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Nanaimo will pre-zone 23,500 properties to comply with mandated density

City staff working on zoning amendment bylaw
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The City of Nanaimo is working on a zoning bylaw to comply with provincial legislation mandating up to three or four housing units on single-family residential lots. (News Bulletin file photo)

The City of Nanaimo will need to pre-zone 23,500 properties as it finds ways to handle new provincial legislation mandating density in almost all neighbourhoods.

City staff, at a council meeting Monday, May 6, reported on plans to bring forward a zoning amendment bylaw and building amendment bylaw to comply with B.C.’s new small-scale multi-unit housing legislation.

Staff is proposing three new zoning classifications: R5, for three- and four-unit residential, applying to 22,000 properties in the city; R14, similar but tailored to try to preserve the Old City Quarter’s character; and an interim residential corridor zone meant to encourage greater density than three or four units where appropriate.

Jeremy Holm, the city’s director of planning and development, said staff’s recommended approach responds to the new provincial requirements, “as well as respecting the Nanaimo context [and] city plan policy goals and objectives as much as possible.”

The city already allows homes with a secondary suite or a carriage house on single-family lots, but will now allow both a secondary suite and a carriage house, for example. Other permitted building forms include duplex, duplex with secondary suites, two detached houses, two detached houses with secondary suites, or threeplexes or fourplexes without secondary suites.

“This doesn’t mean it will necessarily be feasible on [a homeowner’s] lot, even if the zoning would allow for it,” said Caleb Horn, city planner. “There are constraints that they will have to consider such as parking requirements, building code, servicing.”

Before the provincial government introduced the small-scale multi-unit housing legislation last fall, City of Nanaimo staff was already working on increasing housing options informed by the city plan, a housing needs report, and community consultation.

Nanaimo city council went on to pass a motion in the fall to send a letter to the province asking for an exemption from the density legislation considering the recent work that had gone into the city plan.

READ ALSO: Nanaimo council says housing legislation undermines local decision-making

“These are significant and major changes upcoming to our community and what the city is doing [now] is in response to being told we have to meet provincial legislation,” said Coun. Ian Thorpe at this week’s meeting.

He asked whether the province had made provisions for municipalities to meet infrastructure demands of more neighbourhood density. Holm replied that there were some related changes to development cost charges and community amenity contributions, and a staff report noted that the city wouldn’t be asking the provincial government for any compliance extensions related to infrastructure needs.

“While some potential issues with city infrastructure could arise as [small-scale multi-unit housing] lands develop, most issues can be addressed on an as-needed basis in the future,” the report noted.

Holm said there could be some challenges with additional waste collection in cul-de-sacs, for example, or with more vehicles parked on streets making snowplowing more difficult. But he stressed that the impacts of the density legislation won’t be immediate. He thinks some neighbourhoods with older homes on large lots might see infill development in the short-term, but areas with newer homes aren’t likely to see much impact.

“I think it will be over time and incremental in many areas,” he said. “Definitely it’s making a change in direction and course in how the city develops, but it does also align largely with city plan policies. It’s just a little less contextual and more indiscriminate.”

Council voted unanimously to direct staff to bring forward the zoning and building amendment bylaws in time to meet the province’s June 30 deadline.

READ ALSO: Lantzville seeking legal advice to avoid complying with mandated density

READ ALSO: Town of Ladysmith decides how best to comply with density rules

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About the Author: Greg Sakaki

I have been in the community newspaper business for two decades, all of those years with Black Press Media.
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