ENM On Vancouver Land Use Challenges

A recent article in Western Investor highlights the historic challenges of land use in the Lower Mainland that developers are currently facing. The geographic constrictions of being hemmed in by the mountains and ocean are compounded by the addition of 45,000 newcomers each year to the Metro area.

Developers and city planners are scrambling to create strategies to adequately and affordably house these newcomers while already in the midst of a drastic housing crisis. The prevailing idea has been to corral most of them into already-dense regional town centres and transit hubs. This serves to reduce both urban sprawl and the need to encroach on ALR-zoned land.

But this high density means much more demand on small parcels of land. It stretches infrastructure to near the breaking point and creates more pushback from locals who already feel the pressure of overpopulation.

Daniel Greenhalgh, ENM’s co-founder, believes that it’s time to reevaluate the use of ALR-zoned land in the Lower Mainland.

“Some of this land is long past being used to alleviate food shortages in BC as the ALR intended. Why not take 20 or 30 acres of this ALR land on the highway, let it be purchased for the ALR rate, convert it overnight and give the profit to the end user for social housing costs? Developers could have a balanced partnership with the government to build new affordable houses here.”

The opposition to this idea is predictable, especially with an NPD-led provincial government. But radical changes need to be considered when facing the crisis of housing supply that burdens BC residents.