Latest / Kvetch & Release / Mayor Dilkens takes issue with federal Housing Minister saying fourplex homes are illegal

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Mayor Dilkens takes issue with federal Housing Minister saying fourplex homes are illegal · Kvetch & Release

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  Canada's Housing Minister that have Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities actually get the
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  title absolutely correct. Sean Frasier put out a tweet a couple days ago of
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  three four plexes. One looks like it was built probably in maybe the forties
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  or thirties, and then two relatively newer looking ones. One could be a
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  retrofit, one is definitely what looks to be a new build, and the
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  minister said warning the following images of four plexes may frighten some politicians. They
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  want to make sure these family homes remain illegal to build. Maybe my elder
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  millennial is showing, but these homes in great look locations look like good options
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  to me. This prompted a response from Windsor's Mayor Drew Dilkins, who said
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  illegal to build is a totally false narrative. None of these are illegal.
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  Why can't you guys just be honest in your approach and stop playing politics with
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  housing? Including a hashtag respect local decision making as well as hashtag ambitious housing
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  plan. Mayor Dilkins, thank you for joining me. Are you frightened?
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  Am I frightened? Not at all, not frightened at all. I just
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  you know, Sean Berger is a good man. I think if he put
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  that out, that's one thing. If Stafford did it, I mean it
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  needed to be called out because there's so much rhetoric over this Housing Accelerator Fund
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  and the Building Faster Fund and the federal government's bypassing the provinces to try and
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  get cities to change their planning rules. The premier has come out and said,
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  you know, I respect communities. I don't think fourplexes should be everywhere,
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  and we respect local council decision making. And that was the position we
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  took as a city council is let's respect local decision making. And so that
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  tweet where it talked about you know, those units being illegal. They are
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  not illegal. Anyone in the City of Windsor can come forward today and say
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  I would like to build a fourplex and identify the parcel of land, and
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  if it meets the zoning requirements, it would be allowed to happen. If
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  it doesn't meet the rezoning the current zoning requirements, as it wouldn't for most
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  established neighborhoods today, they would have to go through a rezoning process that would
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  then trigger public consultation, an administrative review looking at the underground and the above
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  ground infrastructure to make sure that it could support the type of development being proposed,
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  and then it would go to a committee of council for public consultation.
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  It would then go out back to city Council as a whole to make the
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  ultimate decision. And so to say that it's illegal is absolutely false. It's
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  not illegal, but there is an established process in place that respects local council
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  decision making and public consultation. You know, I look at some of the
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  comments that are posted underneath your response, and you know, it's sort of
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  all over the place with it. A lot more negative towards you all,
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  admittedly that I'm seeing, But people are saying it is illegal because I have
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  to go through a zoning, a rezoning to be able to build four plexus
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  here. Again, from what you just said, you take umbridge even with
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  that comment, because there is a process that does exist it. Well,
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  the comment saying it's illegal is just factually untrue. I mean, and we
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  can have a debate about our opinions on four plexes everywhere as of right,
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  but we can't debate that it's not illegal to build one. You have to
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  go through a process to get there. And that is what I think residents
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  in our city expect that if you're going to significantly alter the characteristic of neighborhoods,
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  that there's a process in place that's well established, in long standing,
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  that allows that conversation to happen. So what I you know, my tweet
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  is really simple. Let's just talk facts about the procedure and the process.
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  And not every community is going to accept four units or appreciate four units as
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  of right. And that's what this federal government was proposing to do, is
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  to remove all of the public consultation and the process set up at city council
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  to review these things and say, you know what, we're going to dangle
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  a few dollars you know, over your head, City of Windsor and other
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  cities, and if you take the money, as they said to us,
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  the minimum ticket to entry is allowing four plexes as of right, with no
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  consultation anywhere along the process. So anywhere where there is a residential home in
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  the City of Windsor, they were proposing to allow us to put four plexes
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  there without any check and balance in the system. Well, and we're seeing
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  a little bit of drama right now. Unfolding as well, and to come
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  see on this issue and it'll be coming back to counsel to discuss. Deputy
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  Mayor but Chetty is looking to have a fullsome conversation about that public input.
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  I guess you know a question for you, how would you respond to people
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  that might say this is, you know, pretty hypocritical from our mayor because
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  he is the chair of the Housing Supply Action Plan Implementation Team and it looks
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  on face value that he's not fully committed to as many homes as possible.
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  What would you responsible? Well, I think it's pretty simple. Our committee
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  has the terms of reference. I chair the committee. There's some really smart
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  housing people who are on that committee, and ultimately it's the decision of the
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  Province Ontario to decide how to move forward on housing. And I know that
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  this housing minister, Minister Calandra is super sharp, the Premier is sharp in
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  terms of what the residents want, and I think that they're very committed to
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  seeing housing move forward, but they want to see densification happen as we do
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  in sensible areas, which is why in our Housing Accelerator Fund we put forward
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  densification options along forty seven kilometers of transit routes in the City of Windsor where
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  it makes sense. We also put forward over a thousand acres of land and
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  mixed use nodes and commercial centers where we think densification makes sense, and I
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  think the public agrees. And so, knowing the folks at the province and
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  knowing how hard they're working trying to move the needle on housing, I know
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  that they're going to make smart choices. They're going to see densification happen,
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  but they're going to do it with the respect in mind of the people who
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  own homes today that want to have their voices heard if there are going to
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  be changes in their existing neighborhoods. So Premier Forward said just a couple of
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  days ago that the province will not introduce legislation that would automatically allow four plex
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  homes across the province by overriding municipal prohibitions. Responding looked like to Bonnie Crombie
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  and what she was discussing. But you know what I noticed, Mayor Dilkins,
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  is the language that was deployed by Premier Ford sounded a lot like what
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  you've been saying here. You know, months before this had occurred at the
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  provincial level, and I guess I'm just wondering, did you know that maybe
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  something like this would be coming down the pipeline or is this just you happen
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  to like, you know, the share the same views. Listen, the
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  premier is a smart guy, so he reads media and he talks to a
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  lot more people on a daily basis than I do. But he reads the
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  clippings and he understands what the perspectives are in different communities throughout the province and
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  how they're perceiving some of the changes that are being made. And I think
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  it's pretty much fair to say that the Premier in this case, he got
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  it right. He's certainly echoed the majority of voices in the City of Windsor
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  saying, you know what, we're not going to allow four story and six
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  story and four units as of right to come into existing neighborhoods and disrupt the
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  existing process that's in place. But I also know he was pretty clear and
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  saying that they are coming forward with really sweeping legislation that talks about densification that
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  is sensible in sensible areas that the vast majority of the public would say,
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  you know what, that makes a lot of sense to me to have a
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  multi story development in that particular location. And so I look forward. I
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  have no insight on what this bill is going to contain, but I look
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  forward to seeing the bill and how they're going to move the needle. We
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  have a collective goal to they've set the province is set one and a half
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  million homes by twenty thirty one as the goal. We have this collective goal
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  as communities to try and meet that target. And so the help and support
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  on the infrastructure side, which they've sort of dropped, is going to be
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  part of this budget. I think is a really positive move forward. And
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  I think anything they can do to add densification and send cibil areas is also
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  going to help move the needle while respecting the rights of existing homeowners. Well,
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  we look at the issue right now as it's unfolding with roseland golf and
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  the condominium and just you know, the public is you know, they're speaking.
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  There's some that are speaking out about it, and that's sort of the
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  process that is that's designed to exist that way, to have people be able
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  to come out and comment on the things that affect their neighborhoods. You're absolutely
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  right. So we had a public open house where we put up draft renderings
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  to show the public what we're talking about and high end condos in that location.
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  But in order to move forward, there will still be a statutory rezoning
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  required, which again involves public consultation, going to a committee of council,
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  going to city council. We're all along the way. There can be tweaks
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  to the design and improvements made so that at the end of the day,
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  whatever's built there meets the public's expectation for that neighborhood. And I would say
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  that that is sensible planning and that is fair planning for existing neighborhoods. When
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  we say we want to make sure that we're respect to people who own homes
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  and live in existing neighborhoods and rent in existing neighborhoods who do so because they
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  like the characteristics and the qualities of those neighborhoods. Why shouldn't we respect them.
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  They pay taxes and they vote as well. They're not Nimbi's people like
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  to say, all those are Nimbi comments. It's not a Nimby to care
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  what goes on in your neighborhood and how development happens in your neighborhood. It's
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  quite appropriate and so on the roseland site. I've never shied away. I
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  was at that public open house for every minute of the entire event, and
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  I will be at you know, all of the other city led initiatives that
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  talk about how we can make sure we get it right at that location and
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  the other locations that were approved by council as well. Well. As we're
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  increasingly seeing people tying their retirement income to their home equity, there's not a
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  surprise that people are very vocal about what the quality of their neighborhood is,
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  what the characteristics would be if that can be maintained, because in a lot
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  of cases, I said, you know, people's retirements are directly linked to
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  their housing itself. So yeah, it's a tough situation. Mary Dilkins,
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  I know that you've been busy in meetings all day today. Thank you so
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  much for making the time with me today. Thanks John, have a good
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  afternoon you as well. Mayor Dilkins Windsor Mayor on this little bit of a
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  conversation between the housing Minister federally and himself putting out the claim illegal to build
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  is a totally false narrative regarding four plexus