Solutions to the housing crunch in Vancouver? Ways to create more affordable housing? For everyone?
Enough with the questions. Time for answers. Last October, the Vancouver City Planning Commission, Smart Growth BC and the City Program brought together some of the brightest minds in the city to take that one on. And now you can see the results for yourself here:
This summary of the two-day conference highlights the remarks of public-lecture speaker Karrie Jacobs (The Perfect $100,000 House) with response from Dale McClanaghan and Lance Jakubec; distills the speech of keynote speaker Larry Beasley (New Possibilities; Old Barriers); and sums up the comments of our panel of experts Bill Buholzer, Bruce Haden, Bob Ransford and Jay Wollenberg (Overcoming Barriers to Affordable Housing Strategies).
Most importantly, the report documents (with helpful illustrations) the recommendations of the small-group discussions:
- Small infill houses on laneways
- Adaptive re-use and enhanced housing mixes in single-family areas
- Intensification along major roads, new nodes and transit-oriented development
- Thinking outside the box
This conference did more than talk about a problem; it supplied some realistic and practical solutions.
Now the challenge: translating it all into action.
