When the Sam Sullivan Council threatened to mass rezone vast areas of Vancouver back in 2010, ten Vancouver neighbourhoods joined together and rallied against it, managing to stop most of it.

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This current Council decided to beat Sullivan and surprise us with its largest rezoning ever: 67,000 single-family lots that they will vote to rezone on Sep 18th [Carlito Pablo's article in the Georgia Straight - click on the picture to see the article].

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It's not that duplexes could not accommodate more people while maintaining livability. They could.

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It is that this sweeping mass rezoning makes no provision to maintain the resident/green space ratio, or to meet the increased density with increased public services and amenities.

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It is that this sweeping mass rezoning is not being accompanied by provision to make sure that much of that new housing is subsidized so that we can end the exodus of Vancouverites who can no longer afford to live here.

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And, very importantly, it is that autocratic unconsulted rezoning, particularly mass rezoning, disrespects communities and throws our fate to the market.

But none of these considerations are important for this City Council that has consistently shied away from genuine community consultation.