While Tuesday’s (Nov. 17) heavy snowfall caught many people unprepared and certainly caused havoc on area roadways, might we suggest a bit of patience with the situation?
Already there have been crashes and people stuck everywhere and we all need to realize that at times citizens are simply helping their neighbours – to honk your horn as someone lends a hand to push someone out of a snowbank is useless.
In fact, with 50+ centimetres having fallen already, it will take a while for roads and sidewalks to return to some form of normalcy. Because of that, valley residents might want to have an eye out for those who could use some assistance.
Speaking of sidewalks, can everybody now get on board with shoveling? Snowfalls prior to Tuesday’s weren’t dealt with properly and in many areas already, snow and ice are building up to the point where sidewalks are unsafe, some even unpassable.
Homeowners, after all, are responsible for shoveling their walks within 48 hours of a snowfall. That includes second homeowners who, although possibly not on site, are still responsible for clearing walks; even if that entails hiring contractors.
Overall, winter will go a lot smoother if everybody lends a hand.
Housing always an issue
The suggestion that housing issues are ever present in our Bow Valley is reinforced again this week, with proposed housing for Banff’s industrial area.
While the proposal is for just four units, Banff is now in the situation where anything that can be developed as affordable needs to be encouraged.
We’ve said it in this space before and we’ll repeat it – if the affordable housing issue is to be tackled, it will likely have to be by the municipalities themselves.
Banff and Canmore will likely have to get into the development business, identify and set aside municipal land, then find builders to construct sensible, right-sized housing options that can be purchased. Canmore is already doing this through Canmore Community Housing Corporation and expects 42 units of rental Perpetually Affordable Housing to fill up in 2016.
Parks Canada could go a long way in helping Banff by making some federal land available. After all, Parks benefits from a happy workforce in Banff.
In the end, anyone who is waiting for the development industry to create affordable housing will wait a long time. Short of offering a massive tax break to developers to build affordable housing, why would a developer deliberately lose out on a potential property?
If every home built in the $750,000 range sells, for example, what would be the incentive to build homes in the half million or under range?
A couple of weeks ago, the Outlook ran a story on a happy tiny (micro) homeowner. Tiny homes are all the rage in certain areas, Washington and Oregon, in the U.S., for example, and could be just what’s needed in the Bow Valley.
With the Rocky Mountains providing limitless recreation and outdoor space, do citizens here really need a full-size single detached home with white picket fence? Not really.
Perhaps the possibility of a parcel of land being set aside for a neighbourhood of tiny, or modest homes, is what’s really needed. We wonder if tiny homes of under 200 square feet are truly livable, but there should be plenty of room for modest homes or row housing in the 1,000 square foot range.
Properly designed, with an appropriate level of finish, we feel small, modest homes, could be a possibility.
