Oak Bay could soon be tackling the issue of secondary suites.
Regulating secondary suites has been identified as an Oak Bay council priority but due to staffing limitations, council decided a heritage conservation area request would be dealt with first.
They voted 5-2 to have staff report on secondary suites.
“This motion was merely to see if there was enough resources in our planning department to start earlier on the issue of regulation of secondary suites,” said Mayor Nils Jensen.
“We have secondary suite regulation in our OCP [official community plan] and it has been a priority of council.”
If considered feasible, work on secondary suites could begin almost immediately, Jensen said, noting that the municipality, essentially, has a plan in place and budgeted for a consultant.
“Secondary suites is not a highly complex regulatory issue but it was felt it was a good issue to proceed with,” Jensen said.
Key points to be addressed include impacts of parking, owner occupancy and allowable size.
Secondary suites is a hot-button issue in Oak Bay with a number of people on both sides of the legalization issue, Jensen said. He added that an early start in tackling the issue would allow for a good conversation on the subject.
Jensen and councillors Tara Ney, Tom Croft, Michelle Kirby and Kevin Murdoch were in favour. Hazel Braithwaite and Eric Zhelka were opposed.
Oak Bay is the only municipality in the capital region that doesn’t regulate secondary suites, even though it’s generally acknowledged that there are probably hundreds of illegal suites throughout the municipality.
