Urgent Request to Write to Council
Please write an email to mayor-council@delta.ca to tell them you support the introduction of more housing in Ladner Village!!!
An update to the Ladner Village Area Plan has been prepared for Council consideration on November 22 and a Public Hearing on December 14. This update would reduce the height restrictions in certain areas of the Town Centre to allow for the introduction of housing and retail in a mixed use setting. This is an ideal setting for homes to be located in the midst of a walkable neighbourhood that has transit service, a wide range of services and amenities, and considerable need for a new round of building on dilapidated lots and neglected parcels of the Village.
We want to encourage people-oriented places in order to see more of them – as it currently exists, Ladner Village is a people-oriented place that lacks a critical mass of people living within the core neighbourhood. The proposed changes to the land use regulations will go a long ways towards unlocking the potential for the Village.
Critically, the changes will still restrict the majority of the Village to 2-3 storeys, open up some areas to 4 storeys, and allow the frontage on Elliott St to rise to 6 storeys maximum. This means that the “movie set” areas of Ladner Village will remain as they are while the run down and neglected areas of the village along Elliott St will be permitted to have construction projects of a size and height that makes sense financially for a development project.
What’s more, the Village will continue to have fairly stringent style requirements in order to ensure that buildings are built to the standard & design of nearby structures.
I mention that because the complaints are pouring in to council alleging that the proposed land use changes will ‘destroy’ the Village and remove everything that is lovable about it. Really? If it were as bleak a picture as it’s being painted, the plan would have to be far more radical than this set of modest adjustments. Height limits will still apply (for a good explanation of why that matters, consider reading this brilliant piece over at the Strong Towns website) and design style requirements will definitely apply.
If you can spare a moment of your time, please write to council ASAP to tell them that you are supportive of the introduction of more housing in a responsible way within Ladner Village.
OR (and this is NEW!) you can visit our dedicated webpage for our Yes for Ladner! campaign at https://delpop.ca/yes-for-ladner-village and make use of our letter-writing tool. We are excited to try this for the first time to see if Del-POP can actively help a wider audience of Delta residents to get engaged by writing into council.
AND forward this email or share the link for https://delpop.ca/yes-for-ladner-village with people that you know who can also take a moment to write in.
Meet up: NEXT Thursday (Nov 18) at 7:30PM on Zoom
Our monthly meeting will feature an analysis of the City’s update to the Ladner Village Area Plan by Norm Van Eeden Petersman. Please email delta4pop@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link if you haven’t received it before. Will also be posted in Slack. Encourage your friends to take a big step as a housing advocate by attending a Del-POP meetup!
Ground Swell Alert: We are seeing a big uptick in interest in Del-POP and have YOU to thank for it! Please continue to spread the word and invite your friends and family to join us! Encourage people to start by signing up for our newsletter (passive awareness) and then get inspired by attending our meetings and get involved by speaking up for housing or by becoming a volunteer leader within Del-POP!
Call Out for Volunteer Facebook Recruiters
As troublesome a platform as I may find Facebook to be, the reality is that a lot of housing-related conversations are taking place on the community pages of North Delta, Ladner, and Twassessen. If you’re interested in helping Del-POP to grow, one way you can help is by sending simple direct messages to commenters who express pro-housing sentiments in online discussions. Talk with Jessie Morton or me (Norm) and we’ll come up with a way of coordinating our approaches online. We know that there are many Del-POP members just lurking out there in the shadows online and a simple message will bring them into a new world of allies and friends 🙂
