Kuhlmann, Thor, "Assessing Alternative Development Standards from a Land Use Planning Perspective"

Land use management is a municipality's principal area of jurisdiction and most effective means of promoting affordable housing. Historically, the role Canadian municipalities have played in the promotion of affordable housing, however, has been restricted. Federal and provincial affordable housing policies, in that they have maintained artificially low land costs, have dictated the minor role municipalities play in shaping housing policy through land use management. The federal and provincial policy was based on a definition that regarded affordable housing only in terms of its purchase costs. As a result, affordable housing suffers from many costs of housing unrecognized in its definition.

As funding for federal and provincial housing initiatives is evaporating, municipalities are reconsidering their land use management role in shaping affordable housing policy. This thesis will test the effectiveness of a municipal land use reform designed to promote affordable housing. In testing the housing initiative for its ability to promote affordable housing, this thesis acknowledges the absence of land use efficiency in the narrow definition of affordable housing. Therefore, for the purposes of testing the proposal, a broader, more comprehensive definition of affordable housing is advanced.

The initiative to be tested is a series of changes to development standards regarding residential construction. In that the standards are changed, the affordable housing initiative is called Alternative Development Standards (ADS). Several types of ADS have been designed, and the study has chosen to test a set of ADS from Ottawa-Carleton that are representative of ADS in general.

The findings depend on which definition one uses to test the Alternative Development Standards. Assessed in terms of the narrow definition criticized in this thesis, the ADS meet the objective of lowering housing purchase price. However, tested against the broader definition of affordable housing, the ADS fail to promote affordable housing in any effective manner. The thesis thus raises questions about the understanding of affordable housing that is used to design initiatives intended to promote the same. It is proposed that the broader definition of affordable housing should be used to shape new affordable housing initiatives, and that the role of municipal level land use planning be acknowledged as an important catalyst toward that goal.

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This document was last modified on November 14, 2000.