West Vancouver council voted Monday night to agree to the B.C. government’s demand for more housing density.
The B.C. government has been pushing the district to align with its housing legislation by loosening its zoning bylaws to allow for multi-unit housing construction.
Under the legislation introduced last fall, municipalities must implement TOD (transit-oriented development) areas within 800 metres of rapid transit stations, which set minimum height and density requirements based on a city’s size and the proximity to the station.
West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager said the motion passed reluctantly and there has been a lot of opposition in the community.
“Well, fundamentally, we believe – and this is a philosophical issue – that the provincial government has its sphere of jurisdiction and municipalities should be responsible for zoning and planning,” he said.
“That’s been 100 years of history as to how communities in British Columbia have grown and developed, and for the province to step in and zone all the British Columbia from Victoria – we fundamentally think that’s an error.”
Sager said he wanted to have a serious discussion about how the province could help West Vancouver but that hasn’t happened.
“We have lost 300, roughly, seniors’ government-funded beds in West Vancouver,” he said. “We have two sites that have been sitting empty for a number of years. We need their help. And yes, that is housing for people who live in our community. We have seniors who cannot live in our community and are being forced out.”
Sager said council has passed zoning for multi-family units in the last year but some have not been built.
“We approved, just for example, we approved a small unit development by Park Royal,” he said. “It would have provided over 200 reasonably priced accommodations, probably for people who live or work at the Park Royal shopping centre. We did that. The owner of the property got the building permits and then pulled it and aren’t building it. Now, that’s nothing that we as a local council can do.”
In early August, the B.C. government said the Township of Langley, which the province has given until Oct. 31 to greenlight a new TOD zone around the site of the future Willowbrook SkyTrain Station, missed a key deadline.
The warning received a cool reception in the municipality, with Mayor Eric Woodward arguing the province has failed to appreciate Langley’s unique circumstances.
“These things may be needed in Vancouver where we have seen single-family homes surrounding SkyTrain stations for 30 years, but that’s not the situation here,” Woodward said.
“We do have a significant infrastructure deficit we are trying to catch up on with so much growth.”
Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program, said on one hand, the provincial government does need to get involved to create a standard for housing, but it can’t necessarily be a one-size-fits-all for every municipality.
“The issue is follow through and meaning largely around the development of infrastructure, that it’s going to really be up to the province in terms of when they’re able, when they will be not only writing the guidelines for new zoning bylaws, but also providing the supports for the new required infrastructure,” he said.
Yan added that the challenge around affordable housing and greater infrastructure will go hand-in-hand.
That is one of the challenges facing the City of Surrey, he said.
“The City of Surrey has certainly taken up large amounts of that type of housing that’s affordable, but yet also well sized for families,” Yan said. “And unfortunately, that’s also led to the kind of pressures you see in terms of demands for greater infrastructure, whether that be in sewage, water or electricity, or community centres, libraries and civic infrastructure that really support families.”
Yan said it remains to be seen if the province will provide infrastructure support along with the federal government.
“I think that it really does come up to this kind of back and forth between stepping up and showing up that it’s really something that’s going to need all three levels of government,” he added.
“It isn’t just one level government dictating what a lower level of government has to do. But then it’s also the fact that it’s going to be one of not of command, but of cooperation.”
In July, the province said 90 per cent of B.C. municipalities had complied with that new legislation designed to try and tackle B.C.’s ongoing housing crisis.
– with files from Simon Little