Building boom a good news, bad news tale

The Vancouver area has become a beehive of construction activity, presenting particular challenges that are as daunting for ordinary citizens as for municipal officials. It is perhaps not surprising, as the region’s land prices escalate, property owners are trying to maximize their investments by building up and out.

At the same time, as real estate has become all the rage, more individuals and investors are jumping into the market with sales volumes and prices hitting new highs.

Building permit numbers recently released demonstrate how busy the bulldozers have been.

In the first six months of 2014, the value of building permits totalled $1.12 billion. That figure has grown by 20 per cent in the first half of 2015.

“This is Vancouver firing on all cylinders,” says the city’s chief planner, Brian Jackson, referring to the fact the activity is not limited to new office construction but also includes development of laneway and coach houses, condominium high rises and rental buildings.

This is beneficial for the economy, reflecting job creation and investment, but it would be misleading to contend the hyper development in Vancouver and surrounding areas is entirely a good news story.

The level of rapid change has been difficult for some.

On a practical level it certainly is nerve-racking to live in place where residences and commercial buildings are forever being torn down and rebuilt, with all the noise, mess and inconvenience that goes along with such activity.

As well, many in Vancouver lament the loss of older homes in their midst and the landscaping around them, particularly tree cover destroyed when land is cleared.

South Surrey residents have complained about the rapid pace of development on tree-covered acreages that are being transformed into dense communities of townhouses devoid of greenery.

“The total character of south Surrey is being erased,” is the way one resident put it last week.

It is the responsibility of municipalities to impose rules and regulations that properly preserve what is good about neighbourhoods.

Individual residents — many of whom increasingly are living in closer proximity to others — also have a responsibility. They need to occasionally restrict their behaviours to be respectful of neighbours.

Perhaps it will become the norm for Vancouverites — before installing backyard pools, trampolines, basketball nets or outdoor workshops — to ask their immediate neighbours what they think.

Developers, too, must be cognizant they are often imposing on people’s rights to privacy and orderliness when they build. When they are not, municipalities need to be proactive and responsive to complaints about developers’ misbehaviours.

It is all about going along and getting along in the place where we all want to live.