For UBC Development

The way our campus is being developed is going to determine our community character for the next century and beyond. We have to get it right. I am proposing a number of zoning and development reforms that together form a program of Community Creation Zoning.

Community Creation Zoning is designed to create a community around the University. This does not mean just students, but building a community that all people who live out at the UBC Peninsula are able to coexist and actually benefit from each other.

1. The Farm must be preserved. The UBC Farm represents a key part of our community, and is a vital part of the academic life of campus. We have invested time and money making the farm viable – moving it just doesn’t make sense. We should place the whole Farm, in its current form and its current location, into the Agricultural Land Reserve, or secured in perpetuity by some other means.
2. Lift the units per area cap. Developers are only allowed to build a certain number of spaces per unit of land, and this makes it most profitable to build the biggest possible suites, and sell them as market housing. By lifting this cap, we can make it possible for smaller units to be economically viable.
3. Promote small unit development. Making it possible will not be enough, we have to make it cheaper. The region, in partnership with the Province and federal bodies like the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, can develop tax incentives, low interest amortizations and other promotions that will encourage the development of student housing.
4. Create a one-to-one housing policy. To make sure that we have enough affordable space on campus, all developers on campus should be required to build one unit of affordable, student or faculty centric housing for each market unit built.

If we take common sense approaches that ensure everyone will be able to afford some kind of place on campus, we can create a vibrant and dynamic community for everyone out at UBC.