The Province, on Monday, April 3, announced the Homes for People initiative that is focused directly on producing housing for the “missing middle” and includes the concept of extending province-wide changes to zoning/land use that will permit 4 – 6 units being built on single-family lots. This is a game changer for “gentle densification” and despite some potential resistance from municipalities the province will push this and numerous other housing programs forward with what appears to be unprecedented speed and urgency.
The extent and number of announcements on housing from the province is a welcome change of pace, but almost too much, too fast. Starting with the introduction of the Housing Supply Act in mid-December of last year, many of the announcements and actions unfolding since then are directly following up on the targets set out in the Act, including Homes for People, One stop Provincial Permitting Strategy, and per April 12 the announcement regarding a province led initiative to digitize permit submissions, processing, and approvals.
Collaborating with the work being done by CHBA-BC government relations with engagement at the provincial level, HAVAN has also been directly invited to participate in consultations with the province and appointed to working groups and task forces addressing the Provincial permitting and approvals, the DAPR working group, the DFRC Committee, DFRC sub-comm workshops, Digital Permitting Roundtable, and Missing Middle Roundtable. This has resulted in numerous meetings over the last few weeks including roundtables with Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon.
HAVAN was also invited to the technical briefing following the April 3, Homes for People announcement hosted by a Ministry of Housing Assistant Deputy Minister, and most other engagements have involved ADM’s and senior policy staff from multiple ministries. Regarding the proposed “gentle densification” initiative, HAVAN expressed a number of concerns at the briefing, and at a subsequent roundtable meeting, including adequate FSR/FAR thresholds, flexible setback, and height limits, title/tenure, service/hydro capacities, load calculations, and costs, reasonable DCC’s/CAC’s, parking, parking/logistics during construction, and potential pre-approvals of archetypical designs/plans.
HAVAN has also contributed to consultations on the provincial portal for “one-stop” processing of provincial approvals for development permits, and as promised, the hiring of 42 new staff assigned to clear 1500 backlogged ‘in stream’ affected applications. The ‘portal’ opening is pending, and together with clearing backlogs, looks to focus on tirage of referrals, thresholds for referrals, and effective longer-term efforts to streamline and rationalize the tracking, reporting, and processing of matters regarding the Water Act, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Environment, and Heritage Act among others.
At the UCBM housing conference ‘Housing Together’ on April 4/5 at the Wall Center, HAVAN’s Director of Government Relations, Diana Dilworth, and myself, were invited to participate and present in two panel discussions, one on Development Approvals Process Review (DAPR), and the other on development finance. We are also contributing to both the DAPR Task Group and the Development Finance Review Committee, where we are asserting the need for a more predictable, fair, regularly reviewed, and reasonably attributed model, that addresses transparency and surety for ‘instream’ applications.
All these issues and consultations are ones that HAVAN and CHBA-BC have been lobbying for over an extended period, and we are directly involved in seeing how these policies will translate into actions. The HAVAN Government Relations team, and I, have been taken aback at the pace and apparent determination demonstrated by provincial staff in bringing these changes to bear on very aggressive timelines, and it is challenging to keep up with the schedule of meetings, briefing documents provided by the province, and framing our responses and input to try and ensure the best outcome for members, and the industry as a whole while averting any unintended consequences. More actions and a steady stream of consultations have been scheduled.
We are also seeing concurrent efforts being applied at the Federal and provincial level with the announcement and rollout of the $4.3 billion Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), to assist municipalities in adopting changes to dramatically increase housing supply, and the $1 billion Growing Communities Fund from BC. It is important to see these funds directly applied to supporting affordability and increasing housing supply through a lens of transparency and accountability.
CHBA National is supporting the HAF by launching an extensive Municipal Supply Campaign that emphasizes the need for municipalities to accept and engage with processes and policies to push for changes that will result in increasing housing supply. This campaign is extensive and is being supported with exposure on multiple social, and mainstream media platforms, in a series of pointed video ads and links that reinforce the urgent need for more housing. National, with support from HAVAN and BILD-GTA, was also recently successful in affecting meaningful and beneficial changes for our sector to the federal Foreign Buyers Prohibition, and Underused Housing Tax.
Adding to the action at the provincial and federal level are numerous engagement opportunities at the municipal level to accommodate the pressure being exerted by the province, adopting changes in process, implementing the Step Code and Low Carbon regulation, and affecting significant changes in DCC’s/ CAC’s prior to the province imposing any new guidelines and or regulation. HAVAN is directly involved and contributing to multiple Development Advisory/Liaison Committees across the 21 municipalities in our catchment area, and we are responding to invitations to comment directly on by-laws, and other regulations and charges that will affect our sector.
The extent and pace of potential change is nothing short of remarkable and the level of engagement is stretching our resources, but compliments to our HAVAN Government Relations Committee who have stepped up and members have been actively participating in and providing invaluable input to many of the noted government forums and have been working in collaboration with the CHBA-BC GR Committee. The direct involvement of members and gathering feedback from members’ ‘in the field’ experiences is invaluable in helping HAVAN to frame the discussions and shape the proposed policies.
Our efforts over the last few years to build HAVAN’s government relations presence and voice are now paying off and we are deeply invested at every level – it appears that we may have a real opportunity to “move the needle” and alter the status quo at this time. The efforts and challenges now before us are to overcome the inertia and intransigence of many municipal and or provincial staff to embrace these changes, and to work collaboratively with elected officials and staff to find ways to expedite – not obstruct development and building approvals, permits, and delivery.
HAVAN continues to work with CHBA BC and CHBA to advocate for all levels of government to work together to address the challenges of the housing industry including zoning restrictions, density limits, and NIMBYism.
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QUICK BITES …
- There were two things that stood out in my mind about the Homes For People announcement on April 3 from Premier Eby and Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon. The first was that this announcement in combination with the others of late demonstrate some significant leadership and lofty goals being set by the Province. Vaughn Palmer in the Vancouver Sun profiles these thoughts by interviewing the Premier and looking at the change in stance from activist/critic to forming new policies. The second issue was in relation to the numbers being presented regarding the NDP’s performance in delivering more housing since 2016. Namely, the 20,000 additional rental units available are said to be because of the vacant homes and or spec tax, and over 74,000 units under the originally announced in 2016 of 114,000 new homes in 10 years.The premier appears to have recognized the need for more housing supply of all types and looks to be committed to affecting the changes required to realize these goals as quickly as possible, and he should be commended for this. Inflating numbers and claiming exaggerated results undermines credibility and may feed counterarguments to increasing housing – let’s stick to what is real and support meaningful proactive initiatives that can lead to real and positive contributions to meeting the housing crisis.
- This piece in the Vancouver Sun discusses a joint project by the Army & Navy and Bosa Properties to redevelop the Army & Navy property in the heart of the DTES. The proposal carries market rental and below market rental units, was cut almost in half after the initial proposal, and was rejected by CoV staff based on perceived conflicts with heritage preservation and attendant height concerns. The partnership will go forward to Council without staff support as it is felt that it aligns with the publicly stated goals of “ … emphasizing a desire to break with past planning orthodoxy and rules in order to build housing and generate economic activity.” This project could be a big boost to an underserved area with participants willing to assume significant risks to produce the much-needed housing. It reinforces the need to adopt a more open-minded approach that does not shut down potentially beneficial projects using entrenched policies or guidelines.
- In another example of inhibiting or discouraging creative and innovative solutions, this article outlines how a 1200 sq. ft. home on a 540 sq. ft. lot that was only 9 feet wide was rejected by staff. While by no means a typical situation it makes interesting and effective use of a property that is otherwise unusable. It is time to think outside of the Box(es)!!
- We should be looking to other jurisdictions to assess the impacts of change and many of the initiatives we are contemplating in this area. This paper from the Mercatus Center, at George Mason University reviews the zoning and land use policy changes affected in Houston, Texas that have resulted in the addition of 80,000 homes in that city with similar policies we are looking at here in BC.
- For those craving a detailed market analysis and statistics into the market through the first quarter of 2023 and what’s shaping up for Q2 please see ‘The Rennie Review, April 2023’ and ‘The Rennie Landscape – spring 2023’. As always Bob Rennie and his team provide a comprehensive overview of the residential real estate sector.
- The Daily Hive discusses the proposal in the City of Vancouver to adopt fixed-rate CACs for low and mid-rise residential projects. This would in many ways be a welcome change that could serve to address the many concerns expressed by the industry regarding delays associated with negotiated CAC agreements and provide some degree of certainty. How this is undertaken and whether it will encompass a fair and reasonable approach remains to be seen, and how this will fold into changes being contemplated by the province.
