Monday, May 25, 2009

Suction

And people wonder why Winnipeg does not see more housing being built downtown...

Green Seed Development has been waiting for the City's Property Planning & Development department to provide them with permits for their Youcube condominium development since Autumn of last year. They lost 20 contractors who were ready to go, and most of the orginal buyers, who have understandably moved on to other options. Green Seed had to go through Centre Venture and later the Mayor's office to get so much as a response from anyone at PP&D. And yet Green Seed still waits for permits that were coming "in three days" last Autumn.

Youcube is not even located inside South Point Douglas' heavy industrial zoning designation, so residential development is already permitted there. So why is it that the City is so averse to the construction of the first market housing units built in South Point Douglas since the Andrews Sisters dominated the pop charts? Why does the developer have to acquire suction through through Centre Venture and the Mayor's office to build something on Waterfront Drive? What exactly do they do over there at Fort Street? (Maybe that would make a good blog post on speakupwinnipeg.ca: "Hey Winnipeg: What kinds of housing developments would YOU like to see Winnipeg city planners dither on?")

As someone at newwinnipeg.com pointed out on this issue, there are three sides to every story. Fair enough. But somehow I doubt that PP&D goes into winter hibernation whenever Shinidco, Ladco, or the Province comes up with a new development to approve for the city's edge. Why is that in order for something to be built--something the City has ostensibly "wanted" for the past 40 years: dense infill housing in the central city--does one have to wait for six months to get the neccessary permits?

I am starting to wonder, in spite of the wonderful game many of them can talk, what exactly it is that city planners want for Winnipeg, and South Point Douglas in particular?

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