Oak Bay council passed its own form of missing-middle housing just before a provincial deadline last month but it’s still unclear if that will be enough to appease the provincial housing minister and keep the province from getting involved with Oak Bay land-use matters.
Oak Bay’s new infill housing program, adopted June 24, is akin to missing-middle programs in other municipalities. It added bylaw amendments to allow for coach houses, tri-plexes, four-plexes and other infill housing options in the Oak Bay for the first time.
The program is supposed to allow for more diverse housing choices while aligning with the province’s new housing legislation. Municipalities were given until the end of June to update their bylaws to accommodate what the province calls small-scale, multi-unit housing requirements.
Those rules require local governments to allow a primary dwelling and a suite or an accessory dwelling on all lots in single-family residential zones.
Local governments were also required to allow denser housing forms such as houseplexes of three to six units, townhomes or small apartment buildings on single-family lots, while allowing taller buildings around transit hubs.
The province also gave a number of municipalities housing targets to hit.
Oak Bay, the smallest of the first 10 communities given targets, was mandated to produce 56 net new housing units in the first year and 664 units by 2028.
A recently filed six-month progress report showed Oak Bay had added only seven new housing units.
The province determines the progress of the municipalities based on the assessment of net new units, policy actions, initiatives, innovative approaches and partnerships designed to increase housing supply.
Municipalities that meet targets are expected to get provincial funding for amenities such as parks, bike lanes and recreation centres.
If communities don’t meet the targets, the province can appoint an independent adviser to help them make progress. If that doesn’t work, the province could overrule the municipality with the power to rezone entire neighbourhoods to create more density.
Mayor Kevin Murdoch said he hasn’t had direct feedback from the province on Oak Bay’s progress. But he said they have always maintained they would struggle to hit targets in the first year.
He noted the province only counts housing completions, not permits issued.
“Everything that we’re measuring right now are things that were already in the pipeline,” he said. “We always said to the province that the number was going to be difficult because even putting all of the things in place, for the most part outside of people adding a new dwelling unit to the back of their house, most things are going to require tearing down an existing house and things going up. That’s just not a very fast process.”
He stressed that Oak Bay has few empty lots or derelict houses just sitting around ready for redevelopment.
“So we’ve always known it’s going to be tough but we are absolutely doing what we can,” he said.
Murdoch said Oak Bay’s new infill program and other initiatives in the pipeline have demonstrated the district is committed to collaborating with senior levels of government to address the housing shortage.
“We’ve done everything that they have asked of us and we think it’s viable,” he said. “At the end of the day we’re meeting all of the requirements of the province.”
The infill program is likely to require some tweaking as builders familiarize themselves with it, and Murdoch said they will be watching its progress closely.
He said there are two areas that could need tweaking if it somehow allows for housing forms that are too large for the lots and if six months down the line they hear from the development community that things aren’t viable. That happened in Victoria when it first implemented its missing-middle program. Six months after implementation, council had to further streamline its process and eliminate some requirements before builders started to react.
Oak Bay is also in the process of revamping its Official Community Plan to include infill and other housing forms and looking at developing villages and centres like Saanich has done.
“There’s lots of work going on. I don’t know how much the infill program will move the needle in terms of housing forms, it’ll certainly make a difference, but all the other housing pieces are also going to be part of the picture,” he said.
In a statement, the Housing Ministry suggested to the Times Colonist it would prefer to be the good cop than the bad cop when it comes to land-use matters in municipalities.
“Municipalities are important partners in addressing the housing crisis and to building healthy and economically vibrant communities. The province continues to support local government efforts to speed up local approval processes through the implementation of development approvals process review,” it said.
The province suggests there have already been positive results as the combined six-month housing totals from the first 10 communities to be given targets indicate more than 4,000 new homes have been built. They will be re-evaluating all results after the first year.
“Municipalities were able to demonstrate the positive steps they have taken toward meeting housing targets through interim, six-month progress reporting. This progress shows that when municipalities have and use the right tools and supports, more homes can be built for people.”
Victoria reported the completion of 753 new housing units in the first six months of the program, exceeding its first-year target of 659. Victoria’s target is to build 4,902 new homes over the next five years.
Saanich was the only other Island community among the first 10 cities to be given targets and it, too, fell short in the first six months.
The district had 195 net new units completed in that time, and the province had hoped it would deliver 440 in the first year and 4,610 net new units within five years.
Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock said the province has acknowledged the district is making progress and making efforts to increase the number of homes being built.
Murdock said his sense is the province would rather collaborate than step in and appoint an adviser or make local land-use decisions.
“There was (no feedback) in the realm of ‘if you’re going to fall behind, these are going to be the consequences,’ ” he said. “It was really much more, ‘you’re making good progress, continue to do what you’re doing.’ ”
“What I’ve seen the province demonstrate up to this point has been positive reinforcement, encouraging. I have not seen a lot of discussions so far about what happens when those targets aren’t being met,” he said.
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