Promoting housing affordability is not easy. For us, it has been a never-ending political rhetoric: a top-down patchwork of policies trickling down from the province, passing though the Capital Regional District, finally reaching our official comminity plan in 2004.
One would be crazy not to agree that affordability is an issue in the Greater Victoria and in our community. Despite all this, Oak Bay still does not have a bold, long-term housing strategy. Without prioritizing one, affordability, either for ‘insiders’ or ‘outsiders,’ will remain a political rhetoric. Regulating secondary suites in 2017 is a mistake. In 2018, maybe. Here is why.
Oak Bay is a small municipality of about 18,000 residents, with limited financial and human resources. There are cases when the district has been mandated by senior government to act: the Uplands sewer separation project is an example.
In the case of housing, provincial policies are meant to apply to all cities and towns in B.C., regardless of size, demographics, tax base, staffing level, competing priorities and unique needs.
Oak Bay cannot afford and automatically assume that the same challenges of other medium and large cities should be tackled or prioritized in the same manner.
With secondary suites back on the table as a priority for 2017, Oak Bay will just ‘copy and paste’ what other municipalities have done. From a financial perspective, a consultant will need to be hired and so will bylaw enforcement personnel. Current staff alone will not be able to take on the project or implement a third of what regulating secondary suites entails. This is a truly complex project.
One thing is to want to regulate, another is: Can we afford to implement this project?
Mostly importantly, if regulation goes ahead now, will secondary suites effectively result in affordability? A report released by the City of Victoria on Oct. 28, 2016 shows that only 35 permits for secondary suites were issued in 2015, even though regulation was put in place.
Municipalities like Kelowna, Nelson, North Vancouver and New Westminster regulated basement suites.
Except for the latter, which had a long-term housing plan, all the others faced backlashes by choosing to regulate secondary suites first. Enthusiasm for “mortgage helper” overshadowed the fact that they were not prepared to deal with suites that could not be legalized. These were inevitably decommissioned, leaving occupiers virtually homeless. Placing a “moratorium” is not compatible with regulating. A municipality cannot ‘kind of regulate.’ This means liability.
The fact that our survey shows that the majority of residents supports secondary suites is not a good argument to move forward with regulation right now. Regulating suites because of “frivolous complaints” by neighbours doesn’t make sense either. The municipality will still have to deal with nuisance complaints regardless. Regulation without true ground support with residents buying into it is useless.
Oak Bay has already hired a consultant to develop an infill strategy. Embarking on regulating secondary suites means spending taxpayer money now and soon after when we realize that another consultant will need to be hired to “fix” what regulating secondary suites will not achieve – homeowners will not come forward to register their suite. Affordability will not come.
This can be avoided if the municipality starts off by engaging residents in a sincere discussion before imposing regulation. This is called educating and building trust.
A concrete plan with a set deadline first would be a good legacy. Tailored affordability. Less rhetoric.
James Sultanum
Oak Bay