The three North Shore municipalities are getting more than $1.3 million from the province to speed up the delivery of new housing.
Housing Minister Ravi Khalon announced grants of $431,057 to the City of North Vancouver, $563,354 to the District of North Vancouver and $350,807 to the District of West Vancouver, Thursday, part of a $51-million fund being shared by B.C.’s local governments.
The strings-attached money comes with a requirement that it be spent on work to help municipalities prepare for new housing legislation coming into effect this year. Some of those changes include an end to single-family zoning, fourplexes allowed on any lot by right, automatic allowance of secondary suites, and minimum tower heights of 10 storeys near transit exchanges.
“There is an urgent need for more homes for people, and we are working with local governments to build this housing faster,” the minister stated in a release. “With new housing actions to build homes in our communities, it is important that we support local governments to improve the processes to get the housing built that people in our community desperately need. By providing them with upfront funding, instead of distributing it over time, local governments will be able to support the building of more housing as quickly as possible.”
Some of the approved ways for councils to spend the cash include new housing needs reports, updates to zoning bylaws, development cost charge and amenity cost charge bylaws, and staffing up with consultants or staff for to do research and community engagement.
