Saanich council has opted for the devil it knows rather than the devil it doesn’t, approving a bylaw that will allow secondary suites in homes outside the Urban Containment Boundary.
Council voted 7-2 on Monday in favour of permitting secondary suites on single-family lots outside the Urban Containment Boundary. District staff said the decision would allow 2,442 properties to add secondary suites to their existing homes.
Mayor Dean Murdock said it is not the direction he and council wanted to take, but they felt they had no choice, as the alternative would have been the province determining the number of secondary suites and garden suites allowed on a rural lot. “The minister has the authority to set the rules on our behalf, and I think council recognized that it minimized the risk by setting the rules as a municipality to allow secondary suites rather than risk that the rules may be more permissive and allow more density, which is contrary to our growth aspirations and our official community plan.”
Murdock had asked Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon for an exemption that would allow Saanich to prohibit secondary and garden suites on rural property.
In a letter, Murdock laid out Saanich’s rationale for planning growth around centres, corridors and villages and in walking distance to services, transit, schools, parks and shopping. He noted that allowing densification and additional suites beyond the Urban Containment Boundary means adding people where there is no infrastructure, such as public transit, to support them.
Kahlon’s response was to decline the request because it contradicts the small-scale multi-unit housing legislation’s core purpose — to support gentle density in communities.
“I understand the district’s concern about the impact of increased density outside of the Urban Containment Boundary. However, far from resulting in dramatic increases in density, secondary suites are compatible in scale and form within established single-family neighbourhoods,” Kahlon wrote.
“Going as far as secondary suites went against our desire to keep growth compact and inside the Urban Containment Boundary, but we’re now compelled to do it by the province,” Murdock said. He said it’s the pragmatic thing to do as challenging the province’s legislation could mean the district would have no say on what kind of densification would be allowed in rural areas.
“This was our opportunity to be the decision maker on a bylaw that would align with provincial rules but cause the least amount of disruption in terms of densification outside the urban containment boundary,” he said.
The majority of council made it clear it would not be interested in allowing any further densification, such as allowing garden suites, in rural areas.
Municipalities were given until the end of June to update 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.
Support around the council table was begrudging, except for Coun. Colin Plant who said he has always supported allowing secondary suites outside the Urban Containment Boundary. Plant noted there’s no chance every property will opt to establish a secondary suite, but it will allow families that want a mortgage helper or space for farm workers to build one.
Coun. Karen Harper said everyone shares the concern over the Urban Containment Boundary, but this amendment is unlikely to put any meaningful pressure on it. “If we didn’t support this motion, if we defeated it, then in fact we have no control over what’s going on in rural Saanich.”
Councillors Judy Brownoff and Nathalie Chambers voted against the motion. While Chambers said she wanted to protect all rural land, Brownoff noted there is no transit, grocery stores and services for more people, which means introducing more vehicle traffic.
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