Latest / Kvetch & Release / Ontario won’t allow fourplex by right

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Ontario won’t allow fourplex by right · Kvetch & Release

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  He just spoke recently with Mayor Drew Dilkins about the issue as well. He
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  got he was taking some umbrage with our federal housing minister's language regarding four plexes
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  by right. But we've also found out just a couple days ago that the
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  province will not introduce legislation that automatically approves four plexes. Joining me right now
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  to discuss this is Ward nine Counselor Kieren McKenzie. How you doing, Hey,
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  John, Thanks for having me on, Thanks for joining me here.
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  So the province has gone and thrown water on this issue and said, Nope,
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  we're not going to do it. We're not changing the policy across the
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  province to go from three plexus to four plexes by right. But we're still
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  in the midst of this housing crisis and they still have that commitment to build
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  you know, one point five million homes and I'm just wondering, right off
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  the bat, what's your take. Well, I think it's a mistake.
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  I think my position on whether or not, you know, moving to a
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  four by right for the city is something that can help us address some of
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  the issues associate with with the housing crisis that we're dealing with and they answer
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  that question for me is a yes. I don't think there's a tremendous amount
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  of risk. The risk is being overstated by proposing by people who are opposing
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  moving to a for by right format, including unfortunately the Premier. Of course,
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  the position from the Mayor and other members of council has been talked about
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  a great deal. But the thing that's most concerning about what I heard from
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  the Premier and notwithstanding the fact that he chose to not proceed with a recommendation
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  that came forward from his own housing task force that he can fiend, but
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  secondly that it's one of two things. Either he's not aware of what for
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  by right actually means or he's willing to misinform the public with what actually it
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  is. And I'm taking this from the comments that I heard when he was
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  asked directly when he had made the announce since recently a couple of days ago,
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  about you know where they were going to go in terms of the new
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  legislation they're bringing forward to address housing issues, and he incorrectly stated what for
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  by right actually is when he was asked directly about you know what it entails.
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  Let me read the quote to you right now. That way, we
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  have it in full context, he said, And I can assure you one
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  thousand percent. You go in the middle of communities, right deep in communities,
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  building six story, eight story units, right deep in these communities,
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  there's going to be a lot of shouting and screaming. It's a massive mistake.
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  We're not going into communities and building four story or six story buildings beside
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  residences like this. It's off the table for us. Wow, eight story
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  four plexes, Well, that's that's it's pretty big, you know. And
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  I used the word and I've already stated it publicly or restated here. It's
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  incompetence. It's it's one level. It's it's and it's it's either deliberately misinforming
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  the public so you're lying, or he doesn't even know what it means to
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  what a four plex actually is, because to suggest that a four plex is
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  a is a sixth or eight story building is absurd. That's that's not how
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  they're built. It's this, you know that generally speaking, we're talking about
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  a two story building very close to the same height as a typical single,
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  fully detached, single residential home. So it's not it's not something that from
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  a massing and a height standpoint, is significantly different from what we have in
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  neighborhoods that have mostly let's call it single detached homes or even town homes.
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  And his suggestion that that was what was being recommended by his own task force
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  is disingenuous at best, deliberately misleading at worst, or potentially he just doesn't
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  understand it. Whatever, the reason for him using that length, which none
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  of it's good, is either incompetent or deliberately misleading. So I want to
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  try to take maybe the fifty thousand foot view here. You just said,
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  you use the word lie. He's either lying, deliberately misinforming, or he
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  himself is misinformed. Mayor Dilkin's put out a tweet a couple of days ago
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  in response to our house at Federal Housing Minister about four plexus, and Mayor
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  Dilkins said, illegal to build is a totally false narrative that the Housing Minister
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  was putting forward. I'm wondering, you know, with the situation as dire
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  as it is right now, with housing, with you know, prices continuing
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  to you know, stay far higher than we've ever seen here in this city,
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  and nobody expects that they're going to go back to what they were five
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  ten years ago. This is it's a very tough situation. You know,
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  you're accusing the premiere of misinforming. The mayor is accusing the federal Minister of
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  Housing of creating a false narrative around the issue. None of this seems to
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  be getting any housing built. And I think it's just it's showing how much
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  politics there is at play. And I don't mean to accuse you of,
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  you know, playing politics. You're responding to what's being said. How is
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  this going to affect, you know, getting more houses built? Is this
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  all just you know distraction? Still, well, look, politicians are going
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  to do politics, so that's one of the realities. But I don't think
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  it's fair to say we're not as a municipality today doing things to address the
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  housing crisis. The planning committee that I sit on, we've approved since the
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  beginning of the term over three thousand additional units in the community. We haven't
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  said no to virtually anything that's come through that committee that needed to be rezoned.
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  So let's start there are we doing and are we building things? Yes?
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  We are. There are things that the metal Brooks Facility was just recently
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  open just under a year ago or just over a year ago or about a
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  year ago, put any whatever it was, but that you know, we
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  added one hundred and fifty units there. And then there's obviously the processes that
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  we're seeing unfold with the City Windsor and the Eoise for land use, for
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  land that we're going to be making available for housing as well. So there's
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  those types of initiatives that are already well underway, and there are would we
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  like to see more actual housing starts depending on how you define that word,
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  And I don't mean to wade into the politics again, yes we would,
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  but that's a market issue that's being driven by developers making decisions for properties as
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  in terms of when they're going to to move forward with the development that they
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  already have approved. So for us, I think we're doing a lot of
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  the things that we can do and that we can control at the municipalities level.
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  It's really unfortunate though, when we get into these debates and we can
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  have different discussions around housing policy. I don't mind that, But what I
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  really really object to is when I see people in leadership positions who know better
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  or should know better, like the premiere, and it was only two three
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  weeks ago that I had to correct the record at a council meeting around what
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  a fourplex is versus a multi residential building is same discussion. Let's at least
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  talk about the things that are actually really embedded in the policy rather than things
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  that people are making up on the fly, getting up in front of a
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  microphone, in front of cameras and misleading people with what actually is being discussed.
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  That to me is very frustrating, but I don't it doesn't help us
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  get more housing. I think we're doing some of those things. So there's
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  almost like there's like two concurrent tracks. One we're actually doing things, things
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  are happening, and we're building units, and then there's the politics on the
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  other side. And unfortunately, some people are just bringing poor information to the
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  forefront in terms of how they're communicating, and I don't frankly, It's why
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  I'm happy to come on the radio today to talk about them, To be
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  very blunt about it. I just wish people were more honest with what they
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  were objecting to. What are you hearing from your constituents about the housing issue?
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  People have concerns. And that's the other part is people have concerns about
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  what some of these changes are going to mean in their neighborhoods. And I
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  think what's really important for people who are in leadership positions is to be fully
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  transparent and honest about what the position that they're taking, why they're taking it.
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  And you know, if the belief is as mine, is that if
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  you approve this a bilog change to allow for four by right in neighborhoods,
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  that the sky won't fall. If that's what your belief is. Now,
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  if you think the sky will fall, at the very least, you should
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  explain it to people in a way that doesn't embellish your positions or positioned with
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  things that aren't true. And that's what we saw the premier do, and
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  that's what I heard other folks who elected in our in our region trying to
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  do. Whether they misunderstood what a fourplex is and what that actually means,
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  or or they knew and they just decided deliberately to mislead the public. I
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  don't know which one of those two things it is, but there are people
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  in our community, as well as the pre himself, who are misinforming the
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  public. It's unfortunate. Last I realized that maybe I should have started out
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  with a definition of what a four plex actually is, and it would probably
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  remiss to not, you know, actually note it right now. Do you
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  want to define it as you did in that Council media, sure, A
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  four plex is a is a structure that has a one whole structure that has
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  four separate residences in it. Typically you'll see it on a two by two
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  format. They are about two story. They typically run for out of one
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  and a half to two stories high, and it's essentially four apartments contained with
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  one building within one building, as opposed to a multi residential unit that could
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  have anywhere from you know, four or more, but it'll go. It's
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  it's certainly a taller building. Typically when you see six, eight, six,
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  eight, ten, twelve, fifteen units in a single residence, then
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  you start talking about something that people might refer to as an apartment building a
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  multi residential building. That's not what is being recommended by the Premier's Housing Task
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  Force as allowing that to go forward without having to go through a rezoning process.
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  By right, you could just build it. In this case, the
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  Premier is saying he's comfortable at three and that's his position, But mischaracterizing what
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  a fourplex actually is and confusing the public on an issue that is becoming increasingly
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  politicized is massively irresponsible and doesn't help us at all address some of his own
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  stated goals, which is to ad housing capacity and housing supply across Ontario.
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  You know, it's definitely going to be an issue that we keep our eyes
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  on. It's not going to get solved overnight, so this is going to
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  be the conversation that keeps on giving how we increase our housing stock. And
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  I didn't mean at all to misrepresent the work that's being done on council.
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  I know you guys are doing a lot of hard work and getting more homes,
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  you know, the shovels in the ground, getting more approved. It's
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  a whole effort that takes a lot of work. And thank you for your
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  time and helping to unpack this one. Appreciate the opportunity chat about it,
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  John, Thanks always a pleasure. Karen Mackenzie is the City councilor for Ward
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  nine here in the City of Windsor.