Dear editor,
Having just read another debacle at city council in regards to the defeat of a motion for an affordable housing task force it has become painfully apparent that this city council has become a rudderless ship, bereft of any logical and coherent strategy to tackle the affordability issues pertaining to housing here in the Comox Valley.
Mayor Jangula’s proposal to streamline the process for development applications was a concise and forward thinking motion to clean up the backlog of development proposals that have plagued the Comox Valley for years and yet for some reason it was blocked by certain members of city council who lack the foresight, knowledge or time to truly understand the macroeconomic issues at play regarding housing here in the Comox Valley.
I have watched time and time again the stunningly painful, overly complicated, unnecessary burdensome hoops that the development community must jump through to satisfy an ever moving set of goalposts in this community. There is no coherent strategy, no concise set of guidelines that one can point to in order to develop in the Comox Valley and it’s become crystal clear to those of us involved that the housing affordability issues in the Comox Valley lie squarely at the feet of a timid, myopic and unmoved city council and planning department that lack the foresight, knowledge and expertise to deal with a community of this size. Our housing affordability issues in the Valley are directly correlated to supply/demand economics and yet we have certain council members that are rearranging chairs on the Titanic while the entire affordability ship goes down. It is no longer a reasonable expectation for the Comox Valley to trudge through successive city councils that are not up to speed on these issues, we have grown past the problems of a small town and must attack the serious issues facing our community with serious people at the helm.
Derek Costantino
Comox Valley