How To Start Strengthening Your Town With Incremental Development
Will Gardner May 6, 2024
"...And incremental doesn’t have to mean slow. Incremental growth is potentially the fastest way to grow housing stock, revitalize downtown areas and fill town coffers. Large greenfield projects, despite their promise of hundreds or thousands of housing units, take years of work to come to fruition — usually with large political fights along the way. These are large, often long-shot bets that may not come through... Conversely, small infill projects can be initiated in a matter of weeks and months. As these projects happen, they attract further attention and resources to the town and create momentum for growth..."
Small infill includes accessory dwelling units, too - so called "granny flats" and remodeled garages or outbuildings. These could easily create a lot of new affordable housing.
“Providing housing would be the best way possible and this is the cheapest way that we can afford to build one,” said Lacasse, a group member of United Front to End Homelessness.
The structures are entirely made out of sand bags.
“The sand bag houses that are being built are fire resistant, properly ventilated and easy to heat,” said Wren Wombwell, a member of Fight Back KW.
Just how badly does Canada need to increase its home building pace, vs the early 2000s?
“When CIBC economist Benjamin Tal updated the CMHC estimate earlier this year, to account for recent unprecedented population growth because of immigration, he pegged the shortfall at closer to seven million homes.
If that’s true, then getting to housing affordability doesn’t just mean a doubling of the pace of home building. It would take a quadrupling.”
The idea that you can have transit extend the range of walking distance without embracing bikes as a transportation utility, in the sprawling american suburbs, is just delusional. But it's the delusion that most of our city budgets and plans are built on. Biking in Portland is faster than walking+transit for most values of A to B but I can nearly guarantee you need to elbow your way through car traffic somewhere on that trip. Land use and transit need bikes for glue.
@pleaseclap there's actually a lot of good reasons beyond #ClimateChange and #CarbonEmissions for cities to invest in bikes as #transportation, geometrically the #HousingCrisis needs more density because multi-level streets for cars are extraordinarily expensive and we've maxed out the drive-and-park model that much of the US grew and developed under. #GeometryHatesCars so the only way out of traffic #congestion, also solves #AirPollution, #VisionZero is viable alternatives to driving, is bikes
The latest by @dariaphoebe and I for #Providence Journal about why building infrastructure for safe, efficient non-car transportation is not a nice-to-have, but a must-have for building the density we need to combat the #housingcrisis.
Although there are now no simple solutions, the #housingcrisis in #Australia can be traced back to a handful of catastrophic policy choices made by #JohnHoward and recommended by his friends.
I was disappointed to find out that the new rental housing being built here - won't actually be affordable enough for former tenants of the demolished homes that used to sit on this lot. Several low income, multi-suites rental homes were demolished last year & this year. We are in desperate need of truly affordable housing for low income & marginalized families in #Saanich & #VictoriaBC.
Has anyone come across a Google doc/list of all the #vc firms that are buying single family homes in the US and ruining the current and future #housing market for literally everyone? Asking for a friend...
Once again a critically important vote is upon city council and once again the Hub is stepping up to let you know WHY the April 22 #RezoningVote is important for #ClimateAction in Calgary and how YOU can help YOUR CITY do the right thing. #yyccc#yyc#HousingCrisis
If you haven't given a listen to our latest podcast episode yet, dig in! Rezoning champion Councillor Walcott makes the case for taking steps on both the #HousingCrisis AND #ClimateEmergency with the fast approaching Apr 22nd vote!
Watch for our upcoming YouTube webcast for Housing Night In Calgary, in depth analysis on our Housing Crisis & the April 22nd Rezoning Vote. Featuring local luminaries from More Neighbours Calgary, Sustainable Calgary, Strong Towns Calgary & more! #yyc#yyccc#HousingCrisis#Climate
It's not just all those cars travelling increasingly greater distances twice a day to get everybody to work that makes #Sprawl a problem, it's also the damage we keep doing to what few #wetlands remain. These are "nature's sponges." We more of NEED more of them, not less #yyc#yyccc#HousingCrisis#Climate
Every Scottish council with the exception of Glasgow, Falkirk & North Ayrshire will be using their new powers to double the council tax of 2nd homes. It’s estimated there are over 24,000 of these in #Scotland.
"At city council you can always just gum things up until its 2025 and then claim it's the business of the next council and not this one and thus the great circle turns forever. That's a lot of things but what it's not is crisis management"
"Canada has pivoted away from natural birth and shifted entirely to immigration for growth. Virtually all growth (97.6%) was due to international migration. Only a sliver—the remaining 2.4% growth was due to natural increases (births outpacing deaths). "