OPINION: Vancouver has an empty bedroom problem.

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For 50 years, planning decisions in Metro Vancouver have been made with very little economics in mind.

We are third in the world in having the least affordable housing, causing suffering for young people and homelessness for thousands of low-income people.

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The most productive companies struggle to hire the talent they need. Sprawl, mandated by planning regulations, has a negative impact on the environment.

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During this time, lot sizes were not adjusted, even as household sizes decreased and prices rose alarmingly. Instead, thousands of bungalows were replaced by larger homes with more bedrooms.

There are fewer people living in single-family homes in Vancouver today than there were 50 years ago, and there are more than 70,000 empty bedrooms.

We don’t have an empty house problem. We have an empty bedroom problem.

On April 2nd, Alain Bertaud’s three principles for Metro Vancouver will be released, indicating the possibility of a reprieve.

Since his nine-day visit to Vancouver, Bartow, one of the world’s most respected urban planners, has honed three principles for Metro Vancouver, a total of 15 words.

Bertaud’s three principles do not tell us what to do, but rather raise questions about how to do it.

This is, by its very nature, an approach that will result in healthier cities. Ensuring this principle is respected is up to local government leaders and committed residents.

They are:

Principle 1: City managers must know economics.

Our cities are run by people who have never taken an economics course. And it shows.

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Every decision involves trade-offs, opportunity costs, and unintended consequences. Cities are complex systems that need to be cultivated like gardens, not designed like machines.

When hiring senior planners, politicians, urbanists, and especially young people who have the most to lose, need to insist that their candidates have a strong foundation in urban land economics.

This one action could revolutionize our cities.

Principle 2: Set quantitative goals instead of qualitative ones.

Planning documents are full of words like affordable, sustainable, and neighborhood. The problem is that no one has defined what this actually means.

Local government leaders must be committed to achieving specific goals. Then you will know whether you succeeded or failed.

Publishing the results of these measurements is in itself beneficial. What gets measured gets done.

Principle 3: Continuous monitoring, not master planning

It is very Soviet to see the city as a kind of construction site that requires a blueprint.

One problem is that the world has changed by the time all these processes are approved. And cities often halt all development applications until they have a perfect master plan. Valuable time will be wasted.

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As the housing crisis worsened, much-needed development applications were not accepted until plans for Vancouver and Broadway were completed.

We missed out on several unprecedented years of incredibly low-interest loans that could have changed our city forever.

Now, high interest rates are crushing the opportunities that once existed. It is difficult to calculate the damage that delay has done to our city.

Bertaud said Metro Vancouver’s urban-centered vision violates the laws of economics and will never be achievable.

The assumption is that you will be working in the same area where people live. It goes against economic strength and the reason cities exist in the first place: supporting the largest possible job market, which is a prerequisite for a prosperous city.

With the availability of technology, a master plan is no longer needed. Get real-time data to know when prices increase in one area or travel times increase in another.

For example, if the key price-to-income ratio, which measures housing affordability, is above 4, local governments must take action to resolve the issue. It should have happened decades ago.

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The price-to-income ratio is the area’s median home price divided by the median annual household income.

Metro Vancouver’s price-to-income ratio is currently over 12, one of the highest in the world, but local government has responded surprisingly poorly.

City councilors should be notified when readings reach dangerous levels and be able to request action.

Berteau’s three principles can help achieve affordable housing and solve many other urban problems.

These are culled from Bertaud’s 50 years of work in more than 50 cities around the world. As chief urban planner at the World Bank and author of the internationally acclaimed book Order Without Design, he has seen it all.

He wisely refrains from telling cities what to do. Rather, we encourage them to ask the right questions.

Our Global Civic Policy Society think tank is calling on citizens to lobby their city councilors and work together to ensure that Bertaud’s three principles are respected.

Vancouver’s businesses and youth need to know that help is on the way and that we can once again have a dynamic, resilient and affordable city.

Former Vancouver Mayor and BC MLA Sam Sullivan is the founder of the Global Citizen Policy Institute.

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