The City of Victoria is considering whether to set a minimum size for housing units throughout the downtown area.
On Thursday, council agreed to ask staff to look into the effects of establishing a minimum unit size in downtown of 33 square metres or 355 square feet.
While that’s the minimum unit size for most of the city, there are parts of downtown where the zoning allows for units as small as 29 square metres or 312 square feet.
The motion was brought forward by Coun. Stephen Hammond.
He noted the change would bring the city into alignment with B.C. Housing’s minimum unit size and bring some equity to the levying of development cost charges on developers.
He said provincial regulations preclude the city from charging a builder for units smaller than 29 square metres, so the recently approved 937 View St. project, which has 33 units of that size, will avoid paying about $40,000 in development cost charges.
Hammond pointed out the city still needs to provide the infrastructure to handle the increased density, but the cost for it ends up being subsidized by other projects.
“While there are some economic benefits to creating some micro units in some new buildings, having a minimum size will ensure the developments include more appropriately sized units to better meet the needs of a variety of households,” he said.
Hammond was keen to have the change made Thursday, but the majority of council preferred to have city staff look into it and report back.
A staff report is expected verbally later this fall, and it may also be included in the more extensive zoning modernization report to be presented in early 2025.
Coun. Jeremy Caradonna said he’s all for a discussion about minimum sizes, but isn’t willing to make a decision that could have a broad impact without knowing what the implications are.
He also wanted to know why there is inconsistency in minimum sizes in the city in the first place.
The lone vote against the motion was from Coun. Dave Thompson, as he thought it would exacerbate the housing shortage.
“[It] could lead us down the road of adopting policy that could worsen the housing shortage, impact lower income people, specifically seniors, students, the kind of people who want to move into micro lofts and other people with lower incomes. It would limit their choice in the housing market,” he said. “I don’t want to go down that road.
“I also don’t understand why anyone wants to limit housing choice. If a building gets built with smaller units and people choose to move into it, why do we want to stop them from moving into that?”
