INSIDE: Fraser Valley Regional District appeases Abbotsford Pg. 3 F R I D A Y
January 28, 2011
hopeful Abbott stops to talk 3 Leadership N E W S ,
SPORTS,
WEATHER
Pot bylaw suspension ‘precedent setting’
&
E N T E R T A I N M E N T abbotsfordtimes.com
SURVEY SAYS . . .
“SEVERELY”
UNAFFORDABLE
Crowd piles into Mission chambers First reported @
abbotsfordtimes.com
CAM TUCKER camtuckertimes@gmail.com
T
he B.C. Civil Liberties Association is hoping the recent suspension of a controversial Mission bylaw will set a major precedent in British Columbia. On Monday, Mission district council suspended its Controlled Substance Property Bylaw for one month so it can undergo a review amidst a wave of protest from citizens who say they have been unfairly targeted by the bylaw and handed inspection fees upwards of $5,200. The bylaw grants the district’s Public Safety Inspection Team the ability to inspect homes that are consuming more than 93 kilowatts of electricity a day. The bylaw was instituted to help reduce the number of marijuana grow operations in Mission. A class-action lawsuit on behalf of several Mission residents who had their properties inspected – without a trace of a marijuana grow operation – is expected to be filed any day now. Micheal Vonn, policy director of the BCCLA, said she expects this case could set the standard for how municipalities and police forces implement and enforce similar bylaws existing now and in the future. “We’re counting on it,” she told the Abbotsford-Mission Times. “Part of the reason we are very, very keen to see there will be legal action undertaken, given that council has
CAM TUCKER camtuckertimes@gmail.com
A
bbotsford’s housing market is “severely unaffordable,” according to a recent survey of 325 international cities. The Seventh Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2011, released Monday by Winnipeg-based Frontier Centre for Public Policy, ranked Abbotsford 297th out of 325 cities in seven different English-speaking countries when it came to affordable housing. The report cited the median price of housing ($402,000) and the median household income ($62,300) as the main reasons why real estate in the Fraser Valley’s largest city is so unaffordable. The report included three other B.C. cities: Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna, all of which were also deemed “severely unaffordable.”
WORLDWIDE STUDY RANKS ABBY 297th OUT OF 325 Robyn Adamache, Metro Vancouver’s senior market analyst for Canada Mortgage and Housing, said the figures did not come as a surprise. “B.C., and in particular the Lower Mainland, has always had the highest home prices in the country, so it’s no big change from anything that has happened in the past,” said Adamache. “Affordability is really the biggest challenge for first-time home buyers.” But there may be hope for people interested in setting up camp in Abbotsford. The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board is forecasting housing prices to drop by one per cent in 2011, compared to the six per cent increase in prices in 2010. “We are expecting that price growth will be a little bit more muted in the year ahead,”
said Adamache. While housing prices are expected to drop in the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford also enjoys lower annual income levels in order to qualify for a mortgage. According to Adamache, the annual income to qualify for an average mortgage in Abbotsford is $40,000 a year. In Vancouver, however, the annual income to qualify for a mortgage is more than double that. She said that trend will continue based on the fact Vancouver is viewed as a world-class city in an area that poses eventual restrictions on housing development given its proximity to the ocean, mountains, U.S. border and agricultural land reserve. Adamache added Vancouver’s geographic issues are also seen in Abbotsford.
see BYLAW, page A16
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