Better Land Use
More Housing

The City Of Delta’s Housing Policy Is Driving Up Costs And Removing Options

Over 77% of the City’s housing lands are being deliberately reserved for homes worth more than $1.3 million.

Let’s end the apartment bans and begin to add options for housing in Delta.

Until we change our policies and processes at City Hall, we will not be able to meaningfully address the crisis we’ve created with escalating rents, crippling house prices, and an inadequate supply of housing options in Delta.

• The City of Delta Housing Needs Assessment is clear: we need to change.
• The City of Delta Housing Action Plan is clear: we need to change.
• The City of Delta Social Action Plan is clear: we need to change.
• The City of Delta Climate Action Plan is clear: we need to change.

We should have seen this coming 60 years ago. But, since we didn’t change our city’s development pattern back then we must see that  the next best time to change it is now.

The City Of Delta’s Land Use Rules Prioritize Cars To The Detriment Of Everyone

Delta’s auto-oriented development regulations call for expensive parking requirements and make our neighbourhood streets unsafe by valuing speed over safety.

Our land use rules prioritize the movement of personal automobiles at the expense of every other user of our public realm.

Houses are set back from the street by mandatory frontage requirements that eat up valuable space while providing less flexibility with home designs and ruling out the possibility of adding additional homes on a property.

We invest heavily in roadway improvements and maintaining the landscaping of medians in the middle of our roads while ignoring the condition of the sidewalk users who are buffeted by noise and faced with serious personal risks when using these unprotected spaces.

We prevent redevelopment of retail stores and the introduction of new retailers and services within neighbourhoods because of overstated concerns over increases of private automobile traffic at the expense of walkable neighbourhoods and those who don’t own cars.

We make our streets unsafe spaces for children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities and, when pressed, we declare that no actions can be taken to address these issues because it will hamper traffic throughput or the movement of oversized emergency response vehicles that are needed to respond to the collisions caused by our streets being unsafe.

Of course it must be said, in response to those who immediately react to such things, that we’re not advocating for the end of cars in Delta. But we are calling for a more responsible and financially productive approach to developing our neighbourhoods.

Thousands of significant housing and retail projects have been shelved because of traffic concerns.

Are we certain we want to prioritize one type of street user at the expense of everyone?

The City Of Delta’s Process To Approve More Housing Is Bogged Down And Needs To Change

Countless proposals to introduce more housing in Delta have been shut down by delays, negativity, uncertainty, and unnecessary requirements.

In a city with 77% of its land dedicated to a housing type currently valued at over $1.3 million, surely we should we exploring ways to expedite the construction of semi-detached homes, apartments, rowhouses, accessory dwelling units, coach houses, condos, etc.

However, Delta’s policies and process makes it is far easier to tear down an older home and replace it with a large, multi-million $$$ mansion. We know who this process benefits and who this hurts.

In order to avoid a future where no one in a household earning less than $100,000 can afford rent in Delta, let alone to purchase a townhome or apartment, we need to act.

Affordable housing projects routinely wait over 2 years before receiving approval whereas house flippers receive approval to proceed within 6-10 weeks of submitting their request. This is a deliberate consequence of a policy framework that has favoured single detached home neighbourhoods and actively prevented the introduction of other housing types within these exclusive enclaves.

It was less visible when average home prices hovered in the $400-$700,000 range but now that single detached homes start over $1 million and quickly hit $2 million or more, the reality is that average income earners who do not currently own a home are faced with intensifying financial burdens and being driven out of our city.

The City’s action to pass a Housing Action Plan is laudable – but the plan must become reality and the plan’s best prescriptions must be implemented with boldness to ensure that we begin to make meaningful progress in providing housing options at affordable rates for folks in our city.