qathet Regional District’s (qRD) board has voted to enter into the minutes and file a report titled: floor area ratio and lot coverage ratio.
At the June 26 regional board meeting, Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne put forward a motion that a floor area ratio and lot coverage ratio report be referred back to staff.
According to a staff report, in response to a board directive in November 2023, staff researched the use of floor space ratio and lot coverage limits and considered potential official community plan policy application for electoral areas in qRD. The report stated that qRD official community plans do not include policies to control housing density using floor space ratio. Regional district zoning bylaws do, however, include regulations to control lot coverage and the size of accessory buildings and structures, according to the report.
The report stated that buildings per parcel, or buildings per hectare, is the zoning control most commonly used for regulating density in rural areas where local government water and sewer servicing is not provided, and where any existing infrastructure for water and sewer servicing has limited capacity to support growth and higher density residential development. In a rural context, the buildings per parcel or buildings per hectare approach is a widely adopted best practice in BC that aligns well with provincial legislation and regulation, according to the report.
Gisborne said floor area ratio and lot coverage ratio is an issue around the housing crisis in the community.
“We’ve been talking about diversity in housing in the electoral areas and the report was the result of requests from the planning committee,” said Gisborne. “We have the report but I’m wondering what are our next steps?
“Our policy is still the same and our zoning bylaws are still the same. There are issues in the electoral areas, when people want to live in a recreational vehicle, and they are told it is in violation of our zoning bylaw. It’s becoming a growing issue.”
Gisborne said one of the reasons he thought the matter should be referred back to staff is he believes there is some confusion about what the board was actually asking.
“To make it very clear, what I am trying to solve is to support diversity throughout the region,” said Gisborne. “I’d be happy to have sit down discussions with our staff and hopefully come up with some kinds of solutions or some way forward, because as it is right now, we would receive the report and put it on the shelf. Then my constituents phone me up and say ‘hey, what has been done around housing files in the last two years. There’s essentially nothing to show for it, other than what the province has shoved down our throat.’”
City of Powell River director George Doubt said staff members have provided a report based on floor area ratio and wrote that report.
“It was recommended to our board that we receive and file it,” said Doubt. “That’s an appropriate thing to do. Referring the floor area ratio coverage idea back to staff to think about it some more is not going to get us anywhere.”
Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick said she also had trouble with Gisborne’s motion. She said staff produced what they were asked to produce.
“I don’t see any reason to send it back to staff,” said McCormick. “I would consider a motion asking for a subsequent report on specific actions that you [Gisborne] are looking to address, but referring [the report] back to staff, I can’t support.”
City director Cindy Elliott said she supported ways to get more housing because the region is suffering in that department.
“Right now, we regulate dwelling units per whatever,” said Elliott. “[Gisborne] was suggesting we stop doing that and use an alternative way, and that would be floor area ratio. That floor area could be however many dwelling units you wanted to divide it up into. [Gisborne] is thinking the number of dwelling units are restricting people to really big homes that don’t house that many people.
“Currently, people are setting up shop with RVs, tiny homes and they are doing what they have to do to live.”
qRD manager of planning services Laura Roddan said the regional district had done a lot of work to identify housing needs. She said the regional board just accepted a housing needs report that was completed earlier this year, and that report includes a number of recommendations and actions.
“In addition to that, as director McCormick mentioned, a rural housing solutions report was completed that the board accepted just a couple of months ago,” said Roddan. “That identifies a number of tools and options available to rural government.
“From my perspective, as the planning manager, as someone who interfaces with people in the community every day about where they live and how they would like to build a home for their parents, or for their kids, or for an Airbnb to make some extra income to help with the mortgage, in 95 per cent of the regional district electoral areas, people can do that,” said Roddan. “We have no regulations. People can have tiny homes, RVs, people can build a cottage. It's a very small percentage of our regional district that limits that, and that’s zoned areas. In terms of flexibility for housing, we’ve got it.”
The board defeated Gisborne’s motion to send the matter back to staff, with Electoral Area C director and board chair Clay Brander and McCormick opposed, and Gisborne and Electoral Area A director Jason Lennox in favour. The tie vote meant the vote was defeated.
The board then carried a motion to enter the floor area ratio and lot coverage ratio report into the board’s minutes and to file it, with Gisborne opposed.
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