Secondary suites could soon be legal in Oak Bay.
Bylaws paving the way for the change will get first and second readings this coming week, followed by a public hearing in September, Mayor Kevin Murdoch said.
“Council has had a lot of interesting and positive public input on the issue, so I think we’re pretty close to where we need to be.”
The district began studying the issue in 2018. Last year, council endorsed guidelines for both new secondary suites and the estimated 700 existing ones.
Homeowners will be required to have a parking spot for each suite, but could receive a waiver if they can demonstrate they are providing tenants with a secure lock-up for bicycles or other means of active transportation, said Murdoch.
The bylaws will also make it clear secondary suites cannot be used for short-term or vacation rentals, he said.
Homeowners can have boarders in the main part of the house along with a suite, but the occupants of the suite can’t have boarders, he said.
“It’s not terribly restrictive. We’ve redefined a family to include a caregiver. So you can have three unrelated people plus a caregiver, plus two people in a suite. That’s six people in the building,” Murdoch said.
Homeowners will be required to register their secondary suite when it is being rented.
“We want to make it easy for people to have suites and not make it onerous to register, but we did want protective services to know it was actively rented,” said Murdoch.
A nominal fee, maybe $25 or $50 a month, will be required for rented suites to cover the costs of such things as garbage pick-up, but that will be figured out later, he said.
New secondary suites will have to meet the B.C. Building Code, but there will be a grace period for existing suites.
“We have to make sure the suites are safe. But the district will give people time and space to get their place up to code,” he said.
The University of Victoria Students’ Society has been pushing Oak Bay to legalize secondary suites for years.
In a letter to Oak Bay council last year, society director Robin Pollard said the severe lack of housing availability and affordability was a fundamental barrier to finding suitable, safe, affordable and stable housing.
ldickson@timescolonist.com
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