View Royal’s mayor says the province’s unwillingness to extend the deadline for municipalities to align with new provincial housing regulations is proof it pays more attention to developers than voters.
Sid Tobias said he’s disappointed the province turned down View Royal’s request for more time to amend its zoning bylaws and upgrade infrastructure.
“The rejection of a thoughtful and meaningful request to allow time to plan some areas of the town that are not serviced by safe sidewalks and infrastructure makes it clear that the government is pushing for density and not affordability,” said Tobias, who says 2028 would have been a reasonable deadline.
The new housing legislation requires municipalities to update zoning bylaws to permit multi-unit buildings on lots typically used for single-family detached homes.
The new rules also do away with public hearings for rezoning applications for housing projects that align with official community plans.
Last fall, Tobias asked B.C.’s Auditor General for an audit of the new provincial housing legislation because of the lack of consultation with municipalities.
In his letter to the auditor general, Tobias said the legislation’s implications warranted a thorough investigation to ensure transparency, accountability, and alignment with governmental priorities.
View Royal’s request for an extension beyond June 30 was one of seven such requests from municipalities — including five from Vancouver Island — to be dismissed.
Sooke, Ladysmith, Mount Waddington and Nanaimo were also turned down.
Sooke Mayor Maja Tait said it was disappointing, as the district is rapidly expanding but its amenities, infrastructure and services are not keeping pace and the district needs time to make that happen.
“We are doing our best at a local level to respond to the needs and growing needs of our communities,” she said, noting the district is considering a $30-million transportation infrastructure project, the Throup-Phillips connection.
“That is a significant build-out, it requires us going to referendum and it takes up the majority of our borrowing capacity for 30 years,” she said.
Tait also notes the land to be used for the project is wild and requires study of its cultural and archeological significance.
She said the project is expensive and will take time.
The province did grant extensions to 21 local governments, providing more time for final amendments to their zoning bylaws — including some who were given until the end of 2030 — though none of them were on the Island.
Ladysmith and Comox were given extensions for some parts of their communities.
In an interview, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said the province hired an independent engineering firm to review requests.
“The communities that have asked for extensions and received them, they’ve received them because they have infrastructure gaps and we don’t want to see housing where there’s infrastructure gaps existing,” he said, noting most requests were from municipalities wanting to upgrade sewer and water systems to accommodate increased density.
He said those that were denied extensions likely did not lay out a clear rationale or prove they didn’t have existing infrastructure to handle the housing.
“They didn’t provide the sufficient information to be able to get that extension,” he said.
According to the province, municipalities that applied for extensions were required to demonstrate they were in the process of upgrading infrastructure, or that the infrastructure where the zoning changes would apply was such that compliance was likely to increase a risk to health, public safety or the environment.
Sooke, View Royal and other municipalities whose extension requests were turned down were given 90 days — until Dec. 16 — to bring their bylaws into compliance.
Tait said Sooke has already drafted new zoning rules and should be able to meet the new deadline.
“I don’t forecast a problem with that. It’s just the concerns our community has is that the amenities, infrastructure, health-care needs, ambulance service is not keeping pace with the growth,” Tait said. “To be told to develop and to put in more units when all of these other things are failing are just challenging the local government.”
As of this week, 172 of 188 local governments had adopted the small-scale, multi-unit housing legislation by passing local bylaws for all areas where an extension was not requested.
