By Tan Mei Xi
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Revised zoning can make Vancouver much more affordable and earn the city billions to boot, says a UBC professor.

“People don’t appreciate just how restrictive our zoning is,” said Thomas Davidoff, associate professor at the Sauder School of Business at UBC. “70 per cent of Vancouver used to be single-family zoning. Now you can do a duplex or a laneway house, but you’re still only looking at 3,000 square feet on a lot and you ought to have 6,000 square feet.”

Davidoff finds it “stunning’ that City Council doesn’t ‘upzone’ the majority of neighbourhoods, changing the zoning of neighbourhoods to allow for higher-density residential building types such as townhomes or apartment buildings.

“The City of Vancouver could very easily double the square footage of its residential neighborhoods, and then some,” he said.

In addition, said Davidoff, the city could earn billions in revenue by selling the rights to build in an upzoned area to developers.

“It’s crazy. Imagine the government, which claims to care about affordability, allowing communities to exclude something like 90, 99 per cent of the population.”

“There is no good reason [to not add density].”