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Growth strategy review shows RDN isn’t meeting affordable housing goals

Regional District of Nanaimo shows progress on nine growth-related goals, falls short on five others
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Regional District of Nanaimo directors had a chance to look at a five-year review of their regional growth strategy at a meeting last week. (News Bulletin file photo)

The Regional District of Nanaimo is falling short of supplying the amount of affordable housing needed to sustain growth, according to a new report.

Board directors had a chance to review the interim status of the RDN’s regional growth strategy at a board meeting Tuesday, Dec. 6. The document offers guidance in building “socially, economically and environmentally sustainable communities,” noted a staff report.

The regional growth strategy five-year review found that during that time period, nine indicators have shown positive progress toward goals, five indicators have been stable, and five indicators show the region moving further away from its goals. Some areas of progress have been amount of protected land, number of households in close proximity to shops and services, density, diversity of housing types, and public transit ridership. Conversely, the region is falling short of its goals around rental housing affordability, waste volumes, and costs of water and sewer systems.

The RDN hopes to increase the number of households living in residences that are “appropriate, adequate, adaptable, sustainable, affordable and attainable,” the report said. However the regional district is moving further away from that, said Kim Fowler, manager of long-range planning and sustainability, during the meeting.

She said the number of renter households at or above the affordable rental threshold has almost doubled over the past five years, increasing from 2,724 in 2017 to 4,823 in 2021. During the same period, the number of affordable rental units decreased from 26 per cent to less than 15 per cent.

This was attributed to the disparity between the cost of housing relative to incomes and a persistently high-demand housing market and shortage of affordable rental units, according to Fowler.

The report also said the RDN is moving away from goals to reduce per-capita waste disposal. Specifically, the RDN aims to have less than 350 kilograms per person of garbage heading to the landfill and while 2021 numbers were not available, signs point to the region missing the mark.

“This can likely be attributed to a number of factors, such as new development and home renovations. Even though the region has not met its target, it is positive to see that per-capita waste has been decreasing,” stated the report, noting that a high of 395kg per person in 2018 has decreased to 355kg per person.

“Through the update of the [regional growth strategy] bylaw, the intent will be to harmonize the … goals and performance measures to the new solid waste management plan for the region,” the report noted.

Diverting 90 per cent of waste from the landfill by 2030 is also an RDN goal, with 68 per cent currently being diverted.

The RDN is remaining stable for water consumption, stated the report. Water use increased in the RDN’s electoral areas by five per cent and was up six per cent in the City of Parksville between 2017-2021, but decreased by 10 per cent in the City of Nanaimo during that time.

“Although water consumption did increase in … Parksville and the electoral areas, it increased at a slower rate than the population grew,” the report stated, adding that water consumption is also being reviewed as part of a regional growth strategy update.

The board deferred accepting the report for information in order to allow for further discussion.

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karl.yu@nanaimobulletin.com

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Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
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