Conceding its first attempt at expediting sought-after affordable housing projects missed the mark, the District of Saanich will tweak its non-market housing policy to better fast-track non-profit and co-operative housing projects.
Monday night, council approved tweaks to its non-market housing policy that will give priority to non-market projects, co-operative housing and mixed-use residential projects that are owned and operated by non-market housing providers.
Changes to a policy first adopted in 2019 also include those projects being given preference throughout the process from pre-application to completion while all other projects will be dealt with on a first-come first-served basis.
“Intentions were good when council gave the direction [in 2019], but the scope was too wide,” said Mayor Dean Murdock.
Essentially the previous policy allowed almost anyone with a rental project to be considered a priority if they provided a bare minimum of affordable units.
The result, according to a staff report, was there were too many qualifying projects, some developers “abusing” the system by offering one non-market unit initially and then retracting the offer once the project was given priority, and too few staff to deal with the volume of applications meaning the goal of dealing with applications within 30 days became impossible.
“When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority,” said Murdock, echoing sentiments that were tossed around the council chamber.
“Staff have come back with the suggestion that we narrow the scope, that if we really want to target the creation of affordable homes, we have got to look specifically at non-market, affordable homes and co-op housing.”
Murdock said the hope is the process is noticeably quicker this year.
He said it should be helped along by a district committed to streamlining its processes, with decisions delegated to staff on many projects, instead of involving council.
“This is great follow-up work from what we originally had,” said Coun. Karen Harper. She said she particularly liked the fact that once chosen, projects remain high priorities throughout the process. “That if something happens along the way, you don’t go back to the beginning and fall out of that priority queue.”
Coun. Susan Brice said explaining the changes to the development community and non-profit organizations focused on housing will be essential to the new policy’s success.
Murdock noted that just giving priority to affordable projects will not immediately translate into affordable homes and the municipality should be a more active participant in creating opportunities.
“I think the other thing we need to do is make sure that Saanich has a stake in the game. I’ve pointed to the most obvious candidate, the replacement of the Nellie McClung library at Cedar Hill and McKenzie is an example where Saanich needs to be at the table offering its property in order to be a partner in getting affordable homes built,” he said.
A staff report concluded that the new tighter focus of the policy should move affordable units along more quickly, while shortening the amount of time it takes for other projects to be dealt with.
