Quote:
Originally Posted by bizaro86
I mean, the whole benefit of the blanket re-zoning is that there isn't a bunch of bureaucracy and consultations required. Those things sound really motherhood and apple pie but they add a lot of time and cost to the development process, which will absolutely reduce supply/increase costs to homebuyers.
There is tons of land in places like Upper Mount Royal right near transportation corridors (14th st) that it would be 100% reasonable to upzone. There isn't any justifiable reason for wealthy neighbourhoods to be exempt from these changes. That isn't an us-versus-them situation, it's trying to maximize the value we get as a society from the resources we have.
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De-regulation doesn't help people, it helps companies. When you "eliminate red tape" it gives the corporations more decision making power on behalf of the rest of us but the corporation doesn't give a crap about you or me, they give a crap about profits.
As long as land development is 100% outsourced to private corporations, you should not de-regulate them and give them more control to make profit at our expense.
Also much fun as it might be to try and go after upper mount royal, it is a pipe dream. What will actually happen is there will be zero redevelopment in upper mount royal and the developers will buy up all of the affordable housing in other neighbourhoods in order to convert them into less affordable housing. No private developer is going to try and buy a $3M house for redevelopment when they can buy a $700K house instead and convert it into 2-3 $1.4M houses.
The developers will make a pile of money buying up all of the affordable houses and the houses will get more expensive. It is a lose-lose for the average person hoping to buy a home.
If you really want to stick it to the 'rich' people, go after their corporate owned land. Take their empty lots that they are sitting on until land value goes up enough for them to finally develop at maximum profit. Or go after their inner city warehouses and slumlord rental properties.
There are many other strategies that you can use that won't expressly benefit corporations and harm citizens.