Latest news with #density
ABC News
12-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
YIMBYs vs NIMBYs as the battle for affordable housing moves into your backyard
The Yes In My Backyard movement is lobbying for denser cities and more housing in places people want to work and live and YIMBYs want these homes built yesterday. But the NIMBYs haven't given up yet. On a cold June night in Sydney's eastern suburbs dozens of residents, most insulated by navy puffer coats and vests, have piled into the Double Bay Bowling Club to air their concerns at a housing forum. They're not happy that apartments are going up in their suburbs — some of Sydney's most affluent. They're concerned more people will clog the roads and strain infrastructure, especially in an area without a "decent supermarket". They're nervous a six-story "monstrosity" will block their sunlight. They're anxious the "runoff from construction" into the harbour will impact their children who "enjoy sailing". They want legal recourse. A resident who owns multiple investment properties in North Bondi is struggling with interest repayments and land tax and worries the onus is on him as a landlord to make rent more affordable. They're angry "existing homeowners" are being blamed for the housing crisis when the government is allowing migration. "We should move out and accept higher density and unliveable suburbs?" one woman asks into the microphone. "Well excuse me, it's not our fault." The room murmurs in agreement. This small gathering of homeowners and politicians is just one of the many local fronts of resistance to the Albanese government's plan to deliver 1.2 million homes across the country by June 2029. The prime minister recently conceded it is "too hard" to build housing in Australia and promised to cut red tape to help boost supply. While many are saying no to development in their suburbs, there is a growing appetite for "housing abundance" helped by Australia's blossoming Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) movement. YIMBYs want denser cities, they want more housing in places people want to work and live, and they want them built yesterday. 'Not because of a New York Times bestseller' While rolling back regulations and boosting construction isn't usually associated with those on the left of politics, support for a "liberalism that builds" is gathering momentum globally. It has been helped by the popularity of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's book Abundance, in which the authors attempt to reorient progressive politics around the provocation: "can we solve our problems with supply?" Treasurer Jim Chalmers keeps mentioning it, Competition Minister Andrew Leigh has quoted it and Productivity Commission head Danielle Wood even claims she read it "before it was cool". So popular is the book in Australia's political capital that two Canberra bookstores told the Australian Financial Review they'd sold out. Housing Minister Clare O'Neil says her focus is "absolutely on building more homes". "It's been the defining motivation of our Labor government for the last three years — not because of a New York Times bestseller — but because we're working to correct a 40-year failure of governments to build enough of them," she tells the ABC. "So many of the housing issues people face are solved by improving our ability to build more homes at scale. Because more homes means more affordable housing — for renters, first home buyers and downsizers alike." In NSW, the government is attempting to build some 112,000 new homes by overriding council restrictions to allow denser housing near public transport. The state posted the biggest increase in approvals of higher-density housing (apartments, townhouses, terrace and semi-detached houses) in the year to May. Just three of the 171 centres the Minns government is targeting are located in Sydney's east where the housing forum in Double Bay is heating up. Local state member Liberal Kellie Sloane, who is hosting the forum, asks how many people have been doorknocked by a real estate agent and a sea of hands go up. One woman, who lives on Rose Bay's Wilberforce Avenue where 12 owners are asking for $165 million from developers for their properties, says says real estate agents won't leave her alone: "I'm very scared that I'm going to be forced out of my home." A house up the road from her that "couldn't get a nibble at $8 million" sold earlier this year for $16 million. In the 1.6 square kilometres that incorporate these inner-eastern suburbs of Edgecliff, Double Bay and Darling Point population density has remained more or less stagnant for a decade, according to figures provided by CoreLogic to the ABC. Up goes another puffy navy sleeve with a question. Tom, an Edgecliff resident, says there has been a lot of "fair comments" about the need for infrastructure to support more housing but suggests the community could reflect on its history of opposing any infrastructure development. Woollahra residents objected to a train station (chasing an injunction all the way to the High Court) and also opposed a plan to turn a derelict service station into a Woolworths and apartment block. Those in the front rows turn around to take a better squiz at the questioner. Sloane identifies Tom as a member of YIMBY Sydney and thanks him for coming — "we've got to build!" — but she maintains the train station was a bad idea. A suspicion of developers Australia's most beloved, if fictional, NIMBY — The Castle's protagonist Darryl Kerrigan — reminds us of a time when the arguments for and against development were simpler: humble home owners taking on greedy developers, or environmentalists trying to save the trees. But Australia's sprawling YIMBY movement is gaining political power amid a national housing crisis when a mortgage or even affordable rent has become further out of reach. Last month the average house price in Australia surpassed $1 million (Sydney's median house price is predicted to hit $1.8m next year). If you've been lucky enough to overcome the average savings period for a deposit that now often extends beyond a decade, the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council's recent report found that by the end of 2024 it took half of median household income to service a new mortgage. Meanwhile low rental vacancy rates mean people are climbing over each other for the luxury of forking out 33 per cent of median household income to cover a new lease. Affordable rent, attainable mortgages and the ability to live closer to work, family and schools? Tell him he's dreamin'. In Queensland there has historically been suspicion of development, says Travis Jordan of YIMBY group Greater Brisbane. He reckons the state's planning, environment and heritage laws were shaped in the 1990s in reaction to a period of questionable — and in some cases outright corrupt — relationships between politicians and developers when the concerns of communities and local councils were dismissed in favour of demolition and rezoning. Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, in office from 1968-1987, famously disregarded Brisbane's heritage. His connections with the "white-shoe brigade" of property developers and the midnight destruction of iconic Brisbane landmarks like the Cloudland Ballroom at the hands of the infamous Deen Bros looms large in the memories of Queenslanders. "The people fighting up-zoning are stuck in the '90s and they want their neighbourhoods to be stuck there too," Jordan says. NIMBYs tend to be home owners and home owners tend to be older — Jordan sees a generation in Brisbane who went from fighting for "green bans" in the '80s and '90s to fighting to "save our suburbs". He says opponents of density are contributing to a situation in which many people face a choice between renting in "barely-habitable character homes" with poor energy ratings or getting into the property market hours from their workplace and family. "In Brisbane, it's hard to look at the townhouse ban or how widespread our character housing protections are and think we've got the balance right," he says. "We started by bringing in regulations that stop the worst harms and ended up with ones that — by the Lord Mayor's own admission — stop anything at all." Jordan thinks that future housing is being held to standards that didn't apply to the very housing people want to safeguard. "[NIMBYs will] wax lyrical about a street where every old home looks the same while whinging that every apartment looks the same." 'The climate crisis is a housing crisis' In Queensland frequent flooding has left "whole neighbourhoods unlivable" and people are accepting harder trade-offs, he says. "For a lot of people in Brisbane — especially renters and older people — the climate crisis is a housing crisis." Jordan, a former Greens staffer, rents one of the state's iconic Queenslanders and says they were designed to suit the sunshine state's tropical climate but have now become an impediment to climate-resilient homes. "They're by design near impossible to insulate and drought-proof. Can't cool down in summer and can't stay warm in winter," he says. New housing is often opposed on grounds of preserving something, whether it is heritage, privacy, or as one local mayor at Sydney's Double Bay housing forum described, the ill-defined and apparently static "character" of the community. But for many conservationists, increasing density in cities and stopping the creep of low-density residential development over large areas of land is crucial to preserving something else: biodiversity. A 2023 report from the Queensland Conservation Council found that urban sprawl was fast-tracking the extinction crisis in the state. The council's urban sustainability lead, Jen Hasham, says urban sprawl is the "biggest threat to the unique biodiversity and liveability", particularly in South East Queensland where there is a projected population growth of more than two million people by 2046. "Waterways are being impacted, wildlife, such as our beloved koalas, are being killed and displaced, not just by the initial developments but then the years of infrastructure that has to follow it," she says. Conservationists are supportive of the grassroots YIMBY movement, Hasham says, and Australia needs to "build up, not out" but YIMBYs have found a mixed response from Greens politicians at all levels of government. In Perth the West Australian Greens leader Brad Pettitt recently said that his colleagues on the west coast should relinquish inner-city NIMBYism as "we need to get rid of red tape". In Sydney, Greens councillors have been voting against high density developments, most recently against the Inner West Council's push to have the state government rezone former WestConnex sites, on the grounds the housing wouldn't be 100 per cent public housing. Nevertheless, this month the NSW government announced one of the sites, a slab of land on Sydney's Parramatta Road, would be transformed into 577 apartments, 220 of which will be set aside for essential workers at a discounted rate. (A 2024 Anglicare Australia report looked at more than 45,000 rental listings across a weekend and found just 1.4 per cent were affordable for a nurse, and 0.9 per cent for an early childcare educator.) Izabella Antoniou, one of the Greens councillors who has voted against development, says even if deregulation does lead to a greater supply of housing, it won't help affordability. "We have incentives such as negative gearing and land banking that continue to drive up prices and ensure housing is an investment not a human right," she says. "To deliver genuine affordability, we need targeted interventions such as rent controls, strong inclusionary zoning targets, and the mass building of public housing by governments." Antoniou maintains that government intervention is the only way out of this housing crisis as "private housing developers won't fix a system they're benefiting from". "We need to ensure we're building homes, not investment portfolios," she says. University of Melbourne social policy researcher Max Holleran says the YIMBY movement has come under attack from anti-gentrification progressives who, as Holleran puts it, argue these groups are "merely social justice shells concealing property interests". Unlike housing activists in decades past, YIMBYs are not prioritising the fight to protect existing public housing stock and push against evictions but are instead what Holleran calls "supply-side believers" who are more preoccupied with building more of everything. "They're basically saying 'you're not going to get entirely inclusionary zoning in every neighborhood and you are going to have to work with the developers'," he says. Resistance to the cult of supply-side economics While no one at Double Bay's housing forum is arguing for more public housing, the question of affordability is raised repeatedly — how would a few luxury apartments in such a posh part of the city even help a generation of people locked out of the property market? YIMBYs are clear it isn't a one for one process but instead a game of musical chairs — the multi-million dollar apartments going up in Sydney's exclusive east aren't immediately helping your average Australian with a piddling house deposit. Instead wealthy people who can afford them will move out of older stock and the person who buys that home will move out of theirs and so forth, speeding up the process of low quality stock at the back end of the line devaluing or getting redeveloped. "This is actually really intuitive," says Justin Simon, co-founder of YIMBY Sydney. "New cars start at around $30K and you have used cars right down the price spectrum but when production stopped during COVID-19, those new car customers had to buy used instead, and the price went up dramatically. "The same thing is happening when you don't build new units in Woollahra or [Sydney's] north shore: those people will buy a terrace in Ashfield instead, gut it and turn it into a luxury home. The family they beat at the auction has to move out to Liverpool, and the nurse who was living in Liverpool is now moving to Queensland. "Everyone in this chain would have a better living situation and a shorter commute if we built an extra unit in the eastern suburbs — how transformative would it be if we built tens of thousands?" YIMBYs often point across the ditch to Auckland where studies of a 2016 reform to allow more townhouses and apartments showed an increase in construction and decrease in rents. Simon cites 2019 research from the RBA, which found that every 1 per cent increase in housing supply eventually brings prices down by 2.5 per cent. But the notion that addressing supply will help the housing crisis has its critics. ANZ's chief economist has said focusing on new supply alone "is unlikely to materially improve affordability, even in the medium term". Australian urban planning academics have instead suggested winding back tax breaks like negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount to reinvest into social housing and here at the ABC Michael Janda has written that other policies discourage Australians to free up their capital and spare rooms (including the tax-free status of the family home). A shortage of planners but an excess of planning But others say unlocking supply hasn't happened fast enough. Despite Labor's housing abundance rhetoric, the Liberal Party's housing spokesperson Senator Andrew Bragg isn't impressed and thinks Australia is yet to have a government that fully backs the YIMBY movement. A recent report from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council found Australia is already likely to miss its target by about 262,000 homes. "Ultimately the numbers aren't moving," Bragg tells the ABC. "I think one of the reasons is that, because too many developments are still being kiboshed and I would say that a lot of the agencies, including federal agencies, have not been effective in actually getting houses or supporting the development of housing." YIMBY Melbourne's Jonathan O'Brien says it can be easy to focus on the headline-grabbing behaviour of NIMBY councillors but behind them sits teams of professional planners. New analysis released today by YIMBY Melbourne, in a new "pro-growth" online journal Inflection Points, claims the number of planners Australia-wide has increased dramatically over the past three decades but key productivity outcomes — including the number of home completions — have only worsened. "We've gone to planning meetings where there have been 40 rejections for a single subdivision and we've had members who have been the sole person speaking in favour of that subdivision," O'Brien says. "Legacy planning is essentially like a set of normative claims, like 'this should go here and this should look like this' but it doesn't actually make anything happen — things usually happen despite planning, not because of it." O'Brien says there's not a shortage of planners but an excess of planning. YIMBY Melbourne's analysis found there are almost nine times as many planners today as there were in 1986. For every planner in 1986, we built more than 50 homes, we now build fewer than 10 homes per planner. The fight for the missing middle Canberra's YIMBY movement took off almost a decade ago with memes — specifically a Facebook page called Bush Capital Memes for Action-Oriented Teens (in reference to Canberra's bus operator Action). Greater Canberra organiser Howard Maclean says it became a place for people to talk about the city's urbanism and established transit in particular as "really core" to how Australian YIMBYs think about housing policy. A meme from a Facebook page called Bush Capital Memes for Action-Oriented Teens. ( Facebook: Bush Capital Memes for Action-Oriented Teens ) Maclean says YIMBYs across the country are not just fighting for more apartments but for what they call the missing middle: a "gentle density" between the urban sprawl of free-standing single family dwellings and large apartment blocks. They want more townhouses, terrace homes, low-rise apartments and multi-occupancy blocks near public transport. From conservation councils, to renting advocacy groups, to architects, to community housing groups Missing Middle Canberra is a coalition for medium-density housing. Its activism has helped along a proposal for planning rules that is currently open to public feedback. Maclean, a member of the Labor party, says these reforms would be the largest single increase in Canberra's zoned capacity in the capital's history, boosting the number of homes that can legally be built in the previously untouchable and "practically sacrosanct" RZ1 (suburban low-density, single-dwelling housing) alone "by at least a factor of four". The reforms have been introduced for consultation, then they could be referred to a legislative committee. "This is a very long and slow process of zoning and supply-side reform to housing," Maclean says. "There are no quick wins and persistence is really key in order to actually see results." The changing faces of YIMBYs and NIMBYs Max Holleran, who wrote the book on YIMBYs, says NIMBYism has become a "dirty word" not just for its parochialism but for its anti-urbanism as it resists density and transport in favour of the white picket fence single-family home streets of suburbia. Holleran has written the YIMBY movement of "disgruntled millennials alarmed by rising rent prices" was founded in San Francisco in 2013 by maths teacher Sonia Trauss who began showing up to zoning and council meetings where she found even modest two or three story apartment buildings under review were opposed for problems such as "casting shadows". He says that developers often build in lower income areas where they face less opposition. "These [residents] might be working a bunch of jobs, English might not be their first language, they might not have a university degree and they don't have the time or energy to go to [planning or council] meetings," he says. The people who would benefit from increased housing stock aren't turning up to housing forums. Or as YIMBY Melbourne's O'Brien puts it: "We are the voice of the most important stakeholder, which is the people who want to live somewhere but can't and the planning process favours incumbents." YIMBY Sydney's Justin Simon says politicians and planners are used to dealing with "a very narrow, very noisy class of people who like to say no" which skews their perceptions of what a community will allow. "We can show those planners and those councillors that actually there is debate within the community on this and if they want to go out on a limb and try really hard to build more housing there will be somebody there who is going to say, like, 'good job'." Simon says NIMBYs shift their arguments depending on the context but the goal is the same: "no new people, and no changes to the urban environment". He's seen people in Leichhardt, just a few kilometres west of the city's CBD, declare their backyards "wildlife corridors". When the Sydney Morning Herald asked the head of the Haberfield Association, who successfully secured his entire suburb as heritage conserved, where young people should live he was stumped, before suggesting Orange (250 km away) or Bathurst (550 km away). "From any person's perspective there can be good or bad things about development, but when you own your home the biggest positive is just not relevant to you, because you're not getting rent increases," Simon says. "That means you can engage in whatever motivated reasoning you like — it's a luxury belief." In one message, seen by the ABC, a man in Sydney's inner west tells YIMBY Sydney he signed up to the movement after he was evicted from his inner west home when his rent went up from $492 to $741 within two years. "Often we're accused of being funded by developers, and that shows there is such a gulf in values that the only reason they could conceive of being a YIMBY is because they're being paid off," Simon says. "This barrier will be immediately familiar to many who've had their parents tell them to 'just move a bit further out'." But while stereotypes about who wants to build more — namely, only developers — aren't adhering as securely to YIMBYs, who now claim a level of ideological and socioeconomic diversity, those rallying to oppose development are also challenging the silhouette of a grouchy, heritage-obsessed crank. Last month dozens of kids in football jerseys and residents gathered in Sydney's inner west to protest a planning proposal lodged by a developer to build 200 apartments on industrial land next to where APIA Leichhardt Football Club trains. Although many of those gathered admitted to the ABC they didn't live in the suburb, they didn't look like your typical NIMBYs — they were young families concerned a new apartment block would force their kids' football club to adjust training hours to avoid noise complaints. They were not thinking about housing density or affordability. They were thinking about a potential disruption to their own lives. Tony Raciti, the club's president and the face of the campaign, insists he is all for housing density. "We'd love to see skyscrapers here," he tells the ABC, gesturing to the suburb's empty skyline. "Love it! No problem!" The caveat? "Not here!" Credits Words: Gina Rushton Editor: Catherine Taylor Illustrations: Kylie Silvester Posted 13m ago 13 minutes ago Sat 12 Jul 2025 at 7:00pm
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
These Vancouver neighbourhoods could be next up for the 'Broadway plan' treatment
On Tuesday, Vancouver city council will vote whether or not to approve long-term plans to add significant density to two east Vancouver neighbourhoods near the Renfrew and Rupert SkyTrain stations. The Rupert and Renfrew Station Area Plan is a transit-oriented plan similar in scope to the much-discussed Broadway plan. City staff estimate the plan would add nearly 19,000 residents to the current 31,000 by 2050 — a 61% increase. It would bring 8,000 additional jobs and add another 10,000 homes, nearly doubling the amount of housing in the area. 'Investment priorities have been identified for the next 10-year period and are estimated to cost (approximately) $1.2 billion (in 2024 dollars),' Neil Hrushowy, general manager of planning, wrote in the recommendations to council. The area covered by the proposed plan runs from the southern end of Hastings Sunrise, starting at Parker St. to E. 27th in Renfrew-Collingwood. East-west, it runs from Boundary Road to Kamloops St., one block east of Nanaimo St. Most of the land covered by the plan is currently single-family housing, low-density commercial or light industry. In keeping with the Broadway plan and the province's transit-oriented development legislation, the highest densities will be closest to the Renfrew and Rupert SkyTrain stations. Existing commercial and industrial land in the area, including those closest to SkyTrain stations, will remain non-residential. Additional employment would be supported by accommodating a wider range of commercial and industrial uses on these lands, and in mixed-use developments along major streets like E. Broadway, Renfrew and Rupert. Similar to the Broadway plan, the plan envisions four key land use types: Rapid transit areas: Towers up to 45 storeys close to SkyTrain stations Villages: Four to six storey mixed-use buildings at key intersections, like Renfrew and E. 1st or Nanaimo and E. Broadway Multiplex areas: The remaining residential areas would also include options for small-scale businesses like corner stores or shops Employment lands: Office, labs, hotels, light industry (eg: film studios, warehouses) and big box stores near SkyTrain stations and along Still Creek There are also plans to develop the site of the former B.C. Liquor warehouse at E. Broadway and Rupert. The site is owned by the First-Nations-owned MST Development Corporation in partnership with Aquilini Investment Group. Early plans put forward for public discussion in fall 2024 showed nearly a dozen towers on the site, some as high as 60 storeys. They included a mixture of residential, retail, office and industrial space as well as child care, affordable housing and public spaces. The site is one of 15 properties designated as 'unique sites' in the plan, where larger sites that deliver a 'significant public asset' could receive special accommodations. Other sites include the First Avenue Marketplace shopping mall, the Akali Singh Sikh Society Gurudwara and Skeena Terrace, where over 19,000 new social housing units have been proposed. The plan also calls for enhancing Still Creek, one of the last salmon-bearing streams in Vancouver. 'Widening and enhancing the Still Creek corridor is critical for managing flood risk resulting from increased development and climate change,' Hrushowy wrote. Much of the existing commercial and industrial land around Still Creek is built on a floodplain, according to the report. The plan also includes an option to expand the creek enhancement into a larger restoration project that could see an ecological corridor running from the Renfrew Ravine at Renfrew and 27th St., through Still Creek and north to Skeena and E. 1st. It also includes additional child care spaces, new artist studios and workspaces, and expanding Renfrew Community Centre, Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House and the local firehall. More than 1,900 new social housing units being proposed for this east Vancouver neighbourhood 'This is just the beginning': First Nations' real estate megaprojects game-changing for Metro Vancouve @njgriffiths ngriffiths@
CTV News
05-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
‘So f***ing rude … f**k you': Edmonton councillor swears at colleague as infill debate spills into summer break
A debate on infill got heated at Edmonton City Hall on Friday. CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson reports. Edmonton city council got heated late Friday afternoon when conversations around zoning bylaw pushed back the summer break. It was the third day of public hearings on the topic, with all sorts of supporters and detractors weighing in on how to add density in the growing city. City council was set to break next week, but the public hearings saw more than 150 Edmontonians register to speak – leading council to consider an extension. Both Ward sipiwiyiniwak Coun. Sarah Hamilton and Ward pihêsiwin Coun. Tim Cartmell said they would not be able to attend due to pre-planned trips based on the approved break. Things got heated shortly after when Ward Sspomitapi Coun. Jo-Anne Wright suggested they could have anticipated a delay. 'From what I understand … this is a normal course of business with things ramping up, and I would think that maybe the incumbents would have been aware of that,' Wright said. 'I wasn't, but I've been able to adjust my schedule for the most part.' 'Point of order,' interrupted Hamilton. 'That was so rude, Mr. Mayor. That was so f***ing rude. F**k you, Jo-Anne Wright. F**k you.' Both Wright and Hamilton withdrew their comments shortly after. Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford, who also had travel plans booked, expressed disappointment and concern over the extension and the possibility multiple council members would be absent. 'This is one of the most important topics that Edmontonians expect us to have, and the councillors that do not attend will be questioned as to why they are not prioritizing this,' Rutherford said. 'So I think it is putting us in a terrible position.' In the end, city council voted 9-4 to return on Tuesday. In a statement to CTV News Edmonton, Hamilton said 'it was not the more parliamentary language' but that last-minute schedule changes are difficult for staff and council. 'The cruel attack on her (Wright's) colleagues for having personal commitments that are not easily changed betrays her ignorance of how constructive governing bodies are actually run,' she said. Wright spoke to media after the meeting ended and apologized for the exchange. 'I'm sorry that it happened,' Wright said. 'If I had done something to sort of encourage that, or comments that I made, I do apologize for that. 'But, I'm still concerned that we aren't going to have everybody on council at our public hearing to continue this.' A lot of public feedback The week of public hearings came 18 months after the city's new updated zoning bylaw came into effect. Supporters say infill projects under the new bylaw are increasing the housing supply and bringing new residents to aging neighbourhoods, where they support local businesses and boost the tax base. 'All of these mature neighbourhoods were designed to accommodate a much greater population than what they have,' Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said on Friday. 'Bus service is available, fire service, police service, recreational facilities … why would we not utilize the existing services and programs that we have in place and be more fiscally and sustainably and also environmentally responsible?' Those opposed say too-tall infills are being dropped into communities without considering if they fit in the neighbourhood, with towering multi-unit homes breaking up blocks of single-family bungalows. 'People are caught by surprise when an eight- or 10-unit building goes up right next door,' said Kevin Taft, who registered to speak on Friday. 'In McKernan right now, there are 16 applications to zone to higher density, that's in addition to all kinds of plexes,' he added. 'That's too fast. People can't accommodate that and it's unnecessary.' Kelly Petryk spoke at the hearings on Monday and Thursday. She said she isn't opposed to infill but doesn't think it's being done right – pointing to four fourplexes currently being built on a lot next to her home. 'My situation has been dubbed the 'Crestwood situation',' she said. 'It's a small crescent, (it) was one lot, now it's two. It didn't have the required frontage to be split. It has been split, and now there are 16 units going on.' 'Crestwood situation' A large infill project will see 16 units built on what was a single lot in Crestwood. The build prompted neighbour Kelly Petryk to sign up to share her thoughts on Edmonton bylaw during a lengthy public hearing in July 2025. (Sean McClune/CTV News Edmonton) Petryk called what's happening next to her house a 'cautionary tale' and she is calling for better building guidelines and more effective public consultation. 'Are we ready to risk destroying neighbourhoods and say, 'Oh gosh, well, I guess that didn't work. Let's go back and figure it out?'' she said. 'I'm really frustrated at the realization that we're a guinea pig and we're just going to wait and see and figure out what happens.' Kalen Anderson, BILD Edmonton Metro CEO, supports the city's infill plan and said the current conversations are all part of the process. 'I don't think anybody should feel at all worried or ashamed about making changes that are smart,' Anderson said. 'This is what city planning is about. It's not a one-and-done.' Council has said it is currently considering a number of changes to the bylaw based on feedback from residents, including: reducing the maximum units on a mid-block lot from eight to six; requiring more windows on the fronts of buildings; shrinking the maximum building length by two metres; changing how many side entrances a build can have; building homes further apart; and keeping side stairways from jutting out too much. Anderson said many of them are reasonable, but she acknowledged they could negatively impact current builds. 'They would have to completely redesign their project. They might lose their financing. They might lose their customers,' she said. 'They would likely have to sell the units … for a slightly higher price point or rent it at a higher market rate. 'Those are the trade offs. Again, city building is messy and wonderful and that's why it's a democratic process.' Taft agreed that making changes is fine but said they should have been made as smaller changes over time. 'Council has like eight units on a 50-foot lot … when people are asking to go back, say to six or four, it throws off investors. It creates conflict,' Taft said. 'It's much better to make 1,000 small changes when you're planning a city than to make one massive one that incorporates so many neighbourhoods so dramatically.' Ward Karhiio Coun. Keren Tang said on Thursday that there won't be a way to satisfy everyone but that council will consider the input from across the board. 'We're all in this learning exercise where we're responding to what people are saying, and I think we need to remember that this is a collective journey that we're on,' Tang said. 'We're trying to figure out what is going to be in the best interest of the city and Edmontonians.' City council will continue Friday's meeting on Tuesday. With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson
CTV News
04-07-2025
- General
- CTV News
Neighbours urge city to stick to the plan after developer pitches mega-development in southwest London
Residents are concerned about the Talbot Village development, which would create too much density in the neighbourhood. CTV's Daryl Newcombe reports. A developer's proposal to build a cluster of high-rise residential buildings along Pack Road is facing opposition from neighbours, who believe the Southwest Area Secondary Plan ensured the property would become a mix of medium-density and low-density housing. Southside Construction has applied to rezone 6309 Pack Road to permit a cluster of high rise buildings with a maximum height of 16-storeys closest to the roadway, plus 206 single detached lots and 36 townhouses in a subdivision on the southern half of the property. The high-density residential portion of the development is currently designated for medium-density housing in the Southwest Area Secondary Plan (October, 2024). 'The biggest shock was that the changes being proposed simply did not reflect what was originally proposed in the secondary plan,' explains John Kononiuk of the North Talbot Homeowners' Association. 070325 Bostwick Area planning map from the Southwest Area Secondary Plan showing medium density along Pack Road. (Source: City of London) The association opposes the planning application because of the impact the high-density buildings would have on their neighbourhood of single-family homes on the other side of Pack Road. The planning application predicts about 4,000 people would eventually live on the property, including the high-rise blocks having a density of up to 300 units per hectare. Neighbours say the high-rise area would be among the most densely populated areas in London. 'Spread these high-density buildings throughout the various developments that (the city's) looking at. Don't concentrate them here on Pack Road,' says Kononiuk. 070325 Conceptual drawing of a residential development proposed at 6309 Pack Road. (Source: City of London) The homeowners' association emphasizes it wants to collaborate with the developer and city staff on an amicable solution. They hope to reach a compromise that would lower the density, reduce the building heights along Pack Road, and take into consideration the traffic impacts of the development. 'The amount of traffic that will be generated on Pack Road and the noise pollution created by it will have a significant impact on the homes that already exist here, Kononiuk adds. Southside Construction Management was contacted by CTV News about its proposal for the property at 6309 Pack Road, but has yet to reply. The planning application is scheduled for consideration by the Planning and Environment Committee on July 15.
Independent Singapore
21-06-2025
- Independent Singapore
Local asks if anyone else is overwhelmed by the 'sheer number of people' in SG
SINGAPORE: When a local Reddit user asked whether anyone else felt overwhelmed by the number of people in Singapore, many people chimed in with answers. In response to the post author, some shared their mechanisms for dealing with crowds. '735.7 (sq km) hosting 5 million people. One of the densest countries in the world. Does anyone feel claustrophobic surrounded by so many people, especially during peak hours? How do you cope with it?' wrote u/BedOk577 in an r/askSingapore post on Sunday (June 15). From the large number of responses to the post, it was obvious that the post author is not the only one who feels this way. The top comment is from a Reddit user who shared their 'ways to avoid the crowds as much as possible.' '1. Go to work early to avoid the rush hour traffic (arrive around 7:40 a.m. at the office) 2. Leave early (around 5:00 p.m.) 3. Early lunch (11:15 a.m.) See also Samsung launches Note 20 series in Singapore 4. Groceries are delivered regularly, so I don't have to brave the crowded supermarkets 5. Don't leave the house during weekends,' they wrote, adding that they ordered most of the stuff for their home and had it delivered. When another expressed frustration: 'We can't even enjoy weekends outdoors because of crowd + heat,' many others quickly agreed. 'Exactly. Weather plus crowd are the most underrated factors to happiness, yet people only look at money and the ability to buy stuff as the happiness index,' one wrote. Another shared the spots around the city-state that they still find relaxing, including East Coast Park, which is cooled by the wind and has parts that are not crowded. 'Or if u just want a quiet afternoon reading a book while enjoying Chagee, you can go TJPG MRT Chagee during weekends. No crowd at all. There are also a lot of small museums spread across Singapore with aircon and activities for you to try,' they wrote, adding that those who frequent touristy and main interchange areas are bound to feel overwhelmed because of the heat and crowds. 'It's unfortunate that weekends used to be an opportunity for me to go outside without it being related to work, but now it's a chore. Crowds everywhere, hot weather, have to jostle for everything of interest, and I really dislike how public transport frequency on the weekends is considered off-peak, which just means more people packed in trains,' wrote another. One shared that their coping mechanism is 'going on frequent trips out of Singapore haha,' but added that this can be costly. In contrast, another wrote that they 'Stay at home. Spend so much on BTO (build to order) and Reno, be at peace at home.' Some noted that Singapore's planners did a good job, especially compared to Hong Kong, which is less dense but feels more crowded. 'Try to go out during non-peak hours, but recently come to realise even non-peak hours are getting crowded. I always wonder where the people are coming from and where they are going. 😅 Used to go to parks for a walk but due to the recent extremely hot weather, I chose to stay home instead to do some simple decluttering or just watching videos,' wrote another. /TISG See also Ow To Run A Family Foodcourt Read also: Daniel Liu and the 10 million population handicap
