By John Paolozzi
Most of us would probably agree that Nelson’s downtown doesn’t look as fresh as it did just a few years ago. The trees have grown so large they’re starting to push up the sidewalks.
Many buildings could use some TLC. And a design that was forward thinking for the 1980s is not as pedestrian-focused as you’ll find in most newer urban centres throughout North America and Europe these days.
So it’s not crazy to start having the conversation about how we should tackle downtown. If you check out the city’s plan, there is definitely some good stuff in there. If I were to find fault with the proposed design, my biggest complaint would be that it’s a bit generic. But that’s a relatively minor detail that could be fixed in the execution.
Generic design choices are not the biggest problem with this proposal. The problem is that we’ve made this project a priority over housing affordability. Nelson is in the middle of an affordability crisis, and this project is only going to make it worse. Possibly significantly so.
During the last election, downtown revitalization was barely an issue. In fact, when you consider how often it came up, it came in somewhere after backyard chickens. What was top of mind during the last election was affordable housing – or rather, the lack thereof.
Every candidate made a point of committing themselves to addressing the issue, but very little has been done. Some will tell you that there is little that can be accomplished at the local level, but that’s not true.
There are plenty of things a city can do to help create more market housing, but because we’ve focused our attention on projects like downtown revitalization, we haven’t even attempted to consider all of our options.
Not only have revitalization projects like Railtown and Downtown helped to push the housing affordability conversation off the table, the cost of this project will do nothing to help housing affordability – and will probably make it worse. The 135-page Urban Design Strategy proposal doesn’t provide a grand total for the multi-year project, but if you add together the estimates for each phase, the total is around $21 million, not including the cost to upgrade the below-street utilities.
Even if we can get the province and feds to each kick in for a third, that still leaves us on the hook for $7 million.
Before launching this project, the city needs to transparent about how much this project is going to cost and how we’ll pay for it.
Our property taxes just increased by nearly eight per cent (when you factor in Nelson Hydro, which we rely on for revenue to run the city).
We’re not in a great position to take on a project of this size at this time without a further tax increase. It would be like trying to renovate your kitchen when you just bought a new car, are paying off a large credit card debt, and have to worry about sending your kids to university.
You don’t have to be a hard-nosed fiscal conservative to object to an increase in residential taxes. If you’re already living on a small income, municipal tax increases can be a significant burden.
If you’re a renter, it means higher rents. Considering the fact that Nelson has roughly double the number of people living on social assistance than the provincial average, it means more people will struggle as taxes creep up and up.
And it’s not just the increase in taxes that will reduce housing affordability. This project will almost assuredly increase property values in the downtown and throughout Nelson. This is awesome if you own a building downtown.
Great also if you already own a house. Not so great if you want to buy or rent one. This will further widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor in our community. Land owners will get richer, while the landless will get poorer.
There’s a lot to think about here. The city needs to be completely up front about the full cost of this project and how we’ll pay for it. They should also look into the impact this project will have on housing affordability throughout the city, and what we can do to mitigate that impact.
If Nelson weren’t already one of the most highly taxed communities in B.C., this might not be an issue.
Likewise, if the lack of affordable housing weren’t pushing out the artists and other people who help make Nelson what it is, I wouldn’t hesitate to support renovating our downtown as soon as possible.
But that’s not the case. We do have serious issues facing our community that need to be addressed immediately. The city needs to put on the brakes until it figures out whether Nelson is going to become a playground for the wealthy, or if it will continue to be a community that serves the economically diverse needs of all its citizens.