Marinas - Getting out hand - Lack of slips means Vancouver, a city known for people who traditionally love the ocean has no place for people to have boats anymore...

There is a 12 year waiting list for some marinas, and all new proposed marinas are being denied....

For a city known for it's ties to the ocean, I find this a complete failure by the politicians.

There problem is you also have a housing crisis at the same time. The answer is not to deny more slips to deal with the increased in population of a city that has grow three times while it's harbor capacity has actually reduced in that same time.

And this is happening just as more people are turning to liveaboard boats to deal with the insanity of housing prices, and rent that is way beyond wages.

I grew up in vancouver as a kid, left and came back to live in a city because of the water. A city whose very origins was because of fishing, and ports, has decided to punish boat owners because they think anyone who has a boat is somehow a 'rich ellte'. When the fact is that middle class families have been traditionally tied to the water... there needs to be more focus on slips for boats shorter then 60-70ft. Especially those in the 20-50ft range. Which is traditionally the length of most middle class sailboats, and liveaboard trawlers, etc.

I agree that sewage problem needs to be delt with properly, but this is not a hard problem to solve, it just needs to be part of the agreement, ie ensure that anyone who breaks the rules and dumbs in the marina is charged a huge fee, and multiple offences automatically revokes rights to a slip etc.

Punishing families who love to access this insane natural wonder we have off our coast, just because people are too lazy to solve any problems is ridiculous. Right now the slip a 30-50ft boat sits in is pretty much worth more than the boat itself. That's a complete failure from the city....

And it's happened without any chance for the people of the city to have a say. Ie the decision to end vancouver residences access to the ocean, making it impossible for anyone to buy a boat, used or new, in vancouver is to me a complete failure of city planning.

Again, if you consider the images of vancouver, forever the harbor and boats on it have been a huge part of vancouvers image. If the only people able to have boats anymore are those elites with enough $$$ to pay insane prices for a slip, that to me is a betrayal to the cities historic origins.
Anyone I know whose lived in vancouver for their entire lives has ties to the ocean... to just decide without any say from the public that vancouver is going to only allow the rich to be able to have sailboats, etc is I think ridiculous.

It doesnt' take much to figure this out, it doesn't need to be anywhere downtown, it just needs to be say 1hr drive approx from vancouver, and prices that allow for middle class families to continue to enjoy vancouvers greatest natural resources...