King-Victoria Transit Hub

[tomh009]

Availability of land, due to restrictive zoning policies, is generally recognized as the single biggest factor.

We can't do without zoning altogether but what we have now really constrains the construction of new housing, and thus drives up the prices.

The tricky bit is that the aspect of zoning which says one can’t arbitrarily turn a farm into a suburb is not the problem; the problem is that one can’t take a suburban area and build something urban in it, or an urban area and build something a bit more urban in it.

That's right: the density restrictions are the biggest challenge. We could do ...

• Reduce or eliminate of SFH zoning requirements
  
• Increase maximum heights, even if not unlimited
  
• Allow construction of granny flats
  
• Allow multiplexing of existing properties everywhere
  
• Enable easier subdivision of existing properties (two SFHs is still better than one)
  
• Eliminate parking minima
  

Some of those could be contingent on including some affordable units, too.