Dear editor:
Comrade Sullivan protests too much.
If the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver wants to have an over-the-top special to celebrate their 80th anniversary what does it matter to anyone? Any business is welcome to have any type of special event and charge eye watering prices at their risk.
Rather than bemoan that $80,000 price the hotel was charging for the event room, the focus of the author and anyone interested in residential housing should turn to examine the permitting authorities - the City of Vancouver, in this instance.
The added cost to a 2,000-square-foot single-family residence in Vancouver is about $78,000 as per the Fraser Institute (April 2017). The cost today would be close if not over the magical $80,000. The time to get those permits is 21 months.
And what is worse, the former mayor had the temerity to complain often about housing in Vancouver, apparently blissfully unaware of the time and costs the bureaucracy adds to the housing problem.
The problem is not the Fairmont but the city that can't get the job done
For what it is worth, the City of North Vancouver's permit time line is a blistering eight months and a modest cost of $21,500. Bravo.
Clay Atcheson
City of North Vancouver
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