qathet Regional District’s (qRD) board will receive a recommendation from the committee of the whole to direct staff to report on solutions to mitigate the current shortage of housing in rural areas.
At a meeting on January 11, directors also stipulated that the review consider best practices of other regional districts, which types of housing have been most successful, overarching legislation regarding affordable housing, and Vancouver Coastal Health regulations that may restrict multiple housing units from being developed on single lots.
Electoral Area D director and committee chair Sandy McCormick brought the motion forward and said she had gone through the region’s housing needs report. The document outlines the shortage of housing units in each electoral area, as well as in City of Powell River and Tla’amin Nation, she added.
“We can move forward looking at possible solutions,” said McCormick. “We don’t necessarily know if the solution is going to be tiny houses or official community plan amendments, but this empowers staff to do the research and come back to us with a report about improving the number of housing units we have.
“It’s asking for information. I believe the issue is incredibly important to all our areas. We are all in the same boat because we all have an identified shortage of available housing.”
Electoral Area E director Andrew Fall said he fully supported the recommendation. He asked about the inclusion of Lasqueti Island in the study. McCormick said her thought was Lasqueti would be included.
Chief administrative officer Al Radke said the intention was for the report to be all encompassing, so Lasqueti would be included.
“We’re going to try our best from our end to shore up what we believe is required in the qRD,” added Radke. “Basically, we are going to be touching base with all members.”
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he likes that the motion is broad enough that staff can cast a wide net and hopefully come back with suggestions.
Gisborne said the motion pointed to the housing shortage in rural areas and he wondered if it should also include the municipality.
“Maybe there is something there we can partner with the municipality to try and deal with this issue,” added Gisborne.
McCormick said her intention in the wording of the motion is that the city has its own review of housing and its own regulatory framework. There may well be applications or solutions that come out of the report that would be equally applicable to the city, she added.
City director George Doubt said talking about mitigating the shortage of housing in rural areas makes sense.
“The rural settings have their own considerations, with services, locations, transportation – all of those things that are different from the city,” said Doubt. “The city and regional district have a similar concern with housing, but the solutions might be completely different.
“The city is certainly engaged in the idea of looking at how to solve housing issues. I support this resolution. What we need to be careful of is taking this step by step because it could become a very expensive project, depending on how far you want to go.”
The committee voted to send the recommendation to the regional board for consideration.
