West Vancouver begrudgingly bows to provincial housing legislation

West Vancouver Council begrudgingly bows to provincial housing density legislation

Ambleside neighbourhood of West Vancouver. (okephotographs/Shutterstock)

With 12 days remaining before the expiration of the month-long ultimatum given by the Government of British Columbia, the District of West Vancouver Council begrudgingly approved the required bylaws to align with the provincial government’s new legislation related to small-scale, multi-family housing during a public meeting on Monday.

This follows the District Council’s unanimous rejection of the bylaw changes in late May 2024, which led BC Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon to issue a notice in late July 2024. The notice set a 30-day ultimatum — August 24, 2024 — for the municipal government to adopt the necessary policies or face the possibility of the provincial government creating the bylaws and technical parameters on behalf of the District.

Monday’s meeting was the second following the Minister’s notice, as District Council had originally scheduled a discussion for late September 2024, after the ultimatum’s deadline. But Kahlon quickly rejected any extension beyond the 30 days provided.

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“I find this to be the most upsetting issue, because it really comes down to our risk tolerance. The Minister has said, ‘we either pass something or he’s going to come in and do it,’ and we know that the bylaws before us will impact a very, very small number of properties in our community,” said Mayor Mark Sager during Monday’s public meeting.

“It means that we have control, and it makes me sick to say, I don’t have the risk for the whole community to not accept this recommendation.”

The provincial government’s requested changes under the notice to align with the small-scale multi-family housing legislation would impact a total of 313 lots across the jurisdiction or 2.8% of all properties within the District of West Vancouver. A map created by District staff shows most of the lots in question are located within the Ambleside and Dundarave areas, with smaller pockets elsewhere closer to the municipal border with the District of North Vancouver and within the west side of the jurisdiction at Eagle Harbour and Horseshoe Bay.

district of west vancouver small scale multi family housing legislation

July 2024 map highlighting the 313 properties that are identified by the Government of British Columbia that must be rezoned under the small-scale multi-family housing legislation. (District of West Vancouver)

In accordance to the legislation, all eligible municipal governments across British Columbia were given until the end of June 2024 to enact zoning bylaw changes to enable gentle densification on single-family lots — generally up to four units per lot, and up to six units per lot near frequent public transit.

“People are lighting their hair on fire over this, but it’s really a very, very tiny percentage of the total lots in our community, and they are all for one reason or other, related to areas that for infrastructure and transit purposes are more amenable to higher density,” said councillor Nora Gambioli during the meeting.

“So our choice really is to consider the zoning and to vote for it, or to risk unknown consequences in the near future where the province could allow even more density than it is being proposed here, if we say no and other changes, including siting, the size, the location and the type of housing required to be permitted. And I think that gives us even less control.”

Gambioli reiterated that the rejection of the bylaws in late May 2024 would not have been unanimous if she had been present.

All other members of the District Council remained opposed to the provincially mandated bylaws and were particularly critical of the provincial government’s move to force the municipal government’s hand, with multiple members suggesting that this should become an October 2024 provincial election issue.

They also used the meeting as an opportunity to publicly vent a wider range of grievances.

“We’re the only NDP province in the country, and over the course of the last seven years, it’s almost like we’ve developed Stockholm Syndrome. We’re captive to a bloated provincial bureaucracy that’s doubled the provincial debt and given Vancouver the illustrious title of fentanyl capital of the world. And our infrastructure and health care system are broken,” said councillor Linda Watt

“We have an authoritarian government that is ignoring basic planning principles in a record effort to please a Prime Minister who’s hell bent on beating the Canadian economy further into the ground… And in the middle of all this, they came up with a band aid solution to solve the housing crisis. Bill 44 painting a brush stroke across the province. Do they want homogenous housing? You know, in virtually every municipality, it’s madness.”

Typically, the District would host a public hearing to provide public speakers with the ability to formally offer their input to District Council. However, the provincial legislation does not permit municipal governments to stage public hearings as part of the process to consider and approve bylaws.

Councillor Sharon Thompson questioned why she should approve policies she believes will be ineffective, calling it “virtue signalling” simply “because it sounds great or because we’re being good partners.”

Councillor Christine Cassidy suggested West Vancouver is being used as a scapegoat, and reiterated her comments in a previous meeting that the North Shore does not have the infrastructure needed to handle more residents and economic growth.

“They know they have nothing to lose in West Vancouver, and the NDP government has never given us anything, and they’re never going to give us anything. They have simply no clue as to the traffic that goes across our Upper Levels Highway coming from Pemberton, Whistler, and Squamish,” said Cassidy.

“They have no idea that we cannot get off this seeming island because of the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and the Lions Gate Bridge. And for the entire time I have lived in this community, which has been since I was a child, there has been the province the promise of a bridge. Well, I’ll probably be dead before that bridge is ever realized they’re not giving us anything… They’re doing this in advance of October 19, to garner publicity, to garner support throughout this province, from all of those communities who are supportive of the NDP.”

Cassidy further stated that she will not allow the District of West Vancouver to be “dictated to and put down the drain by the massive irrational spending and unprecedented immigration,” adding that “it’s time people stood up and took a position, and if this is my little hill to die on, I’ll die on it.”

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