help with affordable housing by letting people live near where they shop, go to school and recreate. If the costs of transportation are lowered, housing effectively becomes more ‘affordable’ because other aspects of life aren’t eating as much of the household budget.
There is, of course, much more to this. However, since I’m only making comments on your blog post and not writing a book, I’ll end here.
As always, I enjoy reading about your thoughts and what you see as important enough to put down on virtual paper.
Ian