Council pushing developers for more affordable options
Victoria wants to see up to 20 per cent of units in new projects made less costly
Victoria councillors want to encourage developers to ensure that between 10 and 20 per cent of units in new projects are “nonmarket” and more affordable.
Under a draft proposal endorsed by council this week and forwarded to staff for fleshing out, the requirement for subsidized units would kick in when vacancy rates are below three per cent. The current vacancy rate is 0.5 per cent and hasn’t been anywhere near three per cent for years.
The draft was put forward by councillors Jeremy Loveday and Ben Isitt and Mayor Lisa Helps, who want to replace the city’s existing density bonus policy with an “inclusive housing and community amenity policy.”
The three said the city’s current approach to development reflects priorities of an earlier era, “when the city believed that strong incentives were required to encourage landowners to pursue redevelopment, build strata housing and create vibrancy downtown.”
Those objectives are now being met, they say, and the most pressing needs now relate to housing affordability and housing availability.
“We really want to emphasize that with a 0.5 vacancy rate that doesn’t seem to be budging, with the Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Victoria and all working people looking for places to live, there is an urgency to this,” Helps said.
“This proposed policy is just one piece of a puzzle that staff are already working on,” she said, adding the policy efforts would be included in work staff are already undertaking.
Isitt said a preliminary analysis of what is being done in other nearby jurisdictions such as Burnaby, North Vancouver, Vancouver, New Westminster and Surrey suggests there’s a lot Victoria can do to strengthen its policies with respect to voluntary community contributions and the providing of new non-market units.
The three are proposing changes to the way the city calculates community amenity contributions — fees collected to reflect the increase in land value (known as a land lift) that is created through changes to zoning and density. The move would replace the existing density bonus policy with what’s being called an inclusive housing and community amenity policy.
The current policy looks at the base density in the Official Community Plan or current zoning in the zoning bylaw (whichever is higher) and the proposed density of the new project. The value of the land lift is the calculated either through an independent analysis or through a flat rate of $12 per square foot downtown or $5 per square foot in other neighbourhoods, they say in their report.
A limitation of the policy is that it relies on “aspirational” designations in the OCP for the base density rather than the legal entitlements in the zoning bylaw for calculating the value of the new density in order to offset the impacts of development.
“This means not enough is apportioned to the city to offset these impacts through mechanisms such as negotiated nonmarket units integrated into new projects or voluntary CACs [community amenity contributions] payments to address the impacts of the new development on affordability or community services,” the report says.
Coun. Geoff Young said he has “grave reservations” about some of the proposals. Basing density bonus payments on zoning rather than the OCP begs the question: What is the purpose of the OCP?
Young questioned the proposed use of funds that would be collected. He said he always believed density bonus contributions were to offset the impact of new development on the community through the building of such things as parks, public spaces, or improved sidewalks.
“The provision of housing is clearly a significant benefit to those who get to occupy it but as we know it’s not something that neighbours in the area should see as an amenity,” Young said.
Casey Edge, executive officer of the Victoria Home Builders Association, said the density bonus policy is “a money grab,” regardless of what it’s called.
“If the density can be supported, then that’s what the density should be. If your existing infrastructure can support X density, then that’s what the density should be,” Edge said.
“If you have a project with 100 units and you have X number that are affordable, the cost of those affordable units gets transferred to the other units. So the mortgages in those other units are all increased to pay for the affordable housing.”