Councillor Carol Day wants the City of Richmond to prevent seemingly livable homes from being demolished.
“It’s something we need to look at for livable homes. There are beautiful homes being ripped down. You have to wonder if it isn’t reasonable for developers to pay a demolition tax,” said Day.
As a result, the city’s planning committee, consisting of Day and councillors Chak Au, Harold Steves and chair Linda McPhail directed city staff to “examine options to restructure demolition fees and regulate the recycling of demolition material,” according to referral notes.
Joe Erceg, the city’s manager of planning and development, told the committee he believes the city’s options are limited. He did say the city may be able to impose recycling fees, however, demolition fees are likely a provincial matter.
Last year, the city issued demolition permits for 397 single family homes.
So far this year there has been a spike in such demolitions; in January there were 35 permits issued and in February there were 38.
Day said the issue is fostering an unaffordable housing market.
Many of the homes are under 30 years old. Some homeowners on arterial roads have bent to market forces and are demolishing homes with appraised building (not property) values of more than $300,000.
McPhail said she wants to know what the province can do about imposing special demolition fees.
“My concern about that was what can (the city) do under our powers and what are other tools available at other levels of government,” she said.
McPhail said the city has to balance wastefulness and landfill costs with people’s right to build on their properties.
McPhail downplayed the impact of demolitions when asked whether they jive with the city’s “green” goals such as reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions 33 per cent below 2007 levels by 2020.
“I don’t know if that’s really a problem,” she said. “I haven’t heard, personally, people coming to me (with concerns) that too many houses are being demolished.”
