Re: “Victoria exceeds first-year housing target,” Nov. 15.

The story points out that the city is ahead of its target for building new homes but falling short on affordable and family-size units.

This happens whenever housing construction is left to the private sector, because developers make more money from luxury building than from affordable homes. City councils and planners should be ensuring the right provision.

We can see this playing out this week. On Thursday, council will discuss a proposal to change the zoning of a lot in James Bay to enable construction of a 14-storey tower that would dominate the area and provide mainly high-cost investment apartments, plus a few expensive townhouses.

The development has been proposed by Geric Construction.

There have been many letters setting out objections to the Geric proposal. It is opposed by the city’s planners, the James Bay Neighbourhood Association and the great majority of residents.

An unusually high number of residents have written to council stating their opposition because they want the site used for affordable family accommodation that fits in with the other buildings around the area.

We will find out on Thursday whether our elected councillors favour the interests of property developers who want to make money by turning James Bay into something like Vancouver’s Yaletown, or respect the wishes of the people who elected them and who want more affordable homes in a livable neighbourhood.

Roland Clift

James Bay

Victoria city council applauds itself for being well ahead of its provincially set housing target to build 4,902 homes by 2028. Mayor Marianne Alto and Coun. Matt Dell proudly claim Victoria is going “above and beyond” with “lots of big developments” in the pipeline.

How they did this is nothing to be proud of. Most approved projects are indeed big developments that provide lots of micro-units at market-price, more aptly described by Coun.........

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