Reminder: Secondary Suite Survey & Additional Background Information
Please complete the District of Oak Bay’s Secondary Suite Survey – Deadline June 3, 2021
There is no dispute that adding 1,500 – 1,700 new secondary suites to Oak Bay’s single-family neighbourhoods will result in impacts to the District’s infrastructure, taxation system, urban forest, traffic, parking and environment.
Council has approved the Secondary Suite initiative and it has cost and is costing significant tax dollars. At the outset this council committed to providing residents with all of the information on issues before seeking public input. Therefore, the questions residents may want to include in the secondary suite survey comment boxes are:
Council has identified secondary suites as one housing option in their “Housing Framework”. A number of other housing options have been identified for consideration. If residents are, as District’s vision statement states, “active contributors in local decision-making, working collaboratively with municipal Council and staff”, does it not follow residents should have been involved in prioritizing which housing options they prefer to consider first?
As Oak Bay already has 750, 2-tenant mortgage helper secondary suites, and no evidence has been provided that there is a problem, shouldn’t residents on the survey, have been given the option to keep the status quo? Changing the Zoning Bylaw to allow many more suites, most of which will be unregulated, and remove the 2-tenant limit will make secondary suites an even more contentious issue.
Provincial Government Secondary Suites – A Guide for Local Governments:
‘In 1997, the BC Supreme Court ruled against a Delta Zoning Bylaw which attempted to place occupancy restrictions on secondary suites”.
BC Union of Municipalities: 2018 Recommendation to the Provincial Government:
“Increasing property tax flexibility………... It is recommended that the provincial government provide local governments with the authority to create property tax sub-classification for affordable rental property”.
Note: There has been no Provincial response to date.
It seems to us all of this “public engagement” important information should have been provided prior to publishing a Resident Secondary Survey.
Oak Bay Watch
Please complete the District of Oak Bay’s Secondary Suite Survey – Deadline June 3, 2021
There is no dispute that adding 1,500 – 1,700 new secondary suites to Oak Bay’s single-family neighbourhoods will result in impacts to the District’s infrastructure, taxation system, urban forest, traffic, parking and environment.
Council has approved the Secondary Suite initiative and it has cost and is costing significant tax dollars. At the outset this council committed to providing residents with all of the information on issues before seeking public input. Therefore, the questions residents may want to include in the secondary suite survey comment boxes are:
- Why hasn’t Council ensured that the District’s infrastructure roads, sidewalks, and pipes can accommodate this amount of new densification?
- Why has the zoning bylaw that allows too many exemptions, not been corrected? The results are obvious: demolitions, expanded building footprints. mega houses, and reduction of the more affordable housing stock.
- Why didn’t Council provide the costs of the secondary suite enforcement and administration options they identified?, This information is readily available from other communities?
- Why didn’t Council identify where the revenue will come from to provide the municipal services and new amenities the new tenant population will require? Landlords can only be taxed on their rents by the Canada Revenue Agency if reported: therefore existing residents will have to bear most of these costs?
- Are (a) lining Oak Bay’s narrow streets with 2,000-3,000 more cars, or (b) removing greenspace and trees (the two secondary suite consultant’s options) desirable solutions?
- Is adding so many more commuter cars and tradesmen’s trucks to Oak Bay a sensible and responsible decision given the climate change crises?
Council has identified secondary suites as one housing option in their “Housing Framework”. A number of other housing options have been identified for consideration. If residents are, as District’s vision statement states, “active contributors in local decision-making, working collaboratively with municipal Council and staff”, does it not follow residents should have been involved in prioritizing which housing options they prefer to consider first?
As Oak Bay already has 750, 2-tenant mortgage helper secondary suites, and no evidence has been provided that there is a problem, shouldn’t residents on the survey, have been given the option to keep the status quo? Changing the Zoning Bylaw to allow many more suites, most of which will be unregulated, and remove the 2-tenant limit will make secondary suites an even more contentious issue.
Provincial Government Secondary Suites – A Guide for Local Governments:
‘In 1997, the BC Supreme Court ruled against a Delta Zoning Bylaw which attempted to place occupancy restrictions on secondary suites”.
BC Union of Municipalities: 2018 Recommendation to the Provincial Government:
“Increasing property tax flexibility………... It is recommended that the provincial government provide local governments with the authority to create property tax sub-classification for affordable rental property”.
Note: There has been no Provincial response to date.
It seems to us all of this “public engagement” important information should have been provided prior to publishing a Resident Secondary Survey.
Oak Bay Watch