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Please, no full-scale assault on communities

Re: “ ‘Density’ can mean more homes, more trees, more parks,” commentary, Dec. 29.

While, as another urban planner, I generally agree with much of this comment by Leigh Stickle and Luke Mari, let’s not get too carried away with this view of the celestial densified and green urban future.

There are a few other factors at work, in particular the cost of land and who owns it. And the price of housing that gets built on that land by the development industry (such as Aryze, for whom one author serves as “principal, development”).

The current housing crisis is an affordability crisis. It will not be solved by just building more housing units at higher density (even if surrounded by lush green spaces and Garry oak trees).

It was good of the authors to suggest a long list of authors and agencies who support their views. Many of them would add some caveats not included in the article.

Many of them would note the need for housing to be built on land owned publicly (such as through community land trusts), and for the systems of land development to be adjusted so that such housing and land can be acquired and developed.

So yes to some densification, but no to the full-scale assault on our communities by the development industry.

Bob Yates

Retired urban planner

Victoria

Humans like their space, and close at hand

Re: “ ‘Density’ can mean more homes, more trees, more parks,” commentary, Dec. 29.

The thesis that cramming more and more people into smaller and smaller spaces to solve a housing problem seems to be a common theme with some urban planners and politicians of the day.

Fortunately, humans have an innate desire for space and nature close at hand, not in some remote space that is difficult to access and, as is so often the case, just as crowded as the city. We need our backyard, our front yard and will seek the place that provides these amenities.

Planning requires some levels of imagination. Can you imagine what our city would look like after 100 years of ever increasing density?

Utopia or Dystopia?

Ken Johnson

Victoria

With so little space, density must be limited

Re: “ ‘Density’ can mean more homes, more trees, more parks,” commentary, Dec. 29.

Parks can be increased in our urban centres? Where?

I don’t think most agronomists would agree that grasses are bad for the environment. The Dec. 29 commentary is simply a rationale to build more expensive housing such as missing middle strata homes.

We need more affordable housing, not expensive infill that will eradicate most of what’s left of affordable housing.

Luke Mari’s 902 Foul Bay Rd. infill townhome project was passed with the requirement of four affordable units, which was recently rescinded by our council at the alter of supposed profitability.

We are already a city of towers, especially cheek by jowl along Johnson Street that were very poorly planned this last decade.

Yes we can make creative changes in single family neighbourhoods, but not the kind of huge ugly structures pushed by Mari and Urban Development Institute.

Victoria is almost entirely bounded by the ocean and there is a limit to any increased density to maintain the beauty of our garden city. Any great city retains important historical neighbourhoods not for the benefit of the rich but for the open space that all enjoy in our day to day lives.

Patrick Skillings

Victoria

Replacing existing homes with unaffordable ones

Re: “ ‘Density’ can mean more homes, more trees, more parks,” commentary, Dec. 29.

I’m confused how tearing down homes, destroying trees, lawns, and gardens to construct large, dense dwellings resulting in more water, more garbage, more sewer, and more traffic benefits the environment.

Are bumblebees, hummingbirds, robins, squirrels, earthworms and natural creatures in our yards really having a “negative impact on the larger ecosystem”?

When I walk Gonzales Hill and see all the homes with trees, gardens and green space compared to the multi-storey highrise buildings with little or no green space, am I missing something?

Is “urban planner” Luke Mari the same Luke Mari listed as “Principal Development” from Aryze Developments, the construction company? If so, is it not in their best interest to tear down homes and construct as many condos and townhomes as possible given it’s a for-profit business?

When he mentions single family dwellings and “those who can afford a $1.3 million price tag,” is that more difficult for people than buying the Aryze-built $1.675 million townhouse in the Rhodo for sale on Fairfield Road? Its estimated monthly mortgage is $8,976 plus $905/month strata fees.

Is $9,881 a month in mortgage/strata fees (plus $5,973 property tax) solving the “missing middle”?

Is tearing down pre-existing homes and eliminating green space to build the Rhodo (and proposed 1733 Fairfield with 22 surface parking spaces) really better for the environment?

I don’t think so, but I’m just a homeowner with a family and tenant who’s been paying mortgages 35 plus years, I’m not an “urban planner.”

David Green

Victoria

Trees are great, but keep them from buildings

Trees give us shade and comfort from the blazing summer sun, especially lately. Give us more.

When I lived in the north in the 1970s, I was struck by the fact that most homesteaders and farmers cleared away the trees and shrubs surrounding their homes and buildings. Long dry grass was mowed and kept short. A local farmer explained to me that there was little, if any, ­firefighting help available. Preparation was the best defence.

If you can’t move the buildings away from the forest, you must move the forest away from the buildings. The somewhat unattractive “buffer zone” that I kept noticing was for protection.

The recent Lahaina fire showed us all what happens during windy, hot, dry weather when all the town buildings are surrounded by trees. The garden landscape turned deadly.

The same trees will help spread fire from your home to your neighbours’ homes. Expect to hear from your neighbours if they get concerned about your big trees that also overhang their buildings.

We will have hell on our hands if we ignore the current reality. After a significant earthquake, ruptured water pipes prevent fire fighting. Broken gas lines add fuel. Overhead electrical lines provide ignition.

The shortage of fire fighters and equipment will leave us only the option to flee, if we can.

Insurance companies will dictate how far the trees must be from the buildings (in the same way they now want to know how far to the nearest fire hall and the nearest fire hydrant).

In some areas in the United States, home insurance is unavailable due to more frequent storms, flooding and fire. Ever try to secure a mortgage loan without insurance?

Robert A. Reimer

lawyer

Victoria

Major consequences not yet determined

Re: “Higher density means losing trees, gardens and more,” commentary, Dec. 21.

I cannot but help think of the apartments in eastern Europe built by the Soviet regime, devoid of character, drab and all the same.

Our sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ plan wouldn’t be so dire, but cookie-cutter buildings would be placed without any regard to the different character of neighbourhoods, adjoining houses or lay of the land, with streets clogged with parked cars.

The unfortunate thing is that this so called “affordable” housing won’t help the homeless or even first-time buyers who perhaps might manage the mortgage but not the required down payment.

So first we had former Victoria mayor Lisa Helps inviting sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s homeless to Victoria, now we will be inviting sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s retirees, who often have a property to sell, to live here in these new properties. Just what our already over-stretched health care system and hospitals need, eh?

Will rents decrease? Doubtful. Will property taxes rise exponentially? Quite likely.

Unintended and not yet realized nor disclosed consequences indeed!

Christine Benn

Victoria

Play at the Belfry is not anti-Palestinian

As a Jewish survivor of two Nazi concentration camps and being involved with theatre in Victoria, I have an understanding of the events in Gaza, and the reaction of the Palestinians in Victoria.

Both sides have legitimate rights that they are advocating. Israel has the right to defend its border and people, and Hamas has the right to improve their miserable living conditions in Gaza.

Both participants are going about this wrong way. Hamas attacked the innocent people living close to its borders and the Israeli response was overwhelmingly disproportionate to the attack.

Both sides are right, and both sides are wrong. The war is not an expression of antisemitism, but a political war about the control of territory and human living conditions.

A mother’s pain of seeing her dead baby is the same, regardless of whether the mother is Palestinian or Israeli.

I have participated in and supported the local demonstrations against the war between Hamas and Israel. I have read the play, The Runner, and I cannot support the demonstration against it. In no way is the play anti-Palestinian.

Targeting the Belfry is inappropriate. It is an innocent third party to the protest. The play was chosen long before the war started.

Boycott it, if you must, and convince others to do the same. No one is forced to attend the play. You may even peacefully picket the play but I cannot support vandalism.

I will no longer attend the demonstrations or support the local Palestinian cause.

Julius Maslovat

Victoria

Don’t trust wait times shown by Health Ministry

I looked up wait times for my needed joint replacement by a named surgeon. sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Health provided easily accessible numbers (online). My surgeon had a 26-week waiting list.

When I spoke with him today, he told me that his wait time for this procedure was one year! He was not surprised by sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Health’s numbers. “They are never accurate,” he said.

There are five possible explanations for the government reporting totally inaccurate numbers.

First, the data gathering process by government is wholly inefficient.

Second, that data calculations are faulty.

Third, there is no quality control checks on their data gathering/reporting.

Fourth, they know that the published numbers are well below the true numbers which are embarrassingly unacceptable and well below national guidelines.

Finally, a combination of these factors.

Whatever the explanation, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Health is giving out blatantly false numbers either from ineptitude or deception or both, a clear-cut dereliction of responsibility.

Dr. Adrian Fine MD, FRCP

Victoria

Two-state solution is the only answer

If Israel manages to completely disrupt Hamas, as is their stated goal, then what? What do they imagine will happen?

I find it hard to envision a good outcome for either side without a two-state “solution.”

John Miller

James Bay

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