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What really happens behind the build?
This series takes you inside the complex, often unseen world of construction, urban planning, and development - where ideas move from concept to reality through a mix of vision, collaboration, and constant problem-solving. Across these episodes, industry leaders share real stories from the front lines, offering an honest look at the challenges, decisions, and innovations shaping the built environment today.
From the evolving demands of modern construction to the political and community dynamics behind urban planning, to bold new ideas transforming hospitality - this series explores every layer of the process. You’ll hear how buildings today are more complex than ever, why early collaboration is critical, and how navigating approvals and public expectations can make or break a project. At the same time, you’ll discover how innovation, like Canada’s first pod hotel, emerges from identifying gaps and rethinking traditional models.
At its core, Behind the Build is about more than structures - it’s about people. Their stories around relationships, leadership, and lived experience that turn challenges into opportunities and ideas into lasting impact. Whether you’re a developer, architect, planner, in construction or simply curious about how the spaces around you come to life, this series offers a deeper understanding of what it truly takes to build for the future.
Siegrist Architecture is a Vancouver-based firm led by Duane Siegrist and Andrew Martin, two leaders focused on turning complex ideas into real, buildable spaces. Their work spans everything from multi-family apartments and townhomes to high-rise towers, mass timber and concrete builds, senior living environments, and mixed-use communities that bring people, work, and life together. What sets them apart is experience, not just in design, but in delivery. Years of working alongside clients, consultants, and municipalities have shaped a practical, collaborative approach rooted in relationships and trust. They know what it takes to move a project forward, and get it built well. At every stage, the focus is simple: strong partnerships, clear communication, and thoughtful design that holds up in the real world.
The result? Projects that run smoothly, spaces that work beautifully, and communities that last.
Meet your hosts.
Duane Siegrist, Architect. Builder. Connector.
Duane Siegrist is all about bridging big ideas with real results that work. For over two decades he built a trusted reputation and strong relationships in the building industry. Now leading at SIEGRIST, he’s spent over 25 years shaping multi-family, mixed-use, and community-driven projects - navigating municipal planning and building departments, with a deep understanding of clients and developer needs: creating marketable, well-constructed buildings that are livable, community-focused, and, above all, projects we can all be PROUD of.
He’s known for being as comfortable on-site as he is in the boardroom meetings and presenting design and problem-solving, working alongside teams to turn complex visions into spaces that actually work. Passionate about mentorship and raising the bar in the industry, Duane is driven by one thing: getting great ideas built, and bringing people along with him.
Andrew Martins, Designer. Builder. Leader.
Andrew Martins pairs a sharp, practical mindset with experience in design and construction to deliver practical, efficient solutions. An award-winning BCIT graduate, Andrew has built a reputation for cutting through complexity and maintaining momentum on even the most intricate projects.
With over 15 years of industry experience, Andrew’s unique background—leading both architectural and construction firms—allows him to bridge the gap between design and execution. He is a natural leader who aligns teams, anticipates challenges, and ensures every detail reflects the original vision. Andrew brings clarity and a relentless focus on quality, grounded in the belief that the best results come from doing things right the first time.
#podcast #construction
speaker-0 (00:01)
Building something that last takes more than great planning. I'm Duane Segrist, co-founder of Segrist Architecture, here with my partner Andrew Martins. Join us for a look behind the building.
Getting a housing project off the ground shouldn't feel like running an obstacle course in the dark, but for many in the industry, does. Rezonings drag on, applications get more complex, teams grow, costs climb, and a huge amount of time and expertise are spent before a project even reaches a public hearing. And this is where a single no can stop everything. What's lost isn't just money or schedules, it's momentum, it's the talent, and often good housing.
that our communities now urgently need. Today's guest knows this landscape intimately. With decades of experience in urban planning and large scale development, he stepped in where others are close to falling apart, working with policy, design, delivery. He understands how approvals really work and how teams can align instead of how they collide. On this episode of Behind the Build, we talk about cutting through the friction, working together better and turning stalled ideas into homes people can actually live in.
And joining us today on Behind the Build is Charles Goddard. Charles, who also goes by Chuck, he has given wind to projects. He's stepped in and he's pulled others out of the fire where they're quite literally dead in the water. He's walked through this forest of approvals and regulations long enough to know where the real dangers lie and more importantly, how to guide the team safely through them.
speaker-1 (01:39)
What sets Chuck apart is how he shows up. He's approachable, grounded, and generous with his time and experience.
After years of working with authorities, architects and builders, he understands how the development system actually works behind the scenes. He is the kind of expertise we cannot afford to lose, especially right now. As housing pressures intensify across the province and throughout Canada, today's conversation is about more than just getting projects approved. It's about insight, alignment and delivery. How authorities, professionals and teams can work together to turn ideas into real housing.
And there's no better person to unpack that with than Chuck.
speaker-2 (02:20)
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's been quite a career. I've grown in it myself personally as well. So happy to have you here.
speaker-1 (02:29)
going up the ladder from a city hall from zoning to planning, all the way up to director planning. That mix actually gives you a unique perspective, understanding the pressure of staff, the realities of developers, what it takes to actually find the middle ground where a community can actually benefit from housing.
speaker-2 (02:47)
everybody starts as a planner.
speaker-1 (02:49)
The time it takes to get housing approved has long been criticized as a bottleneck for housing development. And part of the reason why the end cost of housing is so high. To increase densification, the provincial government has actually stepped in and introduced some controversial legislation called Bill 44-47, essentially hijacking the role of city planning departments. Chuck, what are your thoughts on the province putting their hands into municipal housing policy?
speaker-2 (03:13)
Well, I don't really like the term hijacking because remember, municipal government is always a child of the senior government. I think I have to give credit where credit is due. I think the province has done a good thing here. They're trying to simplify it. We're in a very difficult time right now and it seems to be getting even more difficult. And so anything they can do to speed up the process, get coordination between
cities themselves as well as regional governments and provincial government is in my opinion a good thing. It is a complicated business and it's getting more complicated and it has gotten more complicated and that's part of the problem. I always used to remind my staff we're not curing cancer here, we're just trying to provide housing for people, safe quality housing with our partners which includes the development industry of course because you guys not government does that work. I'm happy with the changes the province has made.
And like Bill for example, the regional, the transportation planning and getting more on where it should be. You know, we've been doing that for years anyways, regardless of that bill. All cities through the Metro regional plans for years have been focusing on town center development and that. So they've expanded that. We have a lot more pressures and in a way by the province stepping in and dictating it, it does make it easier for staff and council because some of those decisions, which are politically charged sometimes.
no longer have to face that opposition. Yes, it goes to the province, but they're the senior level of government. And I think local government should ride that train sometimes because it does benefit them.
speaker-1 (04:50)
You know the question everyone's asking should there be such thing as a single-family zoning or should all zones allow minimum density of three four plus units as bill 44 suggests
speaker-0 (05:01)
Let me explain Bill 44. It's the most current consequential pieces of legislation ever introduced into British Columbia. Bill 44 is formerly known as the Housing Statutes Residential Development Amendment Act of 2023. At its core, Bill 44 rewrites the rules about how communities can grow and welcome housing. Bill 44 changes that bylaw to allow small-scale multi-unit housing, triplexes, fourplexes,
and even up to six units near frequent transit. Municipalities had to adopt these changes by mid-2024 or face provincial orders. There's no question Bill 44 is shaping the housing landscape in British Columbia, and its effects are still unfolding in cities and towns throughout British Columbia.
speaker-2 (05:48)
Well, I think they should. And when we look back, I mean, I started my career in 1990 and the first job I had was dealing with secondary suites in Surrey. I mean, we've had these multiple units within our midst for many, many years. So it's not like we don't have them in some form already. I would argue almost every house built now has at least the capacity for one unit in it. So it's the associated issues like parking and fit and what's the look of the new stuff coming in.
I can tell you we're not going to see every unit in every single family area replaced by these things. It be a long time before that happens. But I'm also not fully convinced that we should put all the people on the worst situations on the most trafficked, busy intersections in the city and have expect them to raise a family in that. These provide a much more livable future for our children and grandchildren, I think.
speaker-1 (06:39)
What do you think are some policies or guidelines that have become a large friction point within an application?
speaker-2 (06:44)
Well, it's always, and I always tell my staff, there is safety in the bylaw. You work with the rules, you work with the design guidelines, you work with the uses and policies and zoning criteria. It's simpler and easier for everybody. Council doesn't get placed in a difficult position. Staff doesn't have to start justifying why things need to deviate from the norm. Sometimes councils get very suspicious of that and think, okay, what's the developer up to? What staff trying to pull?
Why are we supporting this? What kind of precedent is this going to create? Those are things that are a challenge when somebody comes in right off the bat and says they want to do something out of left field. So we will look at those things, but we have to understand it and we have to feel that it makes sense for our community. What may work in Maple Ridge may not work in Langley or something like that.
speaker-0 (07:34)
So you're really protecting the public in many ways.
speaker-2 (07:36)
That's right. And we're protecting the integrity of the process too for others because a guy comes in next may not ask the same request, how can one get it and one doesn't sort of a thing. So that puts everybody into an uncomfortable and difficult thing to justify. We do look at variances all the time and some variances make perfect sense. mean, we allow variances on parking now that we never used to over the years. The parking standards are continually going down because of the options of transportation options we have now.
Developers and the public need to take advice from the planners because we sit in all these rooms, we hear the discussions, we know what's going on behind the scenes. And that advice is very valuable to a developer to know the minds of some of the counselors. And many of them are very divided and very, they conflicted with each other. So that is good advice for a developer to hear what some of that thinking is about so we can help guide them. We want the projects to succeed.
speaker-1 (08:34)
Right. Yeah, of course. What policy, you know, what variants do you see developers want to push or manipulate or reinvent the most?
speaker-2 (08:41)
It's funny, we never used to see density requests. I mean, you have to rezone to do that. can't vary it, but there's a standard zone that you might use and then it has a certain density. Well, they all are paying now to get this additional density. That would never have flown 10, 20 years ago or something like that. That has really been a game changer and I've always been a bit uncomfortable with it, but that's the way it is. think the province is kind of dealing with that as well now, but.
height variances are always an issue for neighbors and all that. That often comes up. And I think we've been building better buildings than we've ever built in the region. mean, they're better looking, they're quality buildings and better job at it.
speaker-0 (09:20)
You just talked about policy and how things are moving through, but what we call as local residents is now, now you're, you're actually trying to find this balance Chuck here, right? So let's paint the picture, single family home that could go right next to, say a six story dwelling or a multiplex. Yes. Not in my backyard, NIMBYism. How much power and influence do you see that happening?
speaker-2 (09:44)
First of all, we try not to bring applications down that are risky, things that maybe are going to fail. We try and divert those earlier, work with the client to try and get it sorted out so it doesn't face that because that's an expensive and an embarrassing process. But they do fail and it's often that NIMBYism that I don't want this project near me. They're influential people in the community talking to council. Council is easily influenced by... There are power players within the communities that seem to have more...
influence than others and they do get the ear of councils at times.
speaker-0 (10:17)
And we're going to come back to that, actually. We're going to come back to that very idea because pushing the boundaries is what we're talking about, really. So what you said is that you deal with it, you're thinking about how this project moves through an approval process. You have an idea, as I said earlier, where the monsters are in the forest and where they might lurk, and you're navigating that. And it's funny, you're doing it on behalf of not only the municipality, the politics of it, but you're actually doing it for the people.
And that's what's kind of neat. You have to think about it.
speaker-2 (10:47)
That's correct. know, most of us are really just trying to get projects through and most of the projects conform to the policies and the guidelines that the city has laid out. That's why we're supporting it. Sometimes we try and give advice to people and they just don't want to hear it. And this is why I was working for the city and as on the developing side, I'm helping other people now. It's a bit of a different ball game, but still the knowledge you have is useful.
speaker-1 (11:11)
Do you have a specific story that you could tell about that?
speaker-2 (11:15)
Yes, here's a good one. Morningstar Homes has built quite a bit of stuff in the regions and Maple Ridge, they were quite large and they had a property on North Road, a very large development site up in Silver Valley that had 150 acres or something like that. And the initial policy, the initial approach was we're going to develop the entire site out as a single family subdivision, large single family lot.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of difficult soils, there's floodplains, there was all sorts of very sensitive being up into the hills and maple, very sensitive environmental land. And we talked to them and we were able to convince them and they were good. They came around to the fact that let's concentrate this development on much smaller lots in a smaller portion of the site and leave the rest of the site untouched and create parks. Now, Maple Ridge was great in one sense. We took park land as dedication.
with the subdivision, for example, I was also the approving officer. And so we basically negotiated with them 95 acres of the 140 acre site for basically preservation and park above the Blaney bog. And that was preserved with trails and all that. And that'll be there. It's in city ownership now. And yes, we maybe you could argue overdeveloped a portion of the site in exchange for that huge environmental benefit and community benefit that'll be there forever. And that was a
trade-off and I think they were quite happy with it as well because it was a complicated and difficult site if they wanted to develop it the way they wanted to originally. So that was positive and I think people need to realize, you know, you need to know the policies and the OCP and the guidelines but staff will work with people when they come in with an idea that provides a benefit to the community and not just the developer.
speaker-1 (12:59)
What Chuck is referring to is the Official Community Plan, or OCP. It is one of the most important documents a municipality produces and is different from zoning. It sets the long-term vision for how a community will grow and change. The impact of an OCP is significant. It provides clarity and predictability for residents, developers, architects, and decision makers.
helping everyone understand what kind of development is encouraged and where. When done well, an OCP aligns policy with community housing decisions, reduces uncertainty in the approval process, and allows projects that fit the plan to move forward efficiently. In short, the OCP is the foundation that turns community values into actionable direction and ultimately determines whether growth happens thoughtfully or with friction and delay.
speaker-0 (13:51)
Sounds good. Big park sounds wonderful, right? I'm getting the impression from you, Chuck. You know, it's, it's really about all it's it has to be a win, win, win, right? It has to work for everybody. And when it's not that it can't be one sided. And I just want to relate it back to specifically around the derailment of it. ⁓ is it, is it something behind the derailment is that, it the wrong applicant for the wrong site?
speaker-2 (13:54)
Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah.
speaker-0 (14:20)
Is it the wrong project in the wrong time? I think that's something about we should cover off.
speaker-2 (14:26)
It could be all those elements, but often developers work in many communities and they don't know them all very well. And they may take approach that works in one place and doesn't maybe work very well in another. So it's kind of a bit of a bowl in the China shop. Sometimes that doesn't help, but they need to get a better understanding on the environment setting and you know, what is even needed in a community as compared to another one. I think it's important component of it. Yes.
speaker-1 (14:50)
It's all about balance, like I said.
Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, again, going back to friction, it's friction is just there between community, neighbors, council, planning, developers, even the design team, right? Yeah. You know, was there any specific stories or anything when someone actually shifted from like a skeptic or against the product to an ally?
speaker-2 (15:14)
Yes, just off the top of my head, very small lot of development within a very sensitive environmental area and a council election had occurred. And the previous council was on board with it. It made sense for them. The new council was less pro-development and that it was going to public hearing in the new council, unfortunately. And so we really had to work hard as staff to convince the new council that this made sense and all the bylaws. And we managed to convince that council.
that it worked and they did give it third reading when I thought for sure they were going to turn it down, but it took a lot of work on the part of staff. And that work does go on often if staff are supportive of a project and they shouldn't move it down if they're not supportive of it. But if they're really supportive of it and it hits a lot of those target goals that you're trying to achieve outlined in the OCP, they should fight for it in my opinion. And it convinced this council who was very negative towards the proposal earlier.
You do have to remember timing is a lot of it as well. Councils change in Maple Ridge and some of the Valley of Leigh change quite a bit, not just one person. So you've got to be aware of who the players are and where they stand and staff are excellent at that out very early. That's right. It's always good money and time to spend getting to know your planner well and the decision makers within the group because they are your best friends. Yes, they have a job to do, but.
speaker-0 (16:21)
Great time, right place.
You
said nothing happens in isolation right there. The public plays its role. The old play their role. I'm going to just tell it like a five second story here just really quickly because it, you you've been in front of the public and electoral bodies. My story is I was quite young in my profession and starting out in my boss made me do a public hearing once. And this public hearing was so bad that somebody in the public
speaker-2 (16:39)
Correct.
speaker-0 (16:59)
went up to the front of the auditorium and tore the renderings of the project off of the wall and stormed out and was followed by a bunch of claps. So it's scary. So in your, in your case, it's scary and uncertain. And let's just all be human here for a second, but where all the forces, there's forces that wanted to fail. So can you bring us to a public hearing or a moment that you see that's, you know, an important project, an important scenario.
I mean, I think you're, said you were older than I am. So you would have probably more serious. Was there a moment that told you that maybe you were going to get a negative support?
speaker-2 (17:34)
Yeah, I mean, every planner has those nightmares of public hearings that just go sideways. You may suspect it's coming because you, you know, it's a process. You have developed information meetings earlier. You have letters from the public. You have requests from council finding what's going on. So you get a reading of some of these things early on and you kind of try and adjust to some degree. But ultimately it's not your project, but you do your best job for the applicant. think there have been instances where.
Council has been completely convinced or run over by interest groups, particularly that really either they're horse trail groups or environmental groups or river groups or things of neighborhood groups that have a lot of clout. Remember, not a lot of people vote and a lot of these people represent a fairly large number of voters and all that. And some counselors are not very sophisticated on knowing the policies. They may have read the report, they may not have. And so they're easily swayed.
And I can recall a number of them that were really.
speaker-1 (18:36)
Do you have a specific one?
speaker-0 (18:38)
It helps understand the framing it like there was as Andrew just said, is there something specific, you know, is there somebody that the hard hitters, everything from the turning points and you know, what, what shifted it, all of those things.
speaker-2 (18:50)
A development that I was involved with recently, now that I'm not the director, was a development where a little bit of extra density was proposed on a site. And it wasn't a large density at all, but the neighborhood really got all riled up about it because they were the original group that had produced the area plan with staff 25 years ago. And a lot's changed in 25 years, but they wanted to stay true to the principles and they got really revved up. Some of the things were very completely invalid. People saying, oh, I want to swim in the river.
And I can't do that anymore with this 40 units being developed on a two acre site and all this sort of stuff.
speaker-0 (19:25)
up lies or untruths to get a no.
speaker-2 (19:28)
And we organized a public hearing that was by far majority were in favor of the proposal, but there were numbers of important people in the community who came out opposed to it. And the project was defeated after being supported all along the process. So it was clearly, clearly unfair in my opinion. And it really was a financial hit, huge hit for the small development company that had gotten this thing so long. I felt.
terrible for them, but you could just see in the discussion that this council had closed their minds and thoughts to it. And it was unfortunate, but those things happen. So you try and not take projects to council that you know that there's going to be a defeat because it just doesn't serve anybody's purpose, but it does. And that's where the politics gets into it. So you can't ignore the politics. You can't underestimate its impact. If you do, you can be stung, stung badly.
speaker-0 (20:23)
As we reflect on these projects, it's clear that every experience, successful or not, leaves us with lessons worth unpacking. Those stories are where the real values are and how they shape how we approach the next challenge. So as we move this conversation forward, we want to focus on those lessons and what they tell us about navigating the approvals process itself. Chuck's experience highlights why those first interactions matter and how early feedback
for better or for worse, often sets the tone for everything that follows.
speaker-2 (20:56)
When you first sit down with the planners and they seem all positive for you, they hear your concept and they say, yeah, this is, this meets the plans. meets the area plan. It's similar to what other people are doing in the area. They don't have particularly any worries about it. They're not humming and hawing and kind of nervous about what you're proposing. You know, one of the things that I Maple Ridge got right years ago for the development community was the insistence that council would accept an application with a relatively minimum amount of information for a first reading a decision.
Early on in the process, it allowed an applicant to get to sense in front of council with one quick decision, council, are you in support of this or not? The concept, not the details. And that really helped. think a lot of people before now, everybody has to submit reams of information, reams of studies, all the application material has to be there. Huge expense without really having any indication from anybody that this concept will fly. That's a big risk.
And Maple Ridge, think, was the only one I knew who did that, but it really served a lot of people well, I thought, at the time. We've changed it because what it led to, too, is a lot of applications coming in and nothing coming out of them. And cities are drowning under paper and applications that really are either dead or dying. And I think one good thing about maybe this market, if there are any good things, it may clear out a lot of dead wood within the organizations. It may give staff some time to...
put in place new policies, streamline. They're all trying to streamline this because they know it's a problem and they're trying to do their best. But it's hard to do that when you have, you don't really even know sometimes is this application real or not? Have they died or what's the situation? Because we don't know internally what's happening to the applicant and their background. But, you know, that's a challenge.
speaker-1 (22:41)
You know, we've talked a little bit about friction and how hard it is to get developed through and, know, let's try and talk about something that's a little more maybe positive, like getting a project approved. You know, that, needs a leader. needs a team.
speaker-2 (22:52)
Yep, yep. Personally, and I played this role in most of the places I went to, is you have to be the leader. You have to try and guide staff to make decisions. Decisions need to be made. It's becoming harder and harder with all the information we get to make a clear and concise decision quickly because it's getting so complicated and there's so many issues at stake. But at some point, this collective decision-making doesn't work at times. We need somebody who is the champion.
whether it's a director or a development manager or somebody who can bring the group together and finally say at some point, enough's enough, we gotta move this stuff forward. That's important. Those people need to be identified by a developer very early in the process and relationships built. Working multiple projects within a town is sometimes a very good thing because you get to know the people, you get to know the dynamics and all that. And those people are the people who can take a project and run with it as well as provide advice to others.
Staffs have changed tremendously over the last 20 years. The senior people have moved out, experienced people are less and less involved in there now. People coming in as well are better educated than they've ever been, but their experience level is less. There's less people there to train and help them to do that. And so they sometimes get into a bit of a gridlock because of that. And every decision becomes important while, you know, a lot of them, as we know, as you get experience, this really isn't that critical to a project, but sometimes they get tied up.
Identify those people.
speaker-0 (24:19)
I'm going to say it. Cities need good leaders. They need experienced leaders and you need good teams as applicants. mean, you need a good architectural team that knows what it takes to get projects approved. Yeah, exactly. What you're also saying is that, you know, reading between all of this is that I can say as an architect, planners can get it wrong with developers and that couldn't be because of inexperience, the wrong person at the helm. I mean, you said leaders.
speaker-2 (24:32)
lot of its relationships.
speaker-0 (24:48)
Right. I also could say that developers can have a misunderstanding. Yes. Planning development process. And we talked a little bit about that. So it's really about taking on the risk, understanding the constraints. It's also about understanding process. you said it leaders, teams.
speaker-2 (25:07)
And make applications that are complete. It's nothing worse than submitting an application and it sits there for three or four weeks or a month or two, realizing, they're missing something and it hasn't even left the clerk's desk down below because a basic condition of the application hasn't been submitted and you weren't aware of it. It's terrible, but it happens.
speaker-1 (25:25)
BC's planning landscape is actually changing really fast.
speaker-2 (25:28)
It's changing faster now than it ever in my career.
speaker-1 (25:31)
Yeah, you look at density, you missing middle rules, the importance of timelines. You know, what's the biggest shift coming in how cities actually approve housing in maybe the next decade?
speaker-2 (25:41)
The biggest shift, well, every city, including things like out more in the Valley, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Langley's, I mean, it's basically two thirds, one third now multifamily form. It used to be the reverse for many years. And so that's the major shift that I've seen.
speaker-1 (25:57)
What about a future shift? You know, we have the bill 44. So what do think the future is? Is it like 40 story towers in mission?
speaker-2 (26:04)
I hope not, ⁓ but you know, take a city where I worked for years, Port Coquitlam. It has a perfectly nice, lovely little downtown with six story, four story, six story forms, buildings, built a recreational building downtown. You can do a beautiful little neighborhood in a four story form without having to have everybody in high rises. And yet high rises are popping up everywhere. They're higher than they've ever been. You can't even see the mountains anymore because of.
speaker-1 (26:28)
In Pormudia, a couple just got approved right now.
speaker-2 (26:31)
That's right. 50, 60 story, in my opinion, or overkill. And what's the real motivating there? it for the people or is it the money that cities get out of the result of those sorts of things? I'm not convinced it's always in the benefit of little communities to accept those projects.
speaker-1 (26:46)
That's no CP, right? Like there's now less public process actually in the OCP due to the bill 47 and 44 changes. You know, what's interesting I found is like Translake actually holds quite a lot of power now through just, know where the, the sky trains are going to go and wherever they put those, you now have 40, 50 story towers that have the ability to pop up.
speaker-2 (27:07)
And that makes sense, but when you look at Burquitlam Plaza, you look at Lohi Mall, you look at some of that stuff in Brentwood, I mean, it's very, very dense. Density would never would have suspected 10 years ago. And yet that's where we wanted to go. I just hope they're going to be livable in 20 years. And it's where the transportation is, sure, we're not going to be able to move in this region pretty soon.
speaker-0 (27:27)
Yeah, Andrew, that's a really good point and know, trans like transit, all of those things and what it means they do hold a lot of power. They hold the key to nodes and cities and.
pod or spot development in many ways. We can only hope that our BC landscape, that's what we're talking about, our BC public approval process is going to be a leader. And we can see that hopefully in our next shift of policies. But, you know, I think faster approval, you know, don't you agree? Yes. Faster approvals. need to be a team with all of us working together to get it right. And unfortunately, a lot of pressure comes back to people like us, architects.
applicants is that we need to draw it once. We need to draw it once right. And it needs to be an experienced architect leading to help get the approvals. Not that we're getting you the approval, but we're working with people like yourself that understands.
speaker-2 (28:21)
You need to know what the roadmap is early on so you can hit the target. Sometimes we fail a bit on that, but I think everybody is trying to improve that. And not everything is a grudge match on some of these decision-making. I try and emphasize there's certain things where you can let go, but certain things you can't let go on. And the sooner you know that, the better.
speaker-1 (28:40)
That's great. Chuck, we've covered politics, process, pressure and progress. Let's end with something personal.
speaker-0 (28:48)
So this is final reflection and final reflection is something and I'm going to lead this and Andrew will join me. And it's because, you know, I have a real soft spot for Chuck. I've known you since I've started my career. You've been through the work that I have done. You've seen me drop the ball. You've seen me pick up the ball. I've seen you in action working with other people. So when in your career and what was the moment do you think that really captures why you do this work?
speaker-2 (29:18)
Well, way back in grad school, I remember one of the profs saying to us as young planners, you're never going to get rich at this business, but you're going to have a lot of authority. And authority is different than power. I was never really all that interested in power, but you do. When you look back on our career and you think of the authority and what you've developed and what parameters you put for development of a community, not just a building, but a community that is real authority. And it really makes you.
realize how important the job, aren't many careers where you can actually shape a city. That was a statement in school. That's right. That I kind of, always remembered. And at this now, the end of my career, it's kind of like, you know, it really is, there's lots of things I can look back and say, I'm proud of. And, know, some of the most important things are things that I wouldn't have guessed. But for example, there was a call I received one day from a couple who had lost their son in a shooting.
speaker-0 (29:52)
And you saw this in school.
speaker-2 (30:15)
in Vegas, remember that terrible event, their only child and he was a wonderful kid by the sounds of it. And they came into the office and they wanted to donate some land for a park in memory of the young man. And they were just wonderful people, but they were working with the developer and they wanted just simple advice. Is this the right thing to do? Are they being fair to me and all that? And so I sat down and we talked for a couple of months here and there off about what they were going through. And it was a good
The developer was honorable and everything like that. It was something that I helped them develop with this park and it was a tribute to their young son that they'd lost in the April rager. Another one was an instance where the same was Bill Waselowski. And he said, we want to do a women's center. And I said, great, you know, we're, on board with that, but how are we going to zone something like that? Cause we knew what it would lead to in a neighborhood. Well, I got a call about two months later from a realtor and
selling a property that just happened to have the correct zoning for something like this. And it just tweaked on me and I said, wait a minute, I remember these guys were looking for a site that was zoned this. So we got in contact with them. That's the end of it. Well, two years later, he called me up and invited me out to see this facility. And I had no clue what it was about. Well, we got there and they had been working with BC housing. They had acquired the site and they had built a beautiful facility for women to try and help them.
And they walked me into this building and I was just blown away. I wasn't aware of this had happened. And he introduced me to all of these women who were in their recovery program. There must've been 40 of them. And he basically introduced me as the guy who made this all happen. I was stunned. I had no idea, but was through that simple call and remembering and putting those pieces together. I mean, that's pretty wonderful. mean, it was just, you know, and it's saving women's lives by just me being interested in caring enough to kind of, Oh,
think about this. you know, those are just two examples I have of just kind of things that firstly, I'm very proud of. You know, I still like going back to cities like in Port Coquitlam and various wonderful, nice neighborhoods in Maple Ridge that have dedicated parks around them. And they're really just beautiful places. And I think that's what we got to remember. We're not just building houses here, we're building neighborhoods, we're building communities where people are going to live. And their biggest investment is there. It should be of quality homes, beautiful settings if we can.
and that we're proud of. We don't just do this to make money generally, we do this to, you know, leave a legacy.
speaker-0 (32:44)
This is just, it really, it's very consistent because I know you.
And I'm really proud to say that I've gotten to know you even more so in your different roles and you've chosen to be retired in some form, but there's some resonating takeaways here. And there's really what I can put my finger on is that the role of ⁓ being a policymaker in development, it's a tricky, you know, there's navigation. You need experience. You need to be approachable. You need to be the person that can actually work with others and work effectively, proactively.
Just planning, there is a social good behind all of this. And I think for every planner person that's out there that's studying or in school, this is a great, great story for them. And in working with others, and if it's a developer, you just can't come show up at the table and ⁓ have a take. It needs to be a win, win, win. We're in a current landscape where it takes too long to get projects approved.
speaker-2 (33:38)
That's right.
Yeah, it does. It does.
speaker-0 (33:45)
And you can say as that, and I think we all need to stop complaining about that. It takes too long to get things approved, right? And we all complain about it, but we need to work and we need to hire. And then I heard this from you today is we need to have the right teams, the right approval, the right excuses to get approval. So we need to understand how projects can be expedited.
speaker-2 (34:04)
and get to know your communities.
speaker-0 (34:05)
It is, and you've seen this because you know how important it is. You've built a lot of homes, you've approved a lot of housing developments and housing right now needs to happen. It needs to be affordable and it needs to be done such that a 20 year old with younger families can buy them. It needs to be cheaper, it needs to be attractive. It's not marginal, it needs to be something that's efficiently done and designed, it's livable. It's not about spending money.
It's really about obviously getting the right product out in an efficient manner. So it certainly plays into our motto, good design, good builds and good communities. And we talked about your community example.
speaker-2 (34:43)
Yeah, I'm happy to help.
speaker-1 (34:45)
Absolutely. Thanks so much, Chuck.
speaker-0 (34:48)
What Chuck makes clear is that great design alone isn't enough. Without a good process, even the best ideas can stall.
Great design enables great builds. That's better communities. And the missing link is how we move ideas through the system. That perspective is exactly what we need right now. Chuck's perspective sharpens the simple truth. Good design doesn't fail. Process does. Great design leads to great builds. Great builds create better communities. And all of it depends on a system that allows good work to happen. Thank you, Chuck.
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