Victoria council has set the wheels in motion to better align its land-use regulations with provincial housing statutes that were enacted to speed up the pace of homebuilding.
The new provincial rules, for example, prohibit public hearings for certain residential development applications that are consistent with a municipality’s Official Community Plan. Public hearings will soon be required only for land-use changes that involve OCP amendments or to establish bylaws for heritage revitalization agreements and designation of heritage properties.
The amended bylaw is expected to return to council members June 27 for consideration.
The motion passed with only Coun. Marg Gardiner in opposition.
Last fall, with an eye on speeding up approvals and getting more homes built faster, the province enacted legislation to allow denser housing forms such as townhomes, small apartment buildings or houseplexes of three to six units on single-family lots.
The province also set housing targets for municipalities around B.C. and challenged Victoria to complete 659 net new units in the first year and 4,902 over five years.
The city has already surpassed its 12-month goal, according to a progress report that it’s expected to submit to the province this month.
Victoria has handed over occupancy permits for 753 net new units in the past six months.
On Thursday, council credited its predecessors for giving the building surge a strong head start, as each occupancy permit reflects a building permit approval years earlier.
“I’m afraid this council can’t take credit for it because it’s basically owing to the decisions of previous councils,” said Coun. Dave Thompson. “Still, I think that this reflects the tone of the current council, and I expect our numbers will rise considerably. And so I hope that we will see bold policy change as we’ve directed in the past, to bring more housing along more quickly.”
Mayor Marianne Alto said the 753 net new units demonstrate what is possible.
“But more importantly, it demonstrates, I hope, the commitment of not just the previous, but the current and hopefully future councils to put so much effort into ensuring that there are homes for all of our residents.”
Coun. Krista Loughton, however, noted that the housing targets do not include shelter housing. She said the targets should include a set number of subsidized housing units, as lack of affordable housing is arguably the biggest issue in most municipalities.
Coun. Jeremy Caradonna argued it would be more fair for the province to set targets based on building permits rather than occupancy permits, which are handed out at the end of the build.
“It is essentially unfair to hold local governments responsible for the amount of buildings that are actually built. We can approve buildings, we can streamline our processes, we can furnish development permits, we can furnish building permits, but we actually don’t have the capacity or the ability or the authority to force anyone to build a building,” he said.
