The barriers to development – such as restrictive zoning, lengthy permit processes and community opposition – are one of the key reasons that companies like Amazon won’t consider Vancouver for headquarters, according to a local developer.
This could be putting Vancouver on the “wrong side of change,” said Kevin Layden, president and CEO of local development company Wesbild.
Speaking at a recent Urban Development Institute 2018 forecast panel event, a sold-out lunch at the Hyatt Hotel, Layden said that the pace of change in the industry is much too slow to keep up with the global pace.
He likened the Vancouver development landscape to struggling retailers such as Sears, which he said failed because it did not keep up with retail trends and customer demand for online shopping.
Responding to a comment about Amazon not shortlisting Vancouver for its HQ2, Layden said, "Again, it's about what side of change you're on. We fight Uber, we fight ride-share, we fight AirBnB, we tax foreign ownership for coming to Canada... I'm not at all surprised Amazon didn't come to Vancouver. We're just not on the right side of technology and change."
Another of the main reasons for this is a “capacity issue,” said Layden, adding that city planning departments in many of Metro Vancouver’s municipalities do not have enough staffing resources to clear the massive backlog of building permit applications, and that the construction industry is at capacity in terms of how many projects they can take on. “It’s not unlike this room – [this event] sold out within 48 hours, we could have easily filled another room this size.”
Ward McAllister, co-panellist and president/CEO of Ledingham McAllister, said that it was possible to find innovative solutions to the problems facing development, and that the City of Burnaby was a good example of this. He told the audience, “[The City of Burnaby has] come up with solutions to create more rental housing, and worked with developers to give them free floor-area if they build market and non-market rental units – and the market has taken it by the bit and run with it. It’s great to show other municipalities how it can be done, and how working with the private sector can address the problem.”
Todd Yuen of Beedie Developments said that public opposition to development was a huge barrier, and that much of it seems to be “not against a project’s character or form, but an opposition to development, period.”
He added, “Our approach has to be different in different communities and we have to understand the community. Because the opposition we face now is changing… We literally have people who are sitting in their cars with binoculars and cameras, watching every aspect of our site operations, just waiting for us to make a mistake. And as soon as we do, it’s straight to the municipality, straight to the media. We’ve had people trespass onto our properties and place props there to suggest we are not acting properly.”
In his 2018 “mega-trends” predictions, Layden said that he hopes all new homes will be built with delivery lock-boxes with refrigeration to accept online deliveries and groceries, as well as integrated AI systems such as Amazon Echo and Google Home. He also expects the real estate industry to increasingly adopt virtual reality, augmented reality and a mix of the two, to offer city officials, the public and customers a realistic view of new developments, individual homes and finishes.
“This is the direction we need to go,” added Layden. “Policymakers need to understand the world stage, we need to understanding technology and what is happening elsewhere before we start building walls and implementing protectionist policies. We need to be on the right side of change.”
