“Is there a housing crisis?” asked John Chaimanis during a candidate debate hosted by the Charles River Regional Chamber for the Ward 4 At-Large City Council Race.

There are three candidates: one incumbent, Josh Krintzman, and two newcomers, John Chaimanis and Cyrus Dahmubed. There are two seats for this role. Chaimanis has previously expressed skepticism about the concept of supply and demand applying to housing.

Housing was a significant part of the debate.

“We should have opportunities for people at various income levels to live in Newton,” said Krintzman. “Housing policy is support for our local businesses,” he added, pointing out that if business owners can’t hire employees because they can’t afford to live nearby, small businesses will suffer.

“At 32 years old, I know that none of the kids I grew up with still can afford to live here,” said Dahmubed, who is from Auburndale. He sees the MBTA Communities Act makes Newton part of a small piece of a larger regional housing strategy.

Chaimanis said Newton should focus on preserving naturally occurring affordable housing. Dahmubed disagreed with the idea that an $800,000 house or condo is naturally affordable, instead calling it “less expensive housing.”

Dahmubed, who is an architect, said he would like to see the creation of more triple-deckers in Newton, which are cheaper to build than townhouses.

But Krintzman was also concerned with what he sees as a focus on housing over commercial spaces.

“I’m concerned by the number of empty storefronts that we see, and the movement away from some of our commercial spaces, especially toward housing. We need a lot of housing, I think housing is fantastic, but we’re actually eliminating some of the commercial space in the city and I’d rather see us expanding our commercial opportunities, especially in conjunction with housing,” he said.

Krintzman and Dahmubed are both in favor of fewer parking requirements for construction.

“I think we have some nonsensical policies that make it difficult for businesses to open by requiring them to construct parking that we as a city apparently believe that they need without asking them,” said Krintzman. Dahmubed doesn’t think housing near train stations should require as much parking and that Newton should try and incentivize people to not own cars.

Chaimanis took a different tone, saying that in fact what Newton needs is more parking.

“Parking is one of the biggest issues that people talk about,” said Chaimanis, adding that people tell him that they used to shop in Newton, but now that they can’t find a parking space, they don’t.

He thinks businesses should be allowed to have more parking. He also disagrees with the idea of having less parking for residential developments in village centers.

Dahmubed noted that many businesses want to have less parking than is required by law–which is demonstrated by how many businesses ask for zoning variances.

“These businesses ask for variances to not have to build the parking, and that uses up city resources and uses up their resources in terms of lawyers and time,” said Dahmubed.

“I don’t think we should stand in the way of the businesses constructing parking they need, but when the city tells a commercial tenant how much parking they have to construct, we put those costs on the commercial tenant,” said Krintzman.

This is part of a larger issue that everyone agreed on: the city regulatory and permitting environment is unfriendly to businesses.

“We need to be creating policies that allow quicker permitting and quicker opening for local businesses,” said Chaimanis. He also thinks the city should help businesses advertise, and partner with banks to make it easier for new business owners to get loans. Dahmubed pointed to Boston as a model, which has easy to read guides on the city website to show how different aspects of the business development process works.

The candidates were asked about divisiveness among City Councilors. Krintzman noted that when he became a city councilor, the city council was criticized for being an echo chamber of unanimous voting. “We need to be collegial, but we need to have areas of disagreement–it’s all healthy in a democratic environment,” he said.

“I want to show people the government can work even when we disagree,” said Dahmubed.

A moment of tension arose when Chamber President Greg Reibman, the moderator, referred to a campaign email Chaimanis sent that read “over and over I’ve heard that people want balance, not extremism,” and Reibman asked Chaimanis who the extremists are, which Chaimanis refused to answer. Chaimanis accused Reibman of misinterpreting his views, despite Reibman quoting from a campaign mailer.