Oak Bay District - Housing Strategy required:
Oak Bay Watch Recommended Land Use Process:
Housing Strategy / Impact Information /Community Input / Informed Council Decisions
Housing Strategies have been in the Canadian news lately because, after decades of criticism from the provinces, the (new) federal government has finally initiated a project to create a National Housing Strategy. We believe the last Federal Housing Strategy was when the troops came home from WWII creating an urgent need for housing. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) was one outcome, with the mandate to enable young families to qualify for mortgages on starter homes.
The Province of BC and the Capital Region District both published “Affordable Housing Strategies” prior to 2007 that the municipalities are required to abide by when possible. However, these focused mainly on the housing required by social service priorities - the homeless and the low income, rather than all housing. At the municipal level, most of its economy and purpose is housing related, so a municipal housing strategy should include all aspects of housing e.g. taxation, regulation, infrastructure costs etc, not just affordable housing, as there is little that can be done without senior government involvement.
Oak Bay has no Housing Strategy.
The latest Official Community Plan (OCP) project gave us a few clues on possible future housing challenges, but it only scratched the surface of the information that council, city staff and residents need to solve our housing challenges in a concrete, realistic and sustainable way.
Oak Bay has recently initiated a costly Infill Strategy Project despite not yet having an overall Housing Strategy. Why they have done this could be due to pressure from senior governments to abide by their “Affordable” Housing Strategies, rather than because those strategies are desirable or even feasible in Oak Bay.
Lessons already learned by other desirable destination communities, is that there are many unintended and undesirable consequences with these infill strategies. For instance lately, there have been widespread news and complaints about an increase in suites being used as internet-based vacation rentals, rather than providing affordable homes for local residents. Solutions have been hard to come by and many are still being assessed. No real solution has been determined.
Without a Housing Strategy, Oak Bay has no overall view from which to make intelligent, fact based, logical decisions about infill - or any other housing initiative. This is causing existing residents to be very nervous, and even angry about this entire Infill Project. The Infill Project has been initiated based on an unsubstantiated perception that infill is desirable. This does not specifically speak to Oak Bay’s situation, but to cities, towns and municipalities in general.
“One size cannot fit all”, given the variables involved.
Oak Bay is very different from most other BC municipalities. Specifically, Oak Bay is a fully mature municipality, which means that Oak Bay does not have any vacant land to build on, and that most of its challenges are about ageing. Ageing demographics, ageing housing stock, ageing apartment stock, ageing urban forests, and ageing infrastructure. The extent of all these must be researched, analyzed and addressed before super-imposing new development initiatives on the Community. A well-developed comprehensive Housing Strategy can accomplish this.
Our affordability challenges are rooted in lot prices. They are higher here than in other CRD areas, and also higher than what CMHC will insure. For instance, why would any organization fund new affordable rental housing on an Oak Bay lot, when a lot on the other side of Foul Bay Road costs half as much?
That Oak Bay needs a Housing Strategy is not news. The Oak Bay Council minutes since 2007 show that each year council has mentioned creating a Housing Strategy as a priority, and that one should have been in place prior to creating a new OCP. Our Mayor promised one in his 2014 inaugural address by stating that “the first steps” of the new town planner will be “to build consensus on a housing strategy”.
What is a Housing Strategy, and why is it so important to local government?
An OCP is a Bylaw that gives an overall view of zoning and density in a publicly vetted vision for the future of the community. An OCP is required by provincial law. In BC a Housing Strategy is considered an important adjunct to an OCP, but is not legally required.
A Housing Strategy is defined as:
A local housing strategy is a, “living” set of documents which contain the knowledge and the guidance required to make informed decisions about housing of all tenures, and about housing-related services for some time period, usually 5 years”.
The phrase “informed decisions” speaks to the importance of having a housing strategy before making any significant changes to zoning, density, infrastructure, or services.
This description indicates that:
The collection, and analysis of all of the underlying knowledge base gathered to create a Housing Strategy is a significant amount of work. The good news is that Oak Bay already uses a map based Geographic Information System (GIS) to support the Engineering and Public Works departments. Much of the required information has therefore already been collected into that GIS package - which includes the tools to collate and summarize it.
Council has decided that, as a result of resident input from community meetings and a survey, they are “re-setting their Residential Infill Strategy, This is the opportunity to analyse how the present Infill Strategy coordinates with the Urban Forest Strategy, addresses the existing problem areas, and fits Oak Bay specifically. Let’s move forward as promised with solid data and a sound planning process. This will go a long way to ensuring Oak Bay remains a desirable place to live and continues to serve as an example for other communities.
Oak Bay Watch Recommended Land Use Process:
Housing Strategy / Impact Information /Community Input / Informed Council Decisions
Housing Strategies have been in the Canadian news lately because, after decades of criticism from the provinces, the (new) federal government has finally initiated a project to create a National Housing Strategy. We believe the last Federal Housing Strategy was when the troops came home from WWII creating an urgent need for housing. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) was one outcome, with the mandate to enable young families to qualify for mortgages on starter homes.
The Province of BC and the Capital Region District both published “Affordable Housing Strategies” prior to 2007 that the municipalities are required to abide by when possible. However, these focused mainly on the housing required by social service priorities - the homeless and the low income, rather than all housing. At the municipal level, most of its economy and purpose is housing related, so a municipal housing strategy should include all aspects of housing e.g. taxation, regulation, infrastructure costs etc, not just affordable housing, as there is little that can be done without senior government involvement.
Oak Bay has no Housing Strategy.
The latest Official Community Plan (OCP) project gave us a few clues on possible future housing challenges, but it only scratched the surface of the information that council, city staff and residents need to solve our housing challenges in a concrete, realistic and sustainable way.
Oak Bay has recently initiated a costly Infill Strategy Project despite not yet having an overall Housing Strategy. Why they have done this could be due to pressure from senior governments to abide by their “Affordable” Housing Strategies, rather than because those strategies are desirable or even feasible in Oak Bay.
Lessons already learned by other desirable destination communities, is that there are many unintended and undesirable consequences with these infill strategies. For instance lately, there have been widespread news and complaints about an increase in suites being used as internet-based vacation rentals, rather than providing affordable homes for local residents. Solutions have been hard to come by and many are still being assessed. No real solution has been determined.
Without a Housing Strategy, Oak Bay has no overall view from which to make intelligent, fact based, logical decisions about infill - or any other housing initiative. This is causing existing residents to be very nervous, and even angry about this entire Infill Project. The Infill Project has been initiated based on an unsubstantiated perception that infill is desirable. This does not specifically speak to Oak Bay’s situation, but to cities, towns and municipalities in general.
“One size cannot fit all”, given the variables involved.
Oak Bay is very different from most other BC municipalities. Specifically, Oak Bay is a fully mature municipality, which means that Oak Bay does not have any vacant land to build on, and that most of its challenges are about ageing. Ageing demographics, ageing housing stock, ageing apartment stock, ageing urban forests, and ageing infrastructure. The extent of all these must be researched, analyzed and addressed before super-imposing new development initiatives on the Community. A well-developed comprehensive Housing Strategy can accomplish this.
Our affordability challenges are rooted in lot prices. They are higher here than in other CRD areas, and also higher than what CMHC will insure. For instance, why would any organization fund new affordable rental housing on an Oak Bay lot, when a lot on the other side of Foul Bay Road costs half as much?
That Oak Bay needs a Housing Strategy is not news. The Oak Bay Council minutes since 2007 show that each year council has mentioned creating a Housing Strategy as a priority, and that one should have been in place prior to creating a new OCP. Our Mayor promised one in his 2014 inaugural address by stating that “the first steps” of the new town planner will be “to build consensus on a housing strategy”.
What is a Housing Strategy, and why is it so important to local government?
An OCP is a Bylaw that gives an overall view of zoning and density in a publicly vetted vision for the future of the community. An OCP is required by provincial law. In BC a Housing Strategy is considered an important adjunct to an OCP, but is not legally required.
A Housing Strategy is defined as:
A local housing strategy is a, “living” set of documents which contain the knowledge and the guidance required to make informed decisions about housing of all tenures, and about housing-related services for some time period, usually 5 years”.
The phrase “informed decisions” speaks to the importance of having a housing strategy before making any significant changes to zoning, density, infrastructure, or services.
This description indicates that:
- The first step of creating a housing strategy would be to gather together into one place all local facts, summaries and/or trends concerning: demographics, housing stock data, infrastructure, services, the environment, jobs, taxation, fees, and valued character.
- Much of this information is already stored at city hall, and the rest is available (in summary or detailed form) from the websites of provincial ministries, BC Assessment, the CRD, Statss Canada, commissions, realty organizations, etc.
- The second step would be to cross reference all this information and analyze it for challenges and opportunities, which can then be arranged according to time horizons.
- The third step would be to prioritize these findings and then research possible actions and solutions and the outcomes experienced in other jurisdictions. This provides the basis for a Housing Strategy to support logical decisions and the creation of any subsequent Housing Plans.
The collection, and analysis of all of the underlying knowledge base gathered to create a Housing Strategy is a significant amount of work. The good news is that Oak Bay already uses a map based Geographic Information System (GIS) to support the Engineering and Public Works departments. Much of the required information has therefore already been collected into that GIS package - which includes the tools to collate and summarize it.
Council has decided that, as a result of resident input from community meetings and a survey, they are “re-setting their Residential Infill Strategy, This is the opportunity to analyse how the present Infill Strategy coordinates with the Urban Forest Strategy, addresses the existing problem areas, and fits Oak Bay specifically. Let’s move forward as promised with solid data and a sound planning process. This will go a long way to ensuring Oak Bay remains a desirable place to live and continues to serve as an example for other communities.