British Columbia municipalities fall short of province’s housing targets

Article content

More than six months after British Columbia’s NDP government announced ambitious targets to force municipalities to greenlight new housing, several municipalities are falling short, but at least one has surpassed those targets.

The 10 communities initially selected to meet housing targets set by the province must update the province on their progress every six months for the first year and annually thereafter.

Article content

Article content

Oak Bay, Saanich, Delta and Victoria produced staff reports over the past week showing their progress. So far, Victoria is the only municipality that exceeds its goal.

Oak Bay, the smallest of the top 10 communities on the list, was assigned a goal of 56 net new housing units in the first year and 664 units by 2028.

However, a staff report shows Oak Bay has added just seven net new housing units in the six-month period since the goals were set on Sept. 30.

Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch said he’s not convinced his community can reach 664 net new units within the province’s timeline.

“Looking at what’s in the pipeline now and knowing the development timelines, it’s difficult to have occupancy in the next four and a half years,” he said Friday. “Even if we can get some of these larger projects underway, the chances of reaching occupancy within that time frame are difficult.”

However, Murdoch stressed that the municipality is trying to speed up the approval of secondary suites and laneways.

Saanich, Greater Victoria’s most populous municipality, is also lagging, with 195 net new units completed in the six-month period, according to that municipality’s staff report. Saanich’s housing target for the first year is 440 net new units and 4,610 net new units over five years.

Article content

Article content

A Delta city staff report looked more promising, with 242 occupancy permits issued in the first six months, which would put the city on track to meet its one-year goal of 514 new units. However, the numbers turned out to be inflated because staff made it clear that the numbers did not take into account homes that were demolished, which is necessary to determine net new homes.

The report notes that rising interest rates and construction costs have caused developers to “suspend their projects for extended periods at all stages, waiting for more favorable market conditions to develop.”

Delta County. Dylan Kruger said there is political will among his council colleagues to approve the housing needed to address affordability challenges and keep up with record population growth.

A symbol of that, he said, is that in every boardroom and meeting space at Delta City Hall, there is a thermostat that maxes out at 3.607, the five-year housing goal for the city.

Each month, the cottage symbol slides up based on the number of new occupancy permits issued.

Article content

“It’s motivating,” Kruger said. “It makes (housing) a priority for all of our city departments and it is certainly a goal. You sit in meetings and as you make decisions about planning processes, you look at that thermometer. I think internally everyone is saying, ‘Okay, does this help or hurt our ability to achieve those goals?’”

The City of Victoria report shows the city has completed 753 net new units in the first six months, exceeding the target of 659 housing units for the first year. This puts the city 15 percent of the way toward meeting its five-year housing goal of 4,902 units.

The province’s Housing Supply Act uses a carrot-and-stick approach to create more housing.

The incentive for municipalities that meet targets comes in the form of provincial cash for amenities like parks, bike lanes and recreation centres.

If communities don’t meet targets within six months, the province will appoint an independent advisor to help them move forward. If that doesn’t work, the province will wield a bigger stick and override the municipality with the power to rezone entire neighborhoods to create more density.

Article content

Last month, the province added 20 more municipalities that must meet housing targets set by the province. They are Central Saanich, Chilliwack, Colwood, Esquimalt, Kelowna, City of Langley, Maple Ridge, Mission, Nanaimo, New Westminster, North Cowichan, North Saanich, City of North Vancouver, Port Coquitlam, Prince George, Sidney, Surrey and See Real.

The top 10 municipalities are Vancouver, Victoria, Kamloops, Abbotsford, Delta, Saanich, the District of North Vancouver, Port Moody, Oak Bay and West Vancouver.

Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon was not available for an interview Friday, but his office said in a statement that semiannual progress reports for each of the first 10 municipalities are expected to be presented at municipal council meetings later. middle of May.

Municipalities were selected using a weighted index based on factors including urgency of housing need, projected population growth, land availability and housing affordability.

More municipalities will be announced in the near future, as legislation allows for housing targets for 47 municipalities.

Article content

Tom Davidoff, executive director of the center for urban economics and real estate at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, who helped develop the statistics used to select the municipalities, said he hopes the province will use its discretion to determine when to appoint a independent advisor and when you put down the hammer and take complete control of the zoning.

“A municipality could be doing a great job but no one wants to close deals because the interest rates are too high. That is entirely possible,” Davidoff said. However, if there is evidence that a municipality is “poorly performing” and appears to be actively blocking proposed housing development, Davidoff said it is reasonable for the province to step in and exert more control.

The Housing Supply Act was one of several laws passed by the BC NDP that aims to wrest control from BC municipalities, some of which Premier David Eby has blamed for blocking much-needed housing.

The Housing Charter Amendment (Residential Development) Act requires municipalities to approve up to six units on a single-family lot to create more so-called “missing middle” housing, such as townhouses and multi-unit dwellings. It will eliminate the need to hold public hearings for multi-unit projects.

Article content

Municipalities will need to update their bylaws by June 30, 2024 to reflect the province’s standards.

Another law – the Housing Charter Amendment (Transit Oriented Areas) Act – requires local governments to approve high-rise buildings of between eight and 20 stories within 800 meters of a rapid transit station and within 400 meters from a bus station.

[email protected]

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know – add VancouverSun.com and LaProvincia.com to your favorites and subscribe to our newsletters here.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber: for just $14 a month, you can get unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The province.

Article content