What does "SLOW DOWN" Mean?

After watching the current Council in action over the last year I have seen many development proposals be presented before them.

Each of them extols different benefits of the proposal that are purported to be reasons that the projects should be approved. Such things as "we have a design approved by the Design Panel", or "we have a location near a town centre or on a transit route", and the really hard to discern one "this development represents affordable housing".

How does Council make a values-based decision? From what I can see, each of them has their own scale.

I propose that we assemble a committee of experts - directed by Planning Management and Staff who could develop for us a "Community Benefit Index" - a scorecard of sorts with empirical measurements that will produce a "score" on which to grade each proposal.

Does this proposal have ample parking? If yes, add 1 point (or maybe more points if the committee says so).

Do the rent or purchase prices meet the DNV/CMHC's definition of affordable? (30% of gross household income) - add points.

Is in in line with the OCP? Add points.

Is there too little parking and this will drive people into parking on the streets? Deduct points.

Will Co-op autos be guaranteed to be onsite? Add back points.

Then, when presented to Council - each development proposal could be "graded" by staff - and in each Staff Report part of the Executive Summary could be: "Council, this development proposal is a plus 36 on our Community Benefit Index Scale".

Council could then prioritize the heavy-plus developments over the weak ones, and especially over any negative-score ones.

Further, developers could learn the CBI (Community Benefit Index) system and gear their proposals to high scores - saving time and money in the process.

Let me be clear though - I do not purport to be the one developing the scoring system - I am asking the question... let's ask the experts (Management, Staff, Committees, Industry and Community Associations to come up with the matrix.

This last year especially, the District's Rental and Affordable Housing Strategy has been in special focus, and no more so than throughout the Emery Village deliberations.

The Rental and Affordable Housing Strategy (RAHS) has 6 goals:

*Goal 1 – Expand the supply and diversity of Housing.

*Goal 2 – Expand the supply of new rental and affordable housing.

*Goal 3 – Encourage the maintenance and retention of existing “affordable” rental.

*Goal 4 – Enable the replacement of existing rental housing with conditions.

*Goal 5 – Minimize impact to tenants.

*Goal 6 – Partner with other agencies to help deliver affordable housing.

My arguments before Council were that the Emery Village Proposal failed 5 of the 6 goals of the RAHS. Obviously, they did not see things from the same perspective as I did.

But the OCP and RAHS are separate documents - with the OCP being the most primary in consideration. 

I propose that the RAHS be melded into the OCP (Official Community Plan) as PART of the plan so that it carries equal weight.

I further recommend that we change goal number 5 from "minimize impact to tenants" to be "all tenants must be placed in suitable accomodations within the District of North Vancouver before demolition is allowed... whether that goal is achieved through phased construction, subsidized rents, modular housing or even hotels is up to the developer - but putting our citizens out on the streets is simply not acceptable.

Given the chance, I shall make this argument as part of a new Council.

I would like to see the District of North Vancouver develop a web and mobile app for citizens to interact with staff.

Such things as "there is a safety concern here" to "please fix this street light" are low-hanging fruit.

If the app allowed photo and geo-tagged mapping along with text - could we even issue bylaw tickets based on submitted evidence? In some cases, that may make sense - staff can't be everywhere all the time.

For my part, using my smart phone I succeeded in getting the following improvements: 

1) An ankle-turning pothole in my street - repaired within 24 hours.

2) A drip-line painted in the turn at a blind corner - enhancing safety at the junction of an arterial route.

3) A parking zone shifted to ensure that the wheelchair access path from the street to the sidewalk was protected from being blocked by vehicles parking legally.

These things took a lot of work and communications but could have been so simple with an app.

Lots of ideas will keep coming. Please check back.