The City of Vancouver says it's made significant changes to speed up new housing construction by moving to clear a backlog of applications.
Mayor Ken Sim says the changes voted on yesterday by council will streamline the application process and speed up new housing construction city-wide.
Today, Vancouver took another significant step towards building more housing, faster.
— Mayor Ken Sim (@KenSimCity) May 30, 2023
By streamlining the application process and prioritizing projects with the most net new housing units, we are speeding up the delivery of much-needed housing across the City.#vanpoli pic.twitter.com/ALMkY9zwes
The city says the vote means that housing applications with the highest number of units will get priority, which will lessen the risk of displacing residents.
Councillor Mike Klassen says the vote discontinues a time-consuming stage known as the policy enquiry process, which will free up city staff to approve housing projects.