Province to Set Housing Targets for Homes in West Vancouver and District of North Vancouver
West Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver are among 10 municipalities that will have to accomplish housing targets set by the Province. The Housing Supply Act gives the Province the authority to set housing targets in municipalities, starting with those with the greatest need and highest projected growth, BC said.
“The targets will encourage municipalities to address local barriers to construction so that housing can get built faster, including updating zoning bylaws and streamlining local development approval processes,” Province said.
The selected municipalities are:
City of Abbotsford
City of Delta
City of Kamloops
District North Vancouver
District of Oak Bay
City of Port Moody
District of Saanich
City of Vancouver
City of Victoria
District of West Vancouver
Over the summer, Province will consult with the selected municipalities and set the final housing targets. All communities will be encouraged to take the action needed to speed up local processes.
Once targets are set, the Province will monitor progress and work with municipalities to help address any barriers. To support implementation, the Province will continue to help local governments speed up local approval processes through the continued implementation of the development approvals process review, as well as streamlined permitting across multiple ministries and developing a new digital permitting process.
The Province said it has selected these municipalities using an objective and data-based process. An empirical index was developed, based on work with economists and experts in the field, to identify municipalities according to multiple dimensions of housing need. The index relies on measures that prioritize the urgency of local housing needs, the availability of the right housing supply, including land availability and unrealized potential for more homes, and housing affordability.
A second group of eight to 10 municipalities will be selected and notified in late 2023.
This policy is crazy. How many people can be accommodated in a municipality needs to be up to that municipality! For some far off bureaucrats telling communities how many people to build for reminds me of the game where you are blindfolded and asked to pin the tail on the donkey!
I have worked as a Planner right across Canada, and (while raising young kids) as a realtor in West Vancouver. I know both sides. A well planned community that enhances its assets is also good for business. Cramming people in every square inch of space because the Province says so is really dumb!
The NDP boys and girls in Victoria have no right to be telling citizens of BC where and how much housing is to be built. The next thing the NEW DUMMY PARTY will be telling us is the exact square footage required to meet the ideas of this little block of voters that are in power with less than a 50% majority. We will soon have the chance to kick them to the back benches for another 20 years. Please keep government out of our lives. Look what they have done to the Surrey Hospital! Dumb and really Dumb are now in power.
I hope Kevin Falcon is listening.
It is time for Mayor Sager and West Vancouver Council to stand up to the thugs in Victoria. The Provincial Government did not run on redesigning municipal lands.
In my view the mandate of the current provincial Govt. to increase density on the
North Shore will create significant problems.
Those of us that live on the North Shore are facing daily problems that impede
our quality of life ( Leave an hour earlier to travel to appts. & try to find parking within our own communities of NVan City the District of north van and West Vancouver. Major delays at Lions Gate
Hospital (can not handle current case loads) Senior care facilities not keeping up to current demands Closures of several small businesses that contributed to the overall needs of a community.
I sincerely hope our local municipalities will push back on this legislation.
This could be seen as a conflict of interest. ??? Provincial government derives income from the materials used to build housing and the dollars coming in due to property transfers is amazing. The new flipping tax could be a winfall with more housing coming up quicker as well. Local councils know our road conditions, sewage capacity, school enrolment, bus service etc and even then “we” cant seem to please anyone with the pace of development. It would be interesting to see the criteria used in the modelling to determine which municipalities need this push and how many more units? (at what price? is the word affordable in the planning?)