A recent provincial report on Oak Bay’s development approval processes, land-use planning, and housing policies provides some very useful recommendations to improve housing supply and affordability.
The report’s impact would be maximized if reviewed by municipalities throughout the CRD to assist housing policies regionally.
The recommendations include:
- The Mayor, CAO and Director of Planning and Development meet at least semi annually with representatives of the development community.
- As the OCP is updated, the District should do a parallel analysis of the land economic impact of any up-zoning to adjacent areas.
- The District should continue to monitor the take-up of small scale, multi-unit housing and identify any significant obstacles that are generating variance requests.
- District staff should meet with industry representatives for a workshop to discuss the projects that make up the DCC program, their estimated costs, and the determination of benefits or municipal assist. Depending on the outcome or feedback, Council may want to revisit the matter and better transition the costs to lessen their impacts.
- The District should continue to monitor processing times for various types of applications, particularly after the current process review is completed, to ensure that processing times have measurably improved.
- The procedural bylaw should be amended to prohibit the referral of development applications back to an advisory committee for a second round of consideration and advice.
- The District should continue its work on the development of its new OCP to complete it before the end of 2025.
Delays and the high costs of construction often result from a lack of municipal understanding of industry’s challenges.
The provincial report outlined many of these challenges enabling better communication and processes reducing delays and costs.
Recently, Victoria councilor Matt Dell met with our Builders Council to discuss challenges and costs experienced in the City of Victoria. This was a useful dialogue resulting in improved mutual understanding.
The VRBA invites all municipalities to review these and other recommendations. We are always available to meet and improve housing affordability in the CRD.
Contact us at 250-383-5044 or admin@vrba.ca.
This column appears Wednesdays in the Times Colonist.
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