The unbelievably long marathon of a hearing continues. As I type this on Friday evening, we are at panel 83 of what appears to be over 170 groups of public commenters. There has been no shortage of craziness from the general public. A vast spectrum of opinions have been brought forth, some completely incompatible with mainstream mores of decency and sanity. The final vote, if it happens, should be next Saturday, May 4th? I will list a few top comments;
RCG is creating system of feudal landowners (this was directed at developers such as me, I am now a fuedal landlord, hoorah!)
RCG is a tool of the world economic forum to introduce an authoritarian marxism, Klaus Schwab is the ringleader of this globalist conspiracy, you will be happy and own nothing.
R1 zoning is a form of warranty provided by the city to home buyers (of course nobody paid any warranty premium or is willing to turn over profits from appreciation to the city to compensate it for servicing the warranty).
General consensus we need density, however, this is always followed by the big ‘BUT’
city communications staff guilty of at best deception and at worst fabrication and misrepresentation
current council is the worst in history of city
I think the mayor is a borderline saint for handling this hearing (actually nobody said this, it was from me).
the post secondary students are pissed off, I dont think anybody really cares though
home owners feel like their home value is under attack, value is confiscated by the city.
majority of presenters claim the city infrastructure is inadequate, nobody asked the city staff engineers though, they come to this conclusion on their own.
vacant city lands will solve our housing problem. everyone thinks this except the city.
the pace of allowing townhouse building is much to fast - everyone agrees with this except the builders who have to pay for costly, pointless delays.
parking, more parking, and some more parking.
sprawl is demanded. we need only single homes to solve our affordability problem.
claims about repurposing office towers for housing, the people who make this comment are willing to invest $0 in these ventures, but grateful ‘somebody else’ can be voluntold to do it.
developers cannot be trusted (I agree, we change investment decisions faster than the wind can blow).
council is ‘taking away choice’ by adding rcg as part of a menu of possible housing forms. I still dont see how you can take away choice by adding choice, or how protected r1 zoning doesnt take away more choice than adding more housing options.
I think we have heard every possible comment more than 100 x on repeat.
too many garbage cans. existing owners can behave badly with garbage cans, but the new ones certainly should not
one long term resident is stalking the occupants of new garage suites to try and make sure they are living according to his determination of what is acceptable - utter self incrimination of his bad behaviour in front of council and the world - cringe factor high with this character.
one presenter appeared to have been a victim of brainwashing into a cult of guilt and self loathing under the guise of a diversity, equity and inclusion textbook. I was extremely uncomfortable for her and fear she may need counselling. I hope she’s ok.
endless tales of deprivation, poverty and distress were regaled to council. awful stuff.
up zoning will not create affordable housing - of course, nobody is complaining the single house mansion market is too expensive. no recognition that new townhouses will create vacancy of depreciated and lower cost units that is currently not possible due to shortage of supply.
more parking.