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Long time coming, but after 4 years of navigating a challenging municipal process, Lapis Homes and Urban Thrive are pleased to announce a one of a kind pre-sale program of our beautiful 9-home, car-free #yyj townhouse project that we’ve called Folk (Urbanthrive.ca/Folk). 🧵

@MurdochOakBay @markstrategy @Ravikahlon In good faith that you’d like to make improvements, when an anti-housing municipality has tabled a bylaw that will make housing more expensive, a developer must anticipate it will be passed and prepare for those costs. This is one of the reasons I don’t work in oak bay.

@RyanJabs @markstrategy @Ravikahlon Yes, Council has asked for feedback on options around blasting as well as solicited public and industry feedback… and will have a report from staff in the new year. Mark’s post said we “added” a “crippling” new bylaw, which is untrue. You’re not aware of this?

I won't propose a project in @MurdochOakBay's community because it'll get rejected or be saddled with way too many costs to build. They're not hitting @ravikahlon's targets unless the province removes their land use powers or they upzone broadly for these homes.

@MurdochOakBay @markstrategy @Ravikahlon On the blasting, you’re not aware of this? Your council has given direction multiple times: oakbaynews.com/local-news/oak…

@markstrategy @RyanJabs @Ravikahlon ACCs and DCCs are new (not increased) and follow Provincial calculations (=consistent with region). If DCCs/ACCs hurt development, should Oak Bay be praised for decades without? Also: no new anti-blasting bylaw in place, where did that come from? Let’s all be honest in debate

@MurdochOakBay @markstrategy @Ravikahlon Oak Bay always buried the full cost of upgrades on new projects, & I suspect the muni does the same with these new charges. If you’re serious about hitting the targets, might be worth accepting the significant barriers and risks and addressing them rather than defending them.

Mayor @MurdochOakBay "said he’s optimistic that when the province reviews what Oak Bay has done over the year, an adviser will not be necessary." What they've done is below. Hopefully, the @bcndp & @KahlonRav address this swiftly, as many munis will be watching closely.

@Trevorinvi38974 @MurdochOakBay @Ravikahlon For decades, local gov edict has restricted communities from positive natural growth that would have accommodated families and small businesses in healthy urban development patterns with lower housing costs. The system you want to preserve creates community withering sprawl.

@RyanJabs @MurdochOakBay @Ravikahlon Stop pushing for the destruction of communities by government edict

@pgcmorgan @dad_nrg @mattdellok @bcndp @KahlonRav There are too many goals baked into the policies and the many, many bylaws guiding this small form and they continue to get more onerous. If we want smaller housing forms, we need to make it simpler and easier. This is where the @bcndp could step in with a blanket bylaw.

@RyanJabs @dad_nrg @mattdellok @bcndp @KahlonRav Exactly! In practice, small developments have probably been made more difficult/expensive over the past few years in the City of Victoria. Also, none of this is reducing the cost of housing.

Victoria is doing everything possible to address the housing affordability crisis. This term we've approved nearly 7000 new homes, invested heavily in affordable housing projects, eliminated development fees for non-market homes, supported the STR-ban, and much more. #yyj

@dad_nrg @pgcmorgan @mattdellok @bcndp @KahlonRav I'd encourage you to make an application to build a middle housing project there and see how much alignment you experience (or just check how few small projects are actually being proposed and built in that municipality).

@RyanJabs @pgcmorgan @mattdellok @bcndp @KahlonRav That doesn’t seem to align with Saanichs 2023 community plan

If you create a culture of no, don't expect people to believe you if you say you're probably going to start saying yes to things if they're in the right place, at the right scale, for the right people and for whatever else you subjectively think is right.

@pgcmorgan @dad_nrg @mattdellok @bcndp @KahlonRav Munis continue to encourage a climate/community killing tall & sprawl style of dev. The only way they hit their targets is through massive 6-24 storey builds b/c the small stuff remains too difficult. If they want smaller density, they need to stop treating it like the big stuff.

@pgcmorgan @dad_nrg @mattdellok @bcndp @KahlonRav Victoria has posted on their website that they're getting around the legislation because they put in an almost impossible bylaw to work with before the legislation came out... and they're seeing very few projects come forward, and fewer approved, as a result. It's too difficult.

@Projoiner @bcndp They have specific goals. The problem is that they have way too many goals and it limits feasibility on many lots, which is why uptake is slow and takes a lot of planning time (almost every project will need a variance).

Just had another notice that drywall is going up another 7-8% this year. Concrete is going up 5%. Well beyond current inflation. With the new municipal fees and bylaws and the much more expensive @bcndp building code changes, new construction is going to continue to increase.

If municipalities truly want to increase their urban canopy & address the housing crisis, this is the way to do it without obstructing housing. And this will provide way more public benefit for cooling, stormwater runoff, mental health & aesthetics. But this takes leadership.

@EwingLesley It’s a strata building. I explored fee simple a few years ago but it was pretty burdensome. I’m not aware of any locally. Things might have changed since then (I’m not sure). There are some strong social benefits from having small stratas as long as they’re set up well.

Long time coming, but after 4 years of navigating a challenging municipal process, Lapis Homes and Urban Thrive are pleased to announce a one of a kind pre-sale program of our beautiful 9-home, car-free #yyj townhouse project that we’ve called Folk (Urbanthrive.ca/Folk). 🧵

And I'd encourage the @bcndp and @KahlonRav, if he is reappointed as the housing minister, to start rolling back the many new costs the province has added on housing in the last decade, as well as aggressively enforce and strengthen the legislation they've recently introduced.

I'd also encourage municipalities like @saanich to address the burden of costs they put on housing -- at least $100,000 to each of these homes -- and eliminate the lengthy approval time which leads to higher housing costs (costs are up by about 80% since we started the process).