Dear Editor,
Re: “City rejects Onni offer,” News, Nov. 22.
Kudos to the City of Richmond for rejecting Onni’s latest monetary offer in conjunction with the developer’s request to rezone the Steveston boardwalk to commercial retail space.
This proposed rezoning will also include conversion of some of that space into a hotel. A hotel, it is assumed by most of our city councillors, that could attract tourists, resulting in benefits for local Steveston merchants.
However, should Onni decide to sell the ownership rights to individual units (which will be self-contained with kitchenettes), there is no guarantee that many of these hotels units will not simply become another empty investment unit.
One prominent Richmond realtor estimates that almost half of Richmond’s new condos in City Centre remain sold, but empty. What guarantee is there that this will not occur in this development?
The proposed rezoning is also supposed to include controls on how long units are rented for.
The city has plenty of control bylaws pertaining to short-term rentals, including the operation of houses as hotels, and hotels on farmland, but is unable to properly enforce any of those bylaws.
What chance is there that the city will be able (or willing) to enforce occupancy bylaws on this proposed hotel?
So what are most of our city councillors agreeing to? Empty investment units? A waterfront condo? Another uncontrolled short term rental building?
We can — and should — do much better than this.
K A Hogarth-Davis
Richmond
