Andrea Reimer At Large

Laneway Housing Update: applications coming in citywide

This week City staff gave council the second update on laneway housing applications since the zoning change to allow laneway housing was approved in July 2009.

As part of the condition of approval for the laneway housing program, I added a formal requirement for reporting on eight issues that some residents voiced concerns about. At the time, I shared some of these misgivings but as there was no evidence to prove that these things would come to pass -- and given the positive social and environmental aspects of infill housing -- it seemed the only reasonable way to break the impasse was to approve the program and analyze the information closely.

Looking at the report, so far it looks like all of the aspects of the program have worked out remarkably well. Most impressive is how distributed the applications have been across the city. There does seem to be a slight bias towards the north of the city, but certainly not the concentration by neighbourhood that some of the more concerned activists were worried about.

Meanwhile, there is housing for c. 60 more people in the first nine months of the program and strong indications that it will be a viable program in the long term.

If you're a home owner and interested in your own laneway house, check out the city's Laneway House Guidelines.

Curbside & Neighbourhood Compost Comes to Vancouver!

Today council formally approved a curbside compost & neighbourhood compost program for Vancouver which will be implemented in three phases, the first of which starts on April 22.

The project stems out of a recommendation from the Greenest City Action Team last April. While I have had some struggle over the past year trying to understand, as a first term councillor, why previous councils have spokedn alot about their love of compost but had never acted on it, working to get it through this past year has been illuminating.

The three big challenges have been:

(1) how to meet the very different pick up needs of single detached residential vs mulri-unit apartments (to start with one is city pick up, the other private)

(2) balancing off the needs of beginner composters who are much more likely to want curbside pick up with those that are more advanced and want more access to backyard and neighbourhood composting

(3) where to put all the food scraps once you've collected them

The plan brought forward by staff found solutions to all these problems and they are to be applauded for their hard work to get us from "we should" to "we can and here's how we are going to do it". CUPE 1004 and Metro Vancouver's flexibility and support also makes it possible to work through the phases together to make sure everyone's needs and concerns can be accomodated. Group learning!

Finally, the communication challenge is huge and from the experience of other cities essential to making it work. Over the coming weeks (days actually) information will start to be available. If you're compost literate please share with neighbours. The faster we get phase 1 right, the sooner we get to phases 2 and 3 which are really the big prize on the road to zero waste.

Check out the plan here: http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20100304/documents/csbu2.pdf

More info on details as they are available on City of Vancouver website: http://vancouver.ca/projects/foodWaste/index.htm