Planning & Development Report

COMMUNITY AMENITY CONTRIBUTION POLICY AND OPEN HOUSE

RECOMMENDATION:

That the Committee recommend to Council that the draft “Community Amenity Contribution Policy” be adopted.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS: I concur with the recommendation.

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT SERVICES’ COMMENTS: I concur with the recommendation. For LC:

DIRECTOR OF FINANCE’S COMMENTS: I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE:

To report on an open house for development industry representatives held on June 24, 2019.
To present the draft community amenity contribution policy for review, comment and recommendation for adoption to Council.

DISCUSSION:

1. Open House

An open house was held on June 24, 2019 at the Town Hall to present and discuss the draft Community Amenity Contribution (CAC) policy. Invitations were sent to 39 development industry representatives and owners of major land holdings with potential for residential use, plus the Urban Development Institute Victoria Chapter and the Victoria Residential Homebuilders Association. Eight representatives attended. Further information was also sent to nine others who were unable to attend.

At the open house, Development Services staff answered questions about the policy and explained how it would be applied to residential use rezoning applications. Most of the attendees appreciated both receiving the information and the certainty and transparency that the policy would offer. There was one comment about the impact of community amenity contributions on the cost of housing (it is a consideration in the application of the policy and the proposed targets are in line with other municipalities in the region).

A side benefit of the open house was that it provided a forum for attendees to engage with staff on development opportunities for achieving the Official Community Plan goals.

2. Draft Policy

The draft policy as presented at the open house is included in Attachment 1. Attachment 2 includes comparisons with other local municipalities. A few items of note:

a. The previous draft of the policy recommended specific amounts of cash amenity contributions towards affordable housing (an early impetus for CAC policies in BC); the current draft allows that to be considered on a case-by-case basis. b. If there is interest in applying a CAC policy to commercial or industrial uses, that could be investigated in future as policies can be amended from time to time. c. The latest municipality to adopt a Community Amenity Contribution policy is Oak Bay.

Correspondence received by the Development Services Department can be found in Attachments 3 and 4.

NEXT STEPS:

Pending comments from the Committee, the policy can be forwarded to Council for consideration of adoption. If the policy is adopted, the Official Community Plan should be amended to reference the policy.