I believe the following open letter to council needs to be considered by the readers of NSO, please leave your comments. As well please check out Cairine Green’s blog for more information on this issue.
An Open Letter to Mayor and Council
The District of North Saanich
Re: Secondary Suite Pilot Project for the SE Quadrant area.
Council has identified 450 potential properties in the selected South East area to be included in a secondary suite pilot program. This is a considerable increase to the estimated 64 suites that supposedly already exist in that area. And it could be much higher than 450 properties as the boundaries for this pilot program have not been finalized. As the Staff Report suggests; additional properties in the Dean Park area that do not have covenants in place, and/or additional properties in the northern neighbourhoods of the SE Quadrant area could also be included in this program.
While we have no objection to secondary suites and feel they serve a purpose, there are several issues that we feel Council has an obligation to address on behalf of the District as a whole. The purpose of this letter is to ensure proper process, that all information (including the long term effects) has been communicated to the residents, and that residents then have the opportunity to voice whether they are prepared to accept the changes to their community that may result from this program.
Some people may feel this is a cut and dry decision, but there are many issues that need to be examined.
The Staff Report included on this September 14th Agenda states:
“Official Community Plan (OCP)
Policy statement 6.4 of the OCP states that: “Secondary suites or second dwelling units are not currently permitted by the District. As part of the overall Housing Strategy for the District, the legalization of suites will be investigated.” Given that it is only a year long, the pilot program could be considered investigating legalization of secondary suites meaning that an OCP amendment is not required at this point in time. If there are any plans to expand the program or continue it longer than one year, an OCP amendment will be required”
Once Council approves a pilot program to allow secondary suites - there is no going back. Suites become permanent. There is no investigating taking place. I am not aware of any reference in the OCP that indicates investigating the possibility of allowing secondary suites would involve implementing a program that would “approve” secondary suites on a permanent basis.
Because the OCP does not currently allow secondary suites, an amendment to the OCP would be required prior to approving secondary suites. Approving a pilot program to allow for secondary suites now – then amending the OCP down the road is like putting the cart before the horse.
And, Council must think hard about changing our Official Community Plan which took several years to finalize, after countless hours of community input and costing taxpayers thousands of dollars.
450 potential properties have been identified for this pilot project “so far”. This growth is considerably higher than the permitted growth allowed for in the OCP, and particularly for an area that is designated ”outside” of the Urban Containment Boundary (UCB) in the Regional Growth Strategy (RGS).
Information received indicates that amendments to the Regional Growth Strategy will likely be required as a result of this secondary suite pilot program, and CRD approval will be necessary. The information suggests that North Saanich will be required to either:
- change the Regional Context Statement in the OCP (amend the OCP), or
- change the designation of this area to be “within” the Urban Containment Boundary.
Both of the above changes would result in the South East Quadrant area no longer considered “rural”. This would be a significant shift for North Saanich, in particular for the SE Quadrant area residents, yet Council has never communicated this important issue to residents.
While it may be a “recommendation” in the Housing Strategy to allow secondary suites (a document prepared by the previous Council) – has there been adequate discussion and planning regarding the impact to local infrastructure (roads, sewer, water, schools, hospital, etc.) will be as a result of this increase in density? What will happen if the impact becomes too great for the existing services to handle? How much will it cost taxpayers to upgrade services to withstand this level of “unplanned” growth? What happens to other neighbourhoods that may also wish to participate in this pilot project, or be considered for secondary suites after this pilot project is finished? Will those neighbourhoods be denied suites by future ”Councils of the day” because infrastructure and services have not been planned for?
Council must address the effects that this pilot program will have on all levels of infrastructure and services, and communicate to all residents what those effects will be before proceeding further. Only then can residents make an informed decision. To date, the only communication to residents in the South East Quadrant area has been to say that ”Council has selected their neighbourhood for this pilot program and here is how residents can participate”. I suspect the general level of acceptance of secondary suites would drop significantly once it becomes known how this pilot program could affect their neighbourhood (and the community at large), particularly when it becomes necessary to amend the OCP and the RGS as noted above.
You may have recently been contacted by North Saanich residents who live in this same SE Quadrant area seeking your support to oppose the Vantreight Farms development consisting of 84 homes – a development that is also outside of the Urban Containment Boundary. According to the Central Saanich OCP, suites are permitted in that agricultural area. This could potentially allow the density of the Vantreight project to increase up to 164 residential units. That development borders directly onto the same 450 residential neighbourhood you are considering for the secondary suite pilot program in North Saanich. Together, you have a potential of 614 ”new” residential units in one small area – all requiring services (mainly in North Saanich), yet these areas are outside of the Urban Containment Boundary.
I think you will agree that these issues must be addressed.
The majority of this Council was elected based on their support for the Official Community Plan, the Regional Growth Strategy, protecting communities outside of the Urban Containment Area from unplanned growth, for keeping North Saanich rural, and your promise for improved communication. We hope those members will keep their commitments to the residents of North Saanich.
A Council member recently wrote: ”it’s easy to loose your way without a good map to guide you”. Well, in my view, you have two great maps to guide you - the Official Community Plan and the Regional Growth Strategy. If you follow those two guides it will be impossible to lose your way.
W. Bjornsfelt
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I am not convinced by your argument. As you say, the OCP says “As part of the overall Housing Strategy for the District, the legalization of suites will be investigated.” The housing strategy concluded that secondary suites were a desireable form of housing for North Saanich. Therefore, it seems very logical to me that the OCP anticipated the direction towards secondary suites and described the path the must be followed before changes could occur. The District has followed this path and the concluded that secondary suites were a good thing. This is consistent with the OCP, to suggest that this is inconsistent or that an OCP change is required would be to misread the intent behind the statement in the OCP.
We want affordable housing in North Saanich. The entire council ran on this platform. We can all agree that secondary suites are the lowest density and least intrusive affordable housing option available to North Saanich.
I also believe we should be honest in using the term rural to describe areas of North Saanich. Some parts are clearly rural while other parts are clearly not. Just because the OCP or Zoning Bylaw designates something as rural, does not make it so. Common sense must prevail. If you have visited the S.E. quadrant of the District you will immediately notice that the area is not rural but in fact suburban. The “significant shift” has already occured many years ago, this was clearly overlooked when the OCP was last prepared.