The City of Vancouver has struck a task force and working group to tackle mayor Gregor Robertson’s top priority: affordable housing.
Independent planning and development expert Michael Geller, who will lead the working group, has been critical of city development practices. He said his appointment does not mean that he has “gone over to the dark side.”
“The task force has got a very broad representation and the expectation is that it may not get into a lot of the details of development and housing and zoning that really need to be discussed,” Geller said.
Getting into those details will be a job for the working group, which will be made up of Geller and several others whom Geller has not yet named.
Former B.C. cabinet minister Olga Ilich, who asked Geller if he wanted to be involved, will chair the task force with Robertson.
Members of the affordable housing task force include:
- Alan Boniface (principal, DIALOG; chair, Urban Land Institute BC);
- Nathan Edelson (senior partner, 42 Street Consulting);
- Leonard George (director, economic development, Tsleil-Waututh Nation);
- Marg Gordon (CEO, BC Apartment Owners & Managers Association);
- Mark Guslits (architect and principal, Mark Guslits & Associates Inc.);
- Colleen Hardwick (founder and CEO, New City Ventures);
- Howard Johnson (CEO, Baptist Housing);
- Kenneth Kwan (chair, building committee, S.U.C.C.E.S.S.);
- Michael Lewis (executive director, Canadian Centre for Community Renewal);
- Eric Martin (vice-president, Bosa Development Corp.);
- Karen O'Shannacery (executive director, Lookout Society);
- Al Poettcker (president and CEO, UBC Properties Trust);
- Peter Simpson (president and CEO, Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association); and
- Bradford Tone (president, Tone Management).
Glen Korstrom
@GlenKorstrom