Nicole Knowles
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Gabriola Sounder
The Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) board accepted a new provincially mandated report on housing needs, but says the report must better reflect the local context before it’s posted on its website.
The interim housing needs report says Area B (Gabriola, Mudge and Decourcey) needs 367 more housing units over the next five years, and 1,100 units by 2044.
The report was completed in November and discussed at the Jan. 9 RDN board meeting.
The provincial government requires all local governments to complete a housing needs report every five years using updated census data.
The reports are sent to the province and posted on local government websites so they are available to the public. They are used to update Official Community Plans and zoning bylaws to ensure those policies can accommodate the housing needed.
Electoral Areas such as Gabriola aren’t required to update their Official Community Plans with the information from the housing report, but can use the report’s information for planning, said Mark McMullen, manager of long-range planning for the RDN.
Directors representing electoral areas in the RDN raised concerns at the Jan 9. meeting that the report doesn’t adequately represent housing issues and limitations in their areas.
They pointed to factors such as the challenges to fund infrastructure needed to accommodate growth and the fact that the report uses a standardized formula that doesn’t represent individual regions.
“I think it is irresponsible to receive this report as is, knowing it doesn’t have local context,.” said director Lehann Wallace, who represents Electoral Area G (San Pareil, French Creek and Dashwood).
The board voted to receive the report, forward it to the Ministry of Housing, and post it to the regional district website “once staff determines supplemental contextual information to post with the report.”
The information in the report isn’t applicable to the community on Gabriola, said Susan Yates, Gabriola trustee, Islands Trust.
“It does apply in the very general way of taking responsibility as a community for providing housing to the people who live and work here,” Yates said.
Gabriola has the land available to develop affordable multi-family housing, she said, and she didn’t believe Islands Trust would object to rezoning for such housing. “The real issues are the cost of these developments and the managing (of) resources,” Yates said.
The Islands Trust is currently completing its own housing needs report to meet provincial requirements and conducting a survey to provide a better understanding of current housing needs.
The most recent information on Gabriola development potential, from 2021 shows:
Number of vacant lots: 490
Total number of lots with subdivision potential: 55
Number of additional lots if a property were subdivided under current zoning regulations: 158
Number of parcels larger than five acres where secondary suites permitted: 636
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