Come on landlords do a better job of keeping your properties clean. Tell your tenants what is expected of them. It's more than just collecting the rent money
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
New ideas needed for Northdale
By HILDA MASON, GUEST COLUMN
Aug 26, 2009
Of the 20 original homes on Batavia Place, only six remain in their original state. The other 14 are either student occupied with absentee landlords, or converted student homes with owner occupancy. This has forever changed the dynamics of the entire street. The same is true for all the streets in the Northdale neighbourhood.
Batavia Place, developed in the 1960s, was once a vibrant neighbourhood of large, well-kept homes, built on large lots. The residents would walk to work at the University of Waterloo or Wilfrid Laurier University.
Try if you can to comprehend that within a few short years this once prestigious community has been carved up and exploited solely for monetary gain as student rental accommodation and/or lodging houses.
To even consider that a young couple raising a small family would be interested, or feel safe, moving into a neighbourhood of partying, noisy, beer-sodden university students, is incomprehensible.
City staff is preparing a new rental licencing bylaw, or standardized citywide compliance bylaw, for presentation to council in the fall.
Council must realize that any bylaw applicable in other parts of the city will be impossible to implement in the Northdale neighbourhood.
The need here is a totally different one. A completely different approach is required!
Council must demand that planning staff do “due diligence” in analyzing the specific needs and potential of this particular neighbourhood and what future developments are pending.
Putting restrictions on remaining properties now, at this late date, will negatively impact our longtime residents still living in their homes.
Scott Nevin’s callous and cavalier attitude towards reducing the value of those homes is extremely worrisome.
How could he say publicly if a new city bylaw comes (in) at the cost of current residents’ property, so be it.
Such an attitude toward the remaining residents in the Northdale neighbourhood is unjustifiable and an insult!
Council needs to be informed, to search its conscience, and to do the right and honourable thing. Current residents must have the same rights and privileges as landlords who, in the last few years, have bought up all the properties as quickly as they become available and turned them into student housing.
They deserve the same rights as Laurier University had when it converted a home into a 10-student Hope House.
For council to ignore the remaining residents is blatant discrimination against the most vulnerable.
Unlike any other neighbourhood in Waterloo, the Northdale neighbourhood has an entirely unique problem. It has become a student precinct!
When considering a new bylaw this fall, every longtime Northdale resident whose future livelihood is invested in his or her home, expects that council will demand fairness and equality Northdale.
“There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
...
Hilda Mason is a longtime resident of Batavia Place in Northdale
By HILDA MASON, GUEST COLUMN
Aug 26, 2009
Of the 20 original homes on Batavia Place, only six remain in their original state. The other 14 are either student occupied with absentee landlords, or converted student homes with owner occupancy. This has forever changed the dynamics of the entire street. The same is true for all the streets in the Northdale neighbourhood.
Batavia Place, developed in the 1960s, was once a vibrant neighbourhood of large, well-kept homes, built on large lots. The residents would walk to work at the University of Waterloo or Wilfrid Laurier University.
Try if you can to comprehend that within a few short years this once prestigious community has been carved up and exploited solely for monetary gain as student rental accommodation and/or lodging houses.
To even consider that a young couple raising a small family would be interested, or feel safe, moving into a neighbourhood of partying, noisy, beer-sodden university students, is incomprehensible.
City staff is preparing a new rental licencing bylaw, or standardized citywide compliance bylaw, for presentation to council in the fall.
Council must realize that any bylaw applicable in other parts of the city will be impossible to implement in the Northdale neighbourhood.
The need here is a totally different one. A completely different approach is required!
Council must demand that planning staff do “due diligence” in analyzing the specific needs and potential of this particular neighbourhood and what future developments are pending.
Putting restrictions on remaining properties now, at this late date, will negatively impact our longtime residents still living in their homes.
Scott Nevin’s callous and cavalier attitude towards reducing the value of those homes is extremely worrisome.
How could he say publicly if a new city bylaw comes (in) at the cost of current residents’ property, so be it.
Such an attitude toward the remaining residents in the Northdale neighbourhood is unjustifiable and an insult!
Council needs to be informed, to search its conscience, and to do the right and honourable thing. Current residents must have the same rights and privileges as landlords who, in the last few years, have bought up all the properties as quickly as they become available and turned them into student housing.
They deserve the same rights as Laurier University had when it converted a home into a 10-student Hope House.
For council to ignore the remaining residents is blatant discrimination against the most vulnerable.
Unlike any other neighbourhood in Waterloo, the Northdale neighbourhood has an entirely unique problem. It has become a student precinct!
When considering a new bylaw this fall, every longtime Northdale resident whose future livelihood is invested in his or her home, expects that council will demand fairness and equality Northdale.
“There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
...
Hilda Mason is a longtime resident of Batavia Place in Northdale
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Read the article below
Read the article below that was published In October 2004. What recommendations do you see that were implemented? Has the MDS worked? Dedicated bylaw officers? Previous licensing rules did not work so the city just grandfathered in those already licensed. Now some five years later those licensing rules did not work and so a new set of licensing rules are to be brought in. Once again they are talking about grandfathering in those new licenses. The only ones that are not being grandfathered are the residents that have been here 20, 30, 40 years. They are the ones that cannot sell now because of no license while every other house that has sold is going for student rental leagally or illegaly. All we ask is that we be given a level playing field and designate this as a special policy area where any house can be a rental.
Bylaw on top of things - proactive, proactive, proactive
How long will these sofas sit out at the very public corner of Columbia and Albert - what happened to the promises of the council meeting a year ago to turn this area around?
To attract tech workers to buy houses here and stop the area from looking like a student slum?
What happened to the proactive bylaw enforcement?
Who is kidding whom?
The residents are not fooled.
The discussions are endless with nothing changing.
What is going on? Why are we not being supported?
Proactive bylaw enforcment - NOT
Where are the bylaw officers?Out getting new glasses?
Post-party lawn parking at its finest - bylaw flat on their face!
Parking for how many?????
Only seen by hundreds on their way to church.
Looks like a fine upscale neighbourhood, right?
This doesn't look like a student housing area.
Much!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Play fair
Northdale residents cry foul over city’s proposed rental licensing policy
By Greg MacDonald, Chronicle Staff
News
Aug 12, 2009
The city needs to reconsider a proposed rental housing bylaw to give fair value to all properties in Northdale, according to residents of the neighbourhood.
At a special meeting last Thursday, residents of the student-dominated community tore into city staff, the mayor and ward Coun. Jan d’Ailly about a plan that could require the owners of any rental units in the city to have a licence.
Staff is considering licensing landlords or properties, either in one section of Waterloo or the city as a whole.
One of the bylaw options the city is exploring is minimum separation — essentially limiting the number of rental units allowed on a block by requiring a certain distance between rentals.
But permanent residents in the neighbourhood fear that will mean that the houses that are already rentals will be given preference for licensing.
The city currently issues lodging house licences, which restrict the number of rental bedrooms allowed in a home.
That licence, however, does not prevent unlicensed homeowners from renting out their homes.
Ken Munson, who lives on Albert Street, said his house doesn’t have the same value as one that has a lodging house licence.
He feels that extending a new licensing program could only widen the gap in home values in Northdale.
“We need to create a level playing field for the small number of us who are still remaining,” Munson said, motioning to the 25 residents gathered in council chambers.
A better solution might be to upzone the neighbourhood, which would level property values since high-density developments could be built on any site, he said.
“I don’t know of any other neighbourhood in this situation that hasn’t been rezoned,” Munson said.
Residents have been calling for rezoning for upwards of two years and have been blocked out, said Paul Ellingham, who lives on Hemlock Street.
“These houses are about 1,000 square feet. They don’t work for families and they don’t work for students. Who are they for?” said Ellingham, who is a chaplain at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.
“Why does the city not want to rezone this area? There seems to be a wall.”
The city has different plans for the neighbourhood. Council has a vision for a diverse and low-density community in Northdale, said Scott Nevin, director of policy planning.
If it comes at the cost of current residents’ property values, so be it.
“The city is not in the business of providing someone value for their property,” Nevin said.
He cited the city’s height and density and nodes and corridors policies as pieces that would help solve the problem in Northdale.
The plan is to draw renters out of the neighbourhoods and into higher-density forms of housing, opening the neighbourhood back up for families, young professionals and seniors.
“We have a plan. We’re only four years in, so it’s hard to judge the progress,” he said.
That might be hard to do given the concentration of rental housing in the neighbourhood, said Dave Novis, a landlord who owns 14 properties in the neighbourhood.
He sees the licensing program as a cash grab and thinks the city should can the proposal.
Novis called the licence a tax that would only make renting less affordable.
“It’s kind of funny that the residents and landlords agree on something. Usually it’s landlords versus residents or vice versa,” Novis said.
D’Ailly said the concerns were heard loud and clear and stressed no decisions had been made yet.
“It’s a tough one, it really is tough. We need a solution,” he said. “We’re all frustrated but it’s time to move forward.”
Council will deliberate on implementing a bylaw in the fall. D’Ailly will host another meeting for Northdale residents in early October.
Northdale residents cry foul over city’s proposed rental licensing policy
By Greg MacDonald, Chronicle Staff
News
Aug 12, 2009
The city needs to reconsider a proposed rental housing bylaw to give fair value to all properties in Northdale, according to residents of the neighbourhood.
At a special meeting last Thursday, residents of the student-dominated community tore into city staff, the mayor and ward Coun. Jan d’Ailly about a plan that could require the owners of any rental units in the city to have a licence.
Staff is considering licensing landlords or properties, either in one section of Waterloo or the city as a whole.
One of the bylaw options the city is exploring is minimum separation — essentially limiting the number of rental units allowed on a block by requiring a certain distance between rentals.
But permanent residents in the neighbourhood fear that will mean that the houses that are already rentals will be given preference for licensing.
The city currently issues lodging house licences, which restrict the number of rental bedrooms allowed in a home.
That licence, however, does not prevent unlicensed homeowners from renting out their homes.
Ken Munson, who lives on Albert Street, said his house doesn’t have the same value as one that has a lodging house licence.
He feels that extending a new licensing program could only widen the gap in home values in Northdale.
“We need to create a level playing field for the small number of us who are still remaining,” Munson said, motioning to the 25 residents gathered in council chambers.
A better solution might be to upzone the neighbourhood, which would level property values since high-density developments could be built on any site, he said.
“I don’t know of any other neighbourhood in this situation that hasn’t been rezoned,” Munson said.
Residents have been calling for rezoning for upwards of two years and have been blocked out, said Paul Ellingham, who lives on Hemlock Street.
“These houses are about 1,000 square feet. They don’t work for families and they don’t work for students. Who are they for?” said Ellingham, who is a chaplain at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.
“Why does the city not want to rezone this area? There seems to be a wall.”
The city has different plans for the neighbourhood. Council has a vision for a diverse and low-density community in Northdale, said Scott Nevin, director of policy planning.
If it comes at the cost of current residents’ property values, so be it.
“The city is not in the business of providing someone value for their property,” Nevin said.
He cited the city’s height and density and nodes and corridors policies as pieces that would help solve the problem in Northdale.
The plan is to draw renters out of the neighbourhoods and into higher-density forms of housing, opening the neighbourhood back up for families, young professionals and seniors.
“We have a plan. We’re only four years in, so it’s hard to judge the progress,” he said.
That might be hard to do given the concentration of rental housing in the neighbourhood, said Dave Novis, a landlord who owns 14 properties in the neighbourhood.
He sees the licensing program as a cash grab and thinks the city should can the proposal.
Novis called the licence a tax that would only make renting less affordable.
“It’s kind of funny that the residents and landlords agree on something. Usually it’s landlords versus residents or vice versa,” Novis said.
D’Ailly said the concerns were heard loud and clear and stressed no decisions had been made yet.
“It’s a tough one, it really is tough. We need a solution,” he said. “We’re all frustrated but it’s time to move forward.”
Council will deliberate on implementing a bylaw in the fall. D’Ailly will host another meeting for Northdale residents in early October.
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