The Thompson Nicola Regional District is expected to make its rules less restrictive for using RVs as dwellings before the spring.
Staff are recommending board members to allow multi-year temporary use permits for people living in RVs, to allow open-ended stays on land in certain zones and also set policies for short-term stays in RVs. All requests of using RVs as dwellings would still be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Director Ken Christian says rules on RVs need to be in line with demand for people wanting to live in them.
“It strikes me that we have a housing crisis. I know we have a housing crisis here in Kamloops. Across the street there are people living in the L-coves of the MLA office. We have at least 200 people here who are homeless,” Christian says.
“I think because of that, and because of the fact that we are going to invite a large number of temporary workers in, as we see the completion of the (Trans Mountain expansion) project through the entire reach of the TNRD, that we have to make our bylaws far more sensitive to the reality in which that we live in.”
Under current bylaws, living in RVs is allowed in only recreational vehicle zones within the TNRD, with limited secondary uses. The regional district has been exploring changes since late in the summer when issues on limitations arose from the public.
The changes are expected to be approved when coming up for adoption in February.
And TNRD staff will be researching if they can charge an extra permitting fee for people living out of RVs.
Users have to pay $1,500 for a temporary use permit, but RVs are considered vehicles so people living in them don’t pay property taxes.
“It’s not just a loss of tax revenue, but it’s also an increased cost. So I’m wondering if there is an option with the TUP, if it’s to do with an RV, if we’re able to put a different application fee on that, or have a fee attached so that we’ll somewhat cover our costs. Because right now they pay nothing. We would all love to pay nothing, but at the end of the day, we have a regional district to operate and people need to contribute to that,” director Mike O’Reilly says, adding even low-income users still need to access services like hospitals that taxpayers pay into.
Regional district staff say there is a mechanism to charge such a fee but says it has to be justified.
“You can’t create a tax and call it a fee, and there’s pretty clear rules and legislation around that,” TNRD director of development services Regina Sadilkova says.
