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In January 2018, I had a chance to meet with Housing Minister Selina Robinson.At the time, I mentioned that the province could bring in land-use reform to effectively end single-family zoning.

Single-family zoning is why it’s illegal to build multi-family buildings, like apartments or social housing, on over 70 per cent of the land in Vancouver. The same de facto ban on apartment-type buildings exists in most of B.C.’s urban centres.

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Single-family zoning is the legislated status quo that mandates housing scarcity, driving up land prices, forcing displacement of vulnerable residents and walling off transit- and amenity-rich land for use only by the extremely wealthy.

Even as we embark upon once-in-a-generation city planning processes, like what is underway in Vancouver currently, the template derived from exclusionary zoning ensures that incrementalism prevails — already densified areas get even bigger buildings, while neighbourhoods previously zoned only for detached houses get … duplexes.