Your (Affordable) Charming Little Hideaway

When lane houses come up on the agenda of the Committee of the Whole (COW), Oct 23, 2017, nobody but news media are left in the gallery. This after 2 going-on-and-on presentations about tree-management to a nearly full house.
So the audience possibly just has to get out of there.

Or hasn't come for lane houses.

As in: out-of-town trees get considerable space in the Star promptly after the COW - in-town lane houses of this same COW get no mention at all in the same report.

Seeing that they - and more secondary/basement suites - could be an at least partial solution to our collective housing-issues everybody has been on about incessantly, a lane house presentation is prominently featured in the Star just prior to the COW, as a warmer-upper.

                                                           Nelson considers laneway housing
                                                                                         Star, Oct 17, 2017

But!

Poor Focus
When lane houses are given a superficial go-ahead some years ago, this is in tandem with legit basement suites. What pretty much then makes both non-issues is the bizarrely reasoned over-the-top water-rate increase for such suites, passed by the previous Council.

Result
Fact: This water-rate increase makes many who have been considering a legit basement suite reconsider, while reinforcing the general image of City Hall as cash-grabbers.
Fact: This spilling over into the lane house concept.

While said rates have been adjusted in the meantime - though this never clearly communicated to the general public - lack of trust in City Hall processes: here - perceived as time-consuming byzantine, unfocused and expensive hoops to be jumped through for possible lane houses - largely have made both a no-go since.

Fix
As already mentioned in posts
Home Sweet Home (is not a condo) - 1/2/3
Dec 2016 - Jan 2017,
in order for City Hall to get traction with this now, both options need to be made real-time now-time attractive to possible converters/builders, with streamlined relevant processes - no matter how many concise new ones - and offered incentives: financial and bureaucratic.

Secondary/basement suites must continue to be focused on parallel to lane houses. Both addressing housing shortage and affordable housing on the municipal level.
Conditions permitting: a home-owner building a lane house should also be allowed to run a basement suite. Oddly - not allowed now! 

Anyway - to convince thus make this double-concept fly - there needs to be a definitively clear vision, a strong context - recorded in words and images - everybody: planners and public - then can look at and work towards together. Prior to!
Same vision - same future Nelson.

Not easily to be shed: the general public's strongly negative view of the City's Hall St stumble downhill. And those held responsible. A grudge-fest for a long time to come.
Unless City Hall can ramp up its credibility-rating quickly and substantially!

By/For Whom, Why, What?
A lane house - restricted by lot-size, privacy-issues, access and parking-needs - will be significantly smaller than the house out front. Somewhere between tiny house and lesser Better Home & Garden. Therefore cheaper. Therefore more affordable.

Random dust-ball spaces superseded by bright cost/efficiency/practicality-concerns.

Possibly piggy-backed by a property-owner and leased within an option-to-buy framework, after a substantial downpayment, followed by monthly cheques.
Possibly built separately on a sliver of backyard sold outright.
Attracting singles, working couples, retirees with fewer current/future plans/needs.
A starter-home.
Paring down.
A nest.

The target-market would be similarly focused for rentals of basement suites.

Size Matters
Pam Mierau, Nelson Planning & Development Manager - the driving energy behind lane houses - envisions possibly 3 pre-approved designs. Conceivably they will be based on available funds and/or for certain numbers of people to live in them.
Pre-approved designs would cut down dramatically on paperwork necessary for such projects. And costs. 

Outside, looking in: simplified, locked-in processes would also mean City Hall can't follow its usual just-making-stuff-up-on-the-fly pattern. The prime example of that: Hall St (again!) all the way down. Splash!

The planned design-competition must not be limited to local architects. Considering: Nelson Commons is boring and already entering its next phase: Kelowna stodge. And the ultimately rejected Flying Nun Cottonwood Market design was without any practical merit as a basic market-shelter.

Lane houses will need expert know-how in ingenious use of condensed spaces. Except for possibly Tiny Houses folks: Nelson simply doesn't have what it takes to make this happen.

  

Module Design
The way to go may be prefabricated - ideally flat-packed - modules: minimizing overall costs, assembly-time, size. These modules added to with other modules clicked-in to increase the number of volumes horizontally/vertically. They also may incorporate parking.

In effect - owners would still be participating in the overall design - from basic to expanded. Later to be prettified at leisure. Pink flamingos, gnomes, Santa on the roof - you name it!
Sort-of like a base-unit with apps!

Here designers must be those focused on this kind of housing specifically - with a proven track-record of appealing houses larger inside than out. And manufacturing-capability.
The 3 blog-posts above show some examples and their designers/manufacturers.

Transformative Concept
As a whole this lane-house concept will need way-out-there imagination and willing cooperation towards a common goal by several City Hall departments concurrently - including a proactive nudge-nudge Council - in meticulous planning and timely lateral execution.

Run by whom? will be interesting to watch.



Image Credits:
Richard Woods, Folkestone
wayfair.ca



Pam Mierau, Nelson Planning & Development Manager
pmierau@nelson.ca

Deb Kozak, Nelson Mayor
dkozak@nelson.ca

City Council
nelsoncouncil@nelson.ca

Kevin Cormack, Nelson CAO
kcormack@nelson.ca

Colin Innes, Nelson Public Works Director
cinnes@nelson.ca      

Participatory Municipal Politics - A Fantasy

This post directly connects with
What DOES Matter (Part 1)
23 July, 2017 

  

Councillor and other local government officials tell of increasing harassment
                                            
                                                              Robert  Barron
                                                              Nelson Star from Cowichan Valley Citizen 
                                                              28 Sep, 2017

While one here could have expected far-ranging examples of BC municipal politicians' harassment by the unruly public - the headline is misleading, what with only 2 politicos quoted. Both from the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD). And their recollections dramatically turning a few minor confrontations over a long time-span into harassment, intimidation, assault and defamation!
The rest is thinnishly anecdotal.

BUT!

There's a - possibly unintended - kicker to be found in this write-up, making clear why what's often loudly objected to by many in Smallishtown politics.
It's the stranglehold re-re-elected often have on the decision-making process: either creating a deadzone by inertia - or monopolizing the process by pursuing self-glorifying agendas.

Usually those re-re-elected anywhere are so not because of the consistently impressive quality of their involvement, but because - over time - they have established a social feel-good support-base: never mind their ever-diminishing need-focused contributions to lulled-to-sleep segments of the greater whole.

Consistent re-election and cross-breeding of elected officials - both the case in Cowichan - can't fail but lead to stagnation.

Politico-Buddy 1
Bob Day - 10 years as Lake Cowichan Councillor and 4 as CVRD Vice-Chair - is confronted 7 years ago - gasp! - in the store where he still works today. A man "verbally assaulted" him on a "zoning issue".
And again recently: a repeat-complainant 2 days in a row - on a "traffic issue" - same store. The man carrying a placard and "making defamatory statements". Following Day up and down the aisles! This is funny! But maybe embarrassing to a clerk preferring to be known as Vice-Chair of something or other.
That's all - and Day does admit: neither incident was directed at him personally.

Politico-Buddy 2
Jon Lefebure - North Cowichan Mayor/CVRD Chair, previously Councillor - recollects "only one incident about 12 years ago - double-gasp! - when he was harassed in a public place". Also in a store! No, we don't know...
What we do know is that a person being Mayor and Regional District Chair - at the same time - is a bit much to many in whichever Cowichan. Constituents would have ample reason with this alone to express themselves forcefully.

Like - I mean - what the f**k!

Did nobody raise actual concerns in this "large crowd at a workshop at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) meeting being held in Vancouver this week, dealing with the rise of incivility in local government, and the conduct of the public toward elected officials and staff"?

Seeing that too often self-serving "incivility in local government" prompts the frustrated "conduct of the public" - this write-up could have made its point by intent, if the former had been dealt with first and strongly - instead of the latter only and weakly without context.

But then - it sort-of did make this point after all, just sneaking up on the reader!

 

The shelf-lives of these two examples of brutal public scrutiny were up years ago, what with Lefebure over 16 years as Councillor, then Mayor/CVRD Chair/Police Board Chair, all 3 concurrently - be still, poor heart! - and Day at it as Councillor and CVRD Vice-Chair for 14 in total.

So what's (not) to like and (not) to complain about (loudly!) in Cowichan politics?

Any elected BC office should only allow 2 terms tops - particularly now that a term is 4 years very-long. Term-limits conceivably supporting a higher energy-level, more urgency to accomplish something, and a light at the end of the tunnel - if.

That's what this and the previous UCBM meeting should have focused on. And the needed separation of Mayor's Office from Police Board. Aside from the obligatory housing and dope, of course.

    

Respect does not automatically come with the job of an elected official: it is earned by the official being respectful of the constituency.
Or else!

Often unsociable social media provide impatient users the opportunity to voice from a distance what they are too timid to do in person.
Or what they have next to no opportunity to voice at City Hall.

But if neither this nor placards will do: vote wisely - don't re-elect!




Image Credits:
Reese
thumbstandard-v4



Deb Kozak, Mayor
dkozak@nelson.ca

Jon Lefebure, Mayor/CVRD Chair
jon.lefebure@northcowichan.ca

City Council
nelsoncouncil@ nelson.ca

Andrea Rondeau
editor@cowichanvalleycitizen.com