Ashcroft Mayor Barbara Roden (Photo: LinkedIn)
New planned BC housing policy changes have some local leaders concerned.
Ashcroft Mayor Barbara Roden worries about the financial impact on residents as the changes proposed mandate municipalities to update their Official Community Plans (OCPs) every five years to allow more housing density.
Roden says creating the OCP is very expensive and timely.
“We last did it in Ashcroft in 2017/2018; it was a 16-month process and cost us around $80,000. That is a cost that will not have gone down in the intervening six years because nothing has gone down in costs.”
Her comments come as it’s currently unclear if the province will offer financial support for communities to re-visit their OCPs every five years.
“Where is the money so we can do it? The devil is in the details, it remains to be seen if there will be funding,” she said.
“I hope so because $80,000 to $100,000 every five years… well… $100,000 every five years is a nine per cent tax increase in Ashcroft.”
Back in 2017/18, Roden says they made quite a few housing density changes to their OCP, including allowing laneway homes and secondary suites.
While she understands a need to re-visit these plans, she suggests it’s not realistic for small communities to do it so often.
“We had actually even before this came out from the province, been talking about how we need to do it again, which fine, it is something we realize has to be updated, it’s a living document you don’t do it once, and then leave it forever but in small communities, there is a tendency to leave it for say 8 to 10 years.”
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The new legislation introduced by the NDP Government also includes eliminating rezoning hearings for new developments that fit within a City’s OCP.
Additionally, when it comes to communities with a population of over five thousand, they will be required to allow the creation of laneway homes, while also permitting three and four-plex units to be built on lots currently zoned for single-family use.
