Provincial advisor gives direction to North Saanich after failure to meet housing goals

An appointed provincial advisor has made recommendations to the District of North Saanich after the municipality failed to meet their housing goals. 

North Saanich was identified by the BC government in April 2024 as a community in need of an increased housing supply. The municipality was given a goal of building 419 net new homes. 

After one year, North Saanich only managed to build 12 new homes, which was significantly short of their first year goal of 60. 

Because the District fell short of their goal by a significant margin, the Province assigned North Saanich a provincial advisor who worked with the municipality to review their land-use planning and housing policies. The advisor was appointed in January of this year. 

On March 31st, the adviser submitted a final report with 19 recommendations to help the district increase its housing supply and meet its targets. 

This report was given to the District on Tuesday, June 16th. 

In the report, the advisor found that the District of North Saanich currently faces a “genuinely complex set of overlapping challenges.” 

These challenges cannot be blamed on one group or organization, and the advisor noted that the District operates in a context of significant organizational transition, constrained staff capacity and a community with important values around rural character preservation. 

Despite the District’s organizational conditions, the advisor pointed to multiple policy, regulatory, administrative and governance factors that may be contributing to the District’s inability to meet its housing obligations. 

In summary these include:

• OCP structural constraints around height limits, Floor Area Ratio (FAR) caps and parking requirements that make financially viable multifamily development difficult to achieve under current policy
• Urban containment boundary misalignment preventing the application of Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing (SSMUH) legislation and limiting the District’s density  
• Planning department turnover since 2022 has affected departmental capacity 
• Approvals process which relies heavily on council involvement, sometimes creating uncertainty for applicants and extending processing timelines
• Federal airport land designations creating a misalignment between the District’s Official Community Plan and federal jurisdiction over Victoria Airport Authority lands
• Absence of development finance tools such as Development Cost Charge (DCC) or Amenity Cost Charge (ACC) bylaws, which prevents growth from funding the infrastructure required to support it

The full adviser report for the District of North Saanich is available online here.