Image: Vesuvius

Wise Words

An Interesting Debate Upcoming

The next Smart City Debate, the 11th in the Urbanarium series, will take place on Wednesday 28th March, beginning at 6:30pm at UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson.  The topic ls: Building Middle Housing Without Lot Assembly:

The pervasive development culture, requiring land assembly, underground parking, presentation center marketing and tendency towards large scale developments begs big questions for this missing housing type.

Will neighbourhoods embrace more density, and more neighbours, necessary for new approaches to affordable housing? Will local governments politically support the opening up of low density neighbourhoods that have historically been sacrosanct? Will municipal rules be quickly adjusted to support the design profession in the innovation of new typologies? Will the prevailing high cost of land hinder, or enhance, Missing Middle potential?

It promises to be a fascinating debate between two acknowledged experts from UBC, Patrick Conden and Scott Hein who have made substantial careers advocating for sustainable neighbourhood development, and Chuck Brook and Anne McMullin. Ms McMullin is the President and CEO of the Urban Development Institute (UDI), the home club for the development industry, close buddies with Vision Vancouver, and which many of us consider to be the generator of much of the disaster that is housing in Vancouver today.

I’m looking forward to it.  Hope to see some of you there.