It’s time to restart the conversation about legalizing secondary suites in Oak Bay, says Coun. Tara Ney.
Ney has introduced a motion that would see a made-in-Oak Bay policy developed to bring secondary suites out of the shadows.
Oak Bay is the only municipality in the capital region that doesn’t regulate secondary suites, even though it’s acknowledged that there are probably hundreds of illegal suites throughout the municipality.
Council deferred consideration of the item this week until March 12. But just putting it on the agenda was enough to see residents on both sides of the issue jam into the town hall to make their opinions known.
“It’s a hot-button topic for people in our community. People have a lot of concerns about a secondary suite program and then of course there are many who have been waiting for this program and a regulation and bylaws to be in place,” Ney said.
Ney said it’s important that steps are taken so that owners with secondary suites and renters “don’t feel like outlaws.”
“I think we see ourselves as an inclusive community and we need to walk our talk. We need to work toward a made-in-Oak Bay secondary suite program that will offer the critical housing options,” she said. “The really important thing is this will take owners and renters out of the shadow of the law.”
Secondary suites “offer a practical and gentle way to offer housing options in our community. It’s the most practical and most gentle form of densification,” Ney said.
Ney’s resolution calls on council support to have staff develop a plan outlining next steps toward regulation of secondary suites, including a public engagement plan and implementation of policies and regulations.
“I have no doubts that the concerns and issues that people have will help to inform a tailor-made secondary-suite program that will work for everybody … . because we’re going to use the concerns to shape the program,” Ney said.
Regulating secondary suites has been identified as an Oak Bay council priority but due to staffing limitations, council decided dealing with a heritage conservation area request would be dealt with first.
Because the district has recently brought on additional planning staff, Ney said she’s hoping a consultation process on secondary suites can begin soon.
Coun. Kevin Murdoch, who has announced his intention to run for mayor, said that as secondary suites have already been identified as a council priority, he’s uncertain what would be achieved by passing the motion.
“I’m not entirely clear on what the result of this motion would be. It seems to have created a lot of anxiety in people which is unfortunate because I think the perception of it is trying to rush through something,” he said. “I don’t think that was the intent but it’s the way it’s being perceived by a lot of people.”
Murdoch said he has always believed any regulation of secondary suites should be done as part of a larger housing plan.
Mayor Nils Jensen said the resolution has been misunderstood. “Really what it aims to do is just set a start point for what will be a very robust public engagement process over the issue of secondary suites.”
He said the proposal really is to see if preliminary work on secondary suites can begin, while work on the heritage conservation area continues.
“That’s all this is. Is there room or staff capacity to overlap these two projects by a number of months? The motion is as simple as that,” Jensen said.
