The District of Saanich has endorsed the terms of reference for what it’s calling a neighbourhood-homes study, but will in essence be a two-year engagement project to establish guidelines for missing middle housing.
The study, endorsed Monday night with an enthusiastic 8-1 vote at council — only Coun. Nathalie Chambers voted against it — is designed to establish an infill housing program in Saanich to address housing need and strip away some barriers to make it easier to build townhomes, duplexes and small apartment buildings.
In an interview, Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock said he’s excited about the project and sees it as one of the tools that could get Saanich off the province’s “naughty list” — a list of municipalities that will be required to hit yet-to-be-established targets on new home construction or risk having the province force through higher density.
“We’re keen to work with the province on the next steps to ensure that we are meeting the targets that are set,” said Murdock, adding he expects Saanich to exceed whatever target is laid before it. “The neighbourhood homes policy is one of many policy changes and updates streamlining our processes that will ensure that we can deliver on that.”
Murdock said the district is making strides and the current council has made housing a top priority. It has already approved several projects that would be considered missing middle housing, the kinds of infill that fall on the housing spectrum between apartment towers and single-family homes.
“We have a housing-needs report that very clearly sets out where we have gaps in the available housing stock for a range of homes for buyers and renters. Saanich has been deliberate in its approach to policy renewal to ensure that we’re delivering on a range of options,” he said.
The neighbourhood homes study will run in four phases, with public engagement throughout that will establish goals and align outcomes with existing strategies, including the official community plan, climate plan, urban forest strategy and missing middle program before implementation in the fall of 2025.
The work will carry on with a backdrop of the province working on legislation to allow as many as four units on traditional-sized single-family lots.
At the same time, the Housing Ministry is planning to set housing targets for municipalities. Those that meet the targets will get money for infrastructure such as bike lanes and recreation centres, while those that don’t could be overruled by the province on density decisions.
“What we are doing is creating the Saanich context,” said Murdock. “We’ve heard [the province] is committed to legislation in the fall that will see up to four homes on a single-family lot. Our neighbourhood home study will set the context of what that looks like in Saanich.”
Murdock said at first blush that is likely to mean focusing development and densification in village centres and busier transportation corridors.
“It’s putting more homes closer to the centres where people can walk to services and access services, get to schools, parks, shopping, public transit, bike lanes and active transportation without having to hop in the car,” he said.
In supporting the neighbourhood-homes study, Coun. Susan Brice said Saanich is undertaking the project because it’s opposed to urban sprawl.
“To some extent, a policy like this, I see is almost a major environmental policy, because we have made a determination as a community that we’re not going to spread out past the urban containment boundary,” she said.
Coun. Colin Plant said communicating with the district will be key to the success of the project, after seeing the previous council in Victoria dealing with a split city when it tried to introduce missing middle last year.
“We saw to the south the great controversy regarding missing middle and the concerns around that. So I think it’s going to have to be something that we go out to our public, and I think the two-year process will allow the public to become aware of the time that we are putting in to teach and hear, inform and consult,” he said.
Plant did say he thought affordability had to be part of the process at some point.
Chambers said she would not support the motion, as “unaffordable neighbourhoods is not what we need here in Saanich.”
She said the kind of housing considered in missing middle is neither affordable nor attainable.
“What we are doing is we are lifting the value of this place,” she said. “We are making the entire neighbourhood less affordable.”
Coun. Zac de Vries, argued that in an environment where the median listing price of a single detached home in Saanich is $1.3 million, adding less expensive options such as townhomes and the like could help hold onto young families.
“If we’re to become a more inclusive community and get back to our roots as a place that’s friendly for families, increasing the diversity of housing is an important step towards that,” he said, adding the municipality will also have to work on initiatives that will address the need for affordable homes to cater to more moderate incomes.
“This is one of a suite of initiatives, policies, bylaw changes that are going to need to take place in order for us to meaningfully address supply and affordability,” said Murdock. “But make no mistake, it will be transformative. It will impact families. It will provide homes in our community so that we continue to be a place that is suitable for families to put down roots and build a life.”
Murdock said the engagement process has been designed to “ensure everyone’s had an opportunity to be heard. And this process is an opportunity for us to ensure that all of those perspectives are reflected in the outcome.”
As for learning lessons from Victoria’s experience, Murdock said the two municipalities are very different.
“We’ve got a much larger geography. We’re much more spread out and we have centres and villages that we’ve identified where we want to create those complete communities, places where people can get around and access services in the areas where they live,” he said. “And we have an urban containment boundary where we want to ensure that we’re not spreading out into the rural and farm lands.”
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