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Alain Bertaud Is Honored in Vancouver
Senior Fellow Alain Bertaud is in Vancouver as the guest of honor for an event hosted by Public Salon. His widely anticipated arrival is mentioned in connection with a profile, “Vancouver’s Urban Planning Might Need the Touch of an Urban ‘Economist’,” in Business in Vancouver:
[B]ertaud argues the development of masterplans for a community are not only oblivious to economic consequences, but their prescriptions are often futile and even harmful to lower-income residents.
He argues that a mayor and his staff ought not to be visionaries but be absorbed in delivering outcomes on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as managers of bottom-up civic initiatives.
Bertaud also penned an op-ed, “Zoning Plans are Wasting Scarce Land Supply,” in the Vancouver Sun:
Metro municipalities must address the issue of housing affordability if they want to remain competitive.
Regularly monitored indicators like increases in land cost, rents and housing prices will alert elected officials and urban planners that prices are escalating. Then they can increase the supply of developed land by increasing investment in infrastructure and transport, adapting land use standards to the new demand and accelerating the process of providing building permits.