Housing shortfall, costs and affordability

[panamaniac]

From the Record:

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...65217.html

https://archive.ph/ZvjIu

In Waterloo Region, all three municipalities have gone to the OLT dozens of times over the past five years, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and delaying developments.

Since 2020, Cambridge has led the region at the OLT in money spent, ongoing cases and cases fought.

The City of Cambridge provided numbers showing it spent $433,374 on external legal fees and has faced 20 appeals at the tribunal in the last five years.

Waterloo has spent $390,037, while Kitchener has only used external legal fees once in the last five years, at a cost of around $13,000.

Each municipality has at least one development-related case currently before the OLT, with Cambridge currently having six on the docket.

The Hamilton Spectator found during a 2022 study of OLT case files that municipalities lose nearly 97 per cent of their cases with few expectations.

Gary Bromberg, president of Cambridge-based Bromberg Homes, has built homes in Waterloo Region for decades and said these hang-ups, along with red tape, are delaying much-needed housing.

“The whole process is basically broken,” said Gary. “Anybody that says it’s easy to get anything done or to get anything through, hasn’t done any developing.”

This quote near the end really sums it all up:

“I mean it’s just the nature of the beast, more traffic, more people, it’s change, I guess. And who likes change?”

Future generations like change. They like a roof over their head and a place to begin their lives. Fuck these misanthropes and everyone who supports them.

In how many cases has the municipality been successful at the OLT?  I have the impression that it doesn't happen often.