Council has deferred a public hearing on a proposal to enable more secondary suites and laneway homes in the city in Kitsilano and Kensington-Cedar Cottage to after Nov. 5, when its authority to make decisions ends, because of time constraints.
The proposal, which was meant to increase housing diversity, was the last item on a public hearing agenda that was already on day two Sept. 19. At the time of the deferral, council had yet to vote on a different but related proposal to allow duplexes in single-family neighbourhoods. [That vote, which was in favour of duplexes, took place later in the evening. Read that story HERE.]
Sept. 20, meanwhile, was the only remaining day to complete the Kitsilano and Kensington-Cedar Cottage matter, which council judged was insufficient because 100 people had signed up to speak on the controversial rezoning amendments.
The planning department will determine a new date for the public hearing, which the incoming council will have to deal with. A handful of people in the gallery who had planned to speak about the issue applauded the move.
The vote was 10-1 in favour of deferral, with only Coun. Hector Bremner in opposition.
NPA Coun. George Affleck, who isn't running for re-election, said the Kits and Kensington-Cedar Cottage decision should be left to the new council.
Vision Vancouver Coun. Tim Stevenson, who also isn't running in the October vote, agreed to the deferral but he rejected the notion that the current council shouldn't be making such decisions this close to the election.
"When was the cutoff date [for decisions] -- two months ago, three months ago?" he said.
Vision Coun. Raymond Louie voted for deferral but he cautioned the four councillors who are running for re-election [Bremner, the NPA's Melissa De Genova, the Green's Adriane Carr and Vision's Heather Deal] not not discuss the proposal amongst themsleves to maintain the integrity of the process.
noconnor@vancourier.com
@naoibh
