Quote:
Originally Posted by officedweller
My understanding is that the City of Vancouver, which derives its powers from the Province under the Vancouver Charter, has broader powers than other municipalities in BC which are granted powers under the Local Government Act (formerly the Municipal Act) (including New Westminster, which I think is older than Vancouver).
You don't hear about other municipalities purporting to regulate to such fine detail (anyone correct me if I'm wrong on that).
Here's a link to the Vancouver Charter and an excerpt that might be the empowering section:
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Most municipalities of any size have some form of UDP equivalent, though you are right to point out that the City of Vancouver is unique and its powers are stronger by way of the charter (the clause you highlighted is at the heart of it). This is also why they uphold their own Building Code. All municipalities across the country possess their powers through delegation from the provinces. This power is delegated to the provinces by the division of powers the Constitution Act imposes on the Federal and Provincial governments. That is a matter of constitutional law.
Statute Law comes from legislation from the two levels of constitutional government. The Municipal Act (the LGA) stands beside the Vancouver Charter (which is a separate Statute), as well as other pertinant statutes: the Architects Act, Builders Lien Act, Land Title Act, Property Law Act, and of course, many others.
Charters are a little different than outright Statutes, but they exist by an independent act of delegation by the province. You are right to say that Vancouver derives its power through the province by way of its charter. However, Charter Cities (and there are only a handful across the entire country) possess considerable independence of power which is secure from the Municipal Act. They are their own little fiefdoms.
New West is an example of a non-charter city that has its own design panel. Just look at the Plaza 88 process.
Quote:
Originally Posted by whatnext
Frankly I wish the UDP had more power, specifically over single family homes which are causing far more visual pollution than multifamily. The worst multifamily or commercial descends merely to the level of banality, in SFH it plummets to atrocious.
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SFH is a lost cause. It is where municipal governments acknowledge two things: 1) Private Property, when tied to individuals, is a much trickier thing to govern in the terms if this discussion; and 2) Resources - they wouldn't have a hope in hell dealing with so many individual cases. Though, don't think for a minute that they don't try wherever they can. They usually get sticky when actual architects are involved, trying to do something of quality . . . while acres of absolute crap tract housing goes up all over the place.
Architects do design a lot of houses, and a few good contractors do likewise, but together they account for about 5% of the market. Architects have long since given up (with the odd exception here and there) on the 'background' SFH.
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