Whereas there is an urgent need to increase housing supply across BC and the Province has indicated its desire to encourage pre-planning and reduce spot rezonings; And whereas under the current legislative framework, many local governments rely on discretionary zoning approvals as a means to regulate land use change, obtain road dedications and infrastructure servicing requirements, and negotiate amenity contributions andor site specific development requirements; And whereas many municipalities are exploring opportunities to pre-zone lands for increased residential development: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM ask the Province to: - expand the tools for local governments to request road dedications, statutory-rights-of-way and infrastructure servicing upgrades through the development permit andor building permit process; and - provide a legislative framework for amenity contributions, tenant relocation requirements, and other requirements to be applied at the development permit or building permit phase rather than being tied to rezonings.
Ministry of Housing The Local Government Density Initiatives LGDI, formerly called the Development Approvals Process Review DAPR, aims to support the supply of significantly more homes, faster, in B.C. LGDI consultation identified site-by-site rezonings as a central problem in development approvals due to their frequency, length, complexity, and costs across the system. Legislative changes were introduced in Fall 2023 to support local governments to shift to upfront planning i.e., pre-zoning, and reduce the number of site-by-site rezonings. Local governments will be required to: 1 Update housing needs reports HNRs for more consistent, robust understanding of local housing needs over 20 years. 2 Plan for these needs in official community plans OCPs on a regular basis; and 3 Align zoning bylaws with the OCP and HNR, to pre-zone for the total amount of housing their communities need. To support the shift to more proactive zoning, the Province has also introduced legislation to update and streamline development finance tools to assist local governments to help continue to fund the costs of infrastructure and amenities to support increased housing supply and growth. The changes include creating an amenity cost charge tool, and updates to development cost charges, known as a development cost levy in Vancouver. As an immediate second phase of LGDI work, the Ministry of Housing is also exploring whether additional new authorities are required for local governments to transition to upfront planning and zoning. The Ministry has been engaging with local governments on this work and expects to be able to provide further updates in 2024.