City Growth, Urban Infill, & Hard Choices

This week, Council had two applications, on their agenda, for subdividing existing lots into three and two lots respectively. The petitioning from existing neighbours in one of the applications was delivered with conviction and passion. Their fear is that these changes will change the character and stability of their neighbourhood in substantial ways, and a large number of residents from that street were in attendance at Council, to deliver that message. They urged Council to deny the application; to leave their neighbourhood as is. Several added that should the subdividing be approved, that Council not approve a secondary suite in these new houses. 

As one Councillor faced with the sincere requests not to approve, I take no enjoyment in making a decision that may not agree with the request. My response to them was:

1. Abbotsford is growing at an increasingly fast rate. This year our city has experienced a record level of building permits (roughly $400M), and next year looks to surpass that mark.

2. Abbotsford is surrounded by agricultural land, which is protected by provincial legislation against future development.

3. Abbotsford has very little greenfield remaining for new development, and much of our non-agricultural land is comprised of slopes too steep for developing.

4. In light of these factors and the expectation of a growing population, our City adopted the Official Community Plan, 2016, which lays out a strategy for absorbing the next 60,000 people that move into our community. The Plan will drive 45,000 of those new residents into the existing urban core, and to that end, existing neighbourhoods with large-sized lots, need to be densified. One of the tools for accomplishing this is the subdividing of these large lots, and providing secondary suites wherever a minimum lot size is available, and assuming other conditions exist. (see figure below)

According to the policy adopted, one of the lots is large enough to subdivide into two lots, and with secondary suites on each.

To date, Council has approved numerous similar subdivisions throughout the city. Land owners are responding to market forces and to the flexibility that this new OCP policy provides them. The OCP went through vigourous community examination and input, and followed by careful staff and Council scrutiny, before adoption. 

To arbitrarily allow one, while denying another, both of which qualify under the new guidelines, is not in the best interests of our community, and would bring the integrity of Council's decisions into question, unless of course, if making an exception could be defended for sound reasons. Making an exception in this case, could not be defended, in my opinion.

See earlier article on 'Renewing With Urban Infill':

Equipping City Staff To Be Forward-Thinking

Nikolas Badminton 

City of Abbotsford paid 

$8,000 for speech by futurist

Described as ‘underwhelming’ by one employee

• TYLER OLSEN
• Dec. 17, 2017 8:00 a.m.
• LOCAL NEWS
• NEWS

 
 
 
 
 

The City of Abbotsford says it paid a “futurist” $8,000 for an October speech to council and staff on how a changing world is affecting municipalities.

Nikolas Badminton, who calls himself a “researcher and futurist speaker” on his website, spoke for about 50 minutes, then took questions from an audience of about 50 city employees and councillors in Matsqui Centennial Auditorium on Oct. 26.

The presentation, which wasn’t open to the public or media, is understood to have included prognostications about the future, and touched on how automation, the green energy revolution and changing feelings about urban environments could affect the future of cities like Abbotsford over the coming decades.

Coun. Dave Loewen, who tweeted about the presentation, told The News this week that presentations like Badminton’s are one way large organizations like the city can encourage change and become less stifling

“Change, today, is occurring at an increasingly rapid rate, and for local government to continue to be responsive to needs of residents and to be as financially efficient and effective as possible is a challenge,” Loewen wrote. “Presentations like Nik Badminton’s plant seeds in the minds of city staff … Anticipating change is a cultural shift that the workforce needs to adopt, if it has not already done so."

One city employee described much of the presentation as “underwhelming,” and cast a skeptical eye on the ability of prognosticators to accurately predict the future. But the employee said other parts of the speech touching on more tangible changes to real-life technology were more useful.

In a written statement, city manager George Murray said the presentation was tied into Abbotsford’s Plan200K process that includes the creation of 20 new plans and studies, including new neighbourhood plans, an affordable housing strategy, and master plans for the city’s parks, transportation, water, sewer, transit and fire services.

“As a part of this process, and also to help all of our staff at the City of Abbotsford with considering how we will deliver services to our community in the future, the City invited futurist Nikolas Badminton to speak to all of our staff on some of the key considerations for the future of municipalities,” Murray wrote.

“We also invited some of our community partners and stakeholders to participate in watching this presentation and also recorded it so that it is available for staff to review whenever they need.”

Badminton’s website says “He cares about your event, helping you create an amazing experience, and creating a compelling keynote for your attendees to get excited and fired up about. It’s a collaborative approach.”

Asked if The News could see the video, city staff pointed to Badminton’s YouTube channel, which includes several of his speeches.