West Vancouver council narrowly passes housing density bylaw

District of West Vancouver councillors have reluctantly passed a bylaw rezoning single-family lots to allow the building of multiple housing units.

The vote, which passed by a narrow 4-3 margin, Monday, came after B.C.’s Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon gave the municipality an ultimatum last month requiring that it comply with provincial requirements to rezone outstanding properties to allow multiple units within 30 days.

The vote also came after a public war of words between Kahlon and West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager about the province’s demand to allow more density on single-family properties to help with the provincial housing crisis.

Municipalities were supposed to approve new housing regulations by June 30.

The housing dust-up with the province began in May when council voted to reject passing bylaw amendments that would have had the municipality fall in line with provincial housing density rules.

Then in July, council sought an extension to the end of September to deal with the issue. But Kahlon quickly made it clear he wasn’t going to consider that.

Council 'strongly opposed' to provincial demand

On Monday, Sager said he wasn’t happy about being forced to rezone by the provincial government.

“I don’t think this is a particularly democratic way to run a province,” he said, adding, “We all appreciate there is a need to address housing, but we don’t think that the solutions necessarily get drawn on a desk in Victoria.”

In casting the deciding vote on the issue, Sager noted that “most of us are very strongly opposed” to the provincial directive.

“It makes me ill” to vote in favour of the rezoning, Sager said, but added he was concerned about what a rejection could mean for the community if the province stepped in and imposed its own zoning bylaw.

Three councillors refused to go along with the rezoning, lambasting the province for its top-down approach and refusal to push back against unprecedented levels of immigration to B.C., which they argued is fuelling the housing crisis, as well as criticizing senior levels of government for a laundry list of problems.

'We've developed Stockholm Syndrome' says Watt

“It’s almost like we’ve developed Stockholm Syndrome,” said Coun. Linda Watt, who pointed to a huge wave of immigration to B.C. while private sector housing starts are down.

Watt said passing the rezoning bylaw was “not a solution” to the housing crisis.

“We have an authoritarian government that is ignoring basic planning principles in a reckless effort to please a prime minister who’s hell bent on beating the Canadian economy further into the ground,” she said.

Both Watt and Coun. Christine Cassidy suggested the province had chosen to make an example of West Vancouver ahead of the fall provincial election.

Coun. Sharon Thompson said she also didn’t believe rezoning single-family properties would do much to create more housing.

Just over 300 properties impacted

According to West Vancouver staff, the rezoning bylaw means 313 properties will see an increase in density. Most of the properties impacted by the changes were ones specifically prohibited from having coach houses in Ambleside and Dundarave.

Most single-family lots in the rest of West Vancouver already allow both secondary suites and coach houses, so they wouldn’t have been impacted by the change.

The new rules provide for between three and six units to be built on single-family lots – depending on the size of the lot and its distance from transit routes.

Coun. Nora Gambioli was the lone councillor who spoke in favour of the provincial zoning bylaw Monday, saying West Van is “way way off” its housing targets.

“We’ve actually only approved 50 units that are getting hopefully built in the next couple of years,” she said. “I don’t think we’ve been doing enough for the whole time I’ve been on this council.”

Gambioli added the change will impact less than three per cent of the lots in West Vancouver.

Coun. Peter Lambur and Coun. Scott Snider – who called in to the meeting by satellite phone from a remote location – both said they weren’t happy with the provincial ultimatum but added passing the bylaw was a better option than leaving it up to the province to make changes.

“My duty to the district is more important than my political views on the matter,” said Snider.

“The province can tell us what to do,” added Lambur. “That’s exactly what they’re doing.”