The City of Victoria’s Missing Middle Housing Initiative (MMHI) seeks to create new housing throughout the city, with advocates claiming that the rise in housing stock will permit lower prices that will, in turn, allow hopeful homeowners to enter the market. When we look at the details of what is being proposed with the MMHI, however, we see that it will hurt homeowners in the long run.
A key component of the MMHI is the pre-approval process by staff, which means that less homeowners will attend council meetings and express their input on matters that effect their communities.
The goal of MMHI is to increase housing stock. It achieves this by permitting houseplexes and townhouses on existing lots presently zoned for single-family dwelling through a pre-approval process built into the strategic plans of the city. And this all sounds well and good, at first, until we consider the pre-approval process. This is where City staff will be permitted to approve the building of a townhouse or houseplex within neighbourhoods without homeowners being consulted. The argument from advocates is that the consultation happens during the strategic planning process, which is done every five years. However, when changes are made to the strategic plan, there are no grand announcements, no notice in the mail or billboard in the neighbourhood informing citizens that a zoning change is being proposed by another member of the community. And that is a problem.
There’s a great line from The Sopranos where Tony Soprano tells his protégée nephew that he will understand the value of fresh produce when he is married. The line is meant to be funny, but also rings with truth, because we often do not appreciate things until we need them. The many people living in Victoria, students among them, who want to enter the housing market and own their own home now or in the future feel like they are being shut out and are seemingly willing to give up much to make it happen. But this is wrong. You shouldn’t have to give up a democratic right to protect the property you’ve invested so much money in. To paraphrase Tony Soprano: you’ll understand the value of going to City Hall and telling the government to shove off when you own your own home and are faced with bureaucratic encroachment that burdens you as a homeowner.
As presently proposed, the MMHI will strip future homeowners of their right to have a say on what happens within their neighbourhoods unless they are one of those extremely rare breeds of citizen who pays close attention to local government during the doldrums. Otherwise, the changes will be pre-approved by staff and the only way you’ll find out as a homeowner is when the backhoes show up to break ground.
We shouldn’t have to give up an important right of homeownership in order to enter the housing market and generate housing stock throughout the city.
Victoria needs more housing and more density, but that does not have to come at the expense of our voices.