| Recording on YouTube | Presentation at 1:25:32
Transcript | October 28, 2022 Thank you Surrey Board of Trade for hosting this important conversation. It is a privilege to contribute to collaborative dialogue about BC’s Housing Crisis with government officials and the development industry. Congratulations Mayor-elect Brenda Locke. |
| I am addressing the housing crisis in BC through my work as a project facilitator. I hold space and lead collaboration between the project team and the municipal team. |
| I work with for-profit and non-profit housing developers, as well as government-to-government. |
| I started my company Channel Consulting 3 years ago after working in government at City of Richmond, District of North Vancouver, and Port of Vancouver and after working in a private equity firm that invests in real estate. |
| I trust that municipal and provincial governments are going to be making changes to help with the development review process. |
| City of Surrey has done some early work on streamlining their process and cutting red tape. Surrey is starting to see benefits. Surrey had the most residential units registered in Metro Van in August 2022 – 46% of the region’s new homes were in Surrey. |
| Other provincial and municipal changes will take some time. |
| Today, I am going to talk about how applicants can get out of their own way. |
| I will talk about specific actions that applicants can take in navigating development review and approvals. |
| In my experience, there are three ways applicants get in their own way: |
| 1 – Incomplete submissions |
| 2 – Lack of knowledge of requirements |
| 3 – Bringing an “us” vs “them” mindset |
| #1 Applicants get in their own way with incomplete submissions |
| One thing I know for certain, the relative speed of the review process is driven by the quality of submissions. |
| Incomplete submissions are a major problem. When I was working in government, about 80% of applications submitted were actually incomplete. |
| Then, working on project teams, I saw that project leaders and subject matter consultants rush to submit applications, even when technical details are unresolved. |
| There is a misconception that its better to get your project into a queue than to meet requirements. |
| In a former role as Manager of Planning & Development in a government organization, I had 145 projects under me, with 11 planners as direct reports. These planners were mostly new and in-training. |
| I was very intentional in helping my team plan how to spend time. |
| In the big stack of applications, relatively poor submissions were assigned a relatively low priority. |
| We prioritized applications that were ready for approval. |
| #2 Applicants get in their own way when they lack knowledge of the requirements |
| When applicants and their consultants are unclear about the layers of policy and various stakeholders, the submissions are poor quality. |
| There are no easy development sites left in this region. Most projects are redevelopment or located in proximity to environmental areas. |
| Because of this, on top of municipal policy, most files also require review by FLNRORD, MOE, MOTI, ALC, the port, Fisheries and Oceans, etc. As well as indigenous engagement. |
| I get it. It truly is not easy to know all the rules. |
| However, the reality is that submissions with technical deficiencies go through additional rounds of review and comments. |
| Extra rounds of review are a problem for both the review team and the project team. |
| Additional iterations of review require government staff resources. |
| And, these additional submissions lead to delays that impact project business plans. |
| Sadly this happens all the time. Submissions go into the City and they do not align with land use policy. |
| Here is a story of a phone call that I received two weeks ago. |
| A gentleman phoned me in despair as he had invested over $300K of his family’s money on the design of a rental housing project. |
| The project was not designed in consideration of the specific local area policies, which he learned after the City’s first review of the application. |
| We see this time and again. Architects, environmental professionals, and engineers focus on their subject area and their submissions do not fully align to approval criteria. |
| You need someone on your team who is ensuring the submission will address all the rules, from the outset. |
| #3 Applicants get in their own way when they bring an “us” vs. “them” mindset |
| Some applicants get frustrated, they get bad news, then try to bully the city. |
| I can tell you from first-hand experience, grouchy folks are the very last ones to receive a returned phone call or email. |
| Pushing, pushing, pushing and hoping for a yes does not help to advance project review. |
| On the other hand, applicants that work independently with their own subject matter resources and bring solutions – those are the ones that see their project progress. |
| On all of our projects at Channel Consulting, we speak the language. Calls and emails are normally returned within 1-2 hours, not even 24 hours, because we are trusted. We mostly don’t need to wait for comments to be written up. |
| Other applicants wait months for a planner to have time to write-up their feedback. |
| Development review and approvals is about working together and its about partnership. |
| The truth is that municipal planners take pride in their work. |
| Planners need to be supported with high quality information that enables them to present a decision. |
| In this climate of rising construction costs, interest rates, and inflation, private developer, non-profit and government project leaders alike need to be proactive in how we work with cities. |
| The great resignation has had an enormous impact on government. There has never been fewer staff. |
| New staff need training. This includes: planners, SMES, env, trans, etc. |
| Unemployment in Metro Vancouver is at a historic low 3.9%. There are 46,000 vacant positions in the region. |
| Municipal teams are desperately understaffed. |
| Finding ways to be supportive is important. |
| So wrapping up… |
| If you want to bring leadership to the housing crisis, my advice is: |
| 1 – Prepare a complete development application that meets the criteria it will be reviewed against. |
| 2 – Support the planner and subject matter experts with summaries that include relevant policy references and local precedents. An easy win is a cover note that explains how the submission addresses previous feedback and meets the intent of the policy. |
| 3 – Make municipal planner’s job easy by providing proven technical solutions they can act on. |
| If you need help, there are three workbooks and training videos available free of charge on our website. |
| Go to channelconsulting.ca/media – and – on our site we also have a button for booking a consultation appointment. |
| I trust that the provincial government and municipaliites are working to improve the development review proces. However, change led by government takes time. |
| There is a huge immediate opportunity for applicants to help address the housing problem by preparing complete submissions, knowing the land use regulations, and bringing solutions. |
| Thank you! |