Further to my last blogpost, to the surprise and disappointment of many residents, especially renters, West Vancouver Council defeated the motion to impose rental-only zoning on 30 rental buildings in Ambleside. A good account of the meeting can be found here. https://www.nsnews.com/local-news/west-van-rejects-rental-only-zone-for-ambleside-apartments-7891333
As noted in the article, councillors who voted to defeat the motion (with Cllrs Lamber and Gambioli supporting the staff recommendation) said they didn’t want to approve the zoning change before talking to building owners. It seems that staff didn't formally notify the building owners, which seems very odd.
They also spoke about the need to provide more financial incentives for landlords to build rental apartments, including greater density or buildings which combined rental and strata units. As I noted, going from 1.75 to 2.0 was not sufficient to encourage anyone to redevelop a property with rental housing.
I would now urge council to impose rental replacement and limited tenant protection policies as soon as possible, pending revisions to the zoning bylaw. Just don't go so far as Vancouver or other municipalities that require developers to allow former tenants to return to new units at the same rent as they were paying before. This creates too much uncertainty for all involved.
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