The room was full this week at the North Delta Area Plan Review meeting. People expressed concerns about many topics, but two issues kept recurring: what to do about density and the need for improved transit.
Obviously, the two topics are related – you need a certain amount of density to support a good transit system.
The main question however, is what kind of density will North Delta end up with?
If we try to preserve neighbourhoods of big detached houses on big lots, we’ll end up with increased rental units creating density – some legal and some illegal.
More people will face long-term renting if they want to live in part of a detached house in Delta.
Very few ordinary people, for example, can pay over $780,000 for a home, which is what the new Delsom detached homes are now selling for.
With land is so expensive all over Metro Vancouver, Delta needs a new type of home that ordinary young families can afford.
Four-storey or mid-rises along Scott Road may work for some retirees and single people, but many young ordinary families want ground-oriented living so they can enjoy a yard.
Townhouses are not the answer for everyone either.
They’re not as affordable as their purchase price suggests because of strata fees, levies and the challenge of working within a strata council.
Since, according to the Delta Housing Task Force, the average family size in Delta is now less than three, we need to try a housing type that is extremely rare in Metro Vancouver, but which some designers, planners and environmentalists have been calling for decades: Smaller fee simple homes on smaller lots.
The Delta Housing Task Force Report pointed out that the many houses built in the ’60s, ’70s and ‘80s in Delta are about to be either demolished or extensively renovated. Now is a great time for Delta to embrace new ideas.
For example, someone who intended to demolish an older home could be encouraged to build three small, innovative homes in its place as a pilot project or even as part of a design competition.
If most retirees and empty-nesters could become potential micro-developers, we would not end up with “cookie cutter” small homes, but rather with a variety of small houses of different types built over time by different people.
Once a few of these units were actually built, people would be able to recognize the wisdom and beauty of smaller ground-oriented living.
Delta could become one of the most desirable places in Metro Vancouver for ordinary families to live in, if we’re willing to discover that small is beautiful when it comes to fee simple homes.
Kathleen Higgins
North Delta