It was earlier this month that the gaping void at Delbrook and the district’s burning need for affordable housing collided like matter and anti-matter or like peanut butter and jelly, depending on your perspective.
The plan was to fill the 1.7-hectare space with 80 steeply discounted market housing units atop an adult daycare along with a seniors’ respite centre. It seemed a sound plan, consistent with the district’s objective to create between 600 and 1,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade. It also allowed for 15 months of fine tuning prior to the 2018 election.
So what went wrong?
Besides noticing that some councillors couldn’t warm up to each other if they were in a tin can headed toward the sun, we also saw the shortfall between political philosophy and politics.
When the debate was about putting affordable housing somewhere (but nowhere in particular), council and the community were in harmony. But when the plan was unveiled to put a real building at Queens Road and Stanley Avenue the project’s neighbours filled the gallery and voiced their concerns about traffic and parking and shadows and the erosion of neighbourhood character.
That outcry underlines something that should have been obvious from the start: there is no win-win scenario.
As a community we can offer housing to workers who can’t afford to live here, we can try to recapture the missing generation and assuage the affordability crisis. Alternatively, we can keep things the way they are and hope traffic improves.
Despite what anyone running for mayor or council tells you, we can’t do both.
Pick a winner.
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